Jesus' family has been to...
Illustration
Jesus' family has been to Jerusalem for Passover and they've stayed seven or eight days --
like some Americans celebrate from Christmas through New Year's. Jesus is twelve, and
on the threshold of adulthood. Perhaps Jesus isn't missed on the way home because no
one knows if he's with the women and children or the men. His age puts him half way
between those two groups: Women and children on the one side, men on the other.
Jesus ignores his parents for three days. Jesus, right on the page in front of us, is growing up. He's weakening the ties with his parents and thus he doesn't feel guilty. He'd have been truly guilty if he'd stayed a child and not ventured to ask some of his own questions of Jerusalem's teachers. Jesus isn't rebelling. He's maturing. He'll return to Nazareth and obey his parents, but he's now living with a heavenly father.
God created everyone to mature. Our genes hold blueprints for step-by-step development. As Jesus grows in the faith that God is our heavenly parent, so God created us to leave our parents and to become responsible before God. We no longer expect our parents to be perfect nor do we blame them for our behavior. We grow up and become responsible within our heavenly family, which is an excellent goal for us to aim toward, either at the end of one year or at the beginning of another.
Jesus ignores his parents for three days. Jesus, right on the page in front of us, is growing up. He's weakening the ties with his parents and thus he doesn't feel guilty. He'd have been truly guilty if he'd stayed a child and not ventured to ask some of his own questions of Jerusalem's teachers. Jesus isn't rebelling. He's maturing. He'll return to Nazareth and obey his parents, but he's now living with a heavenly father.
God created everyone to mature. Our genes hold blueprints for step-by-step development. As Jesus grows in the faith that God is our heavenly parent, so God created us to leave our parents and to become responsible before God. We no longer expect our parents to be perfect nor do we blame them for our behavior. We grow up and become responsible within our heavenly family, which is an excellent goal for us to aim toward, either at the end of one year or at the beginning of another.
