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Passage: Lk 2:41-52
It has been said that
“Our necessities are few but our wants are endless.” An effective marketing
strategy is creating a need where none existed. There are certainly a plethora
of wants to work with. A product
perceived as a need creates its own momentum; marketing gurus know this. It
takes advantage of the fuzziness between want and need and builds a bridge to
create leverage that flips all the right switches to make a purchase. Somewhere
along the process of rationalization “You want this” miraculously makes a
subtle shift to “you need this.” Just listen to the history of our purchases,
cha-ching.
It is an amazing find
to go through the inventory of stuff accumulated in the closet, attic,
garage, or external storage and to survey all the past “needs.” These cubby holes are the storage places of “the new has worn off “exposing the historical
(perhaps hysterical) need as merely a want. Once want is established in the
public psyche, it becomes institutionalized as a need, particularly if the word
“emergency” can be fastened to it, like with cellular phones. I love my
Smartphone so I best not get too personal…
Now I am not going to
address wants and needs by suggesting that we ask this trite question, “Would
Jesus buy this?” But I do think we should always pray before purchasing (or taking the plunge), and
not at the moment at the cash register or giving credit card info over our
beloved Smartphone! Visceral purchasing (impulse spending) can be vexing later. I love telling Beverly that a good deal
doesn’t mean God’s will only when it involves her!
There is a story you
know quite well, but I would like to revisit it because it gives us a small
window into the life of Jesus, but it provides the earliest glimpse that we
have of how Jesus looked at what was necessary
from a spiritual point of view. We sure need to take a different look at things
living in a world where materialism is highly valued and interpreted as a sign
of success. The flesh loves things and wants the look of worldly success, and
if our heart is not in the right place, the love of stuff can and does
antagonize our faith. We should always take a spiritual approach first in the
acquisition of things because, after all, all that we possess belongs to Jesus,
and it is His money as well.
When Joseph and Mary
went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, this was a festive event that
covered eight days. The feast of the Passover was the first day followed by
seven days for the Feast of the Unleavened Bread (Ex 23:15; Lev 23:4-8; Deut
16:1-8). Both of these feasts were sometimes referred to as the Passover (Lk
22:1, 7; Jn 19:14; Acts 12:3, 4), Bible
Knowledge Commentary on Lk 2:41-50.
I like the literal
rendering of Lk 2:43, NASB “as they were returning, after spending the full
number of days [eight, emphasis
mine]” as indicative of the merging of the two feasts. According to AT
Robertson, “At twelve a Jewish boy became a ‘son of the law’ and began to
observe the ordinances, putting on the phylacteries as a reminder” (Robertson’s
Word Pictures on Lk 2:42). On this particular annual observance of the Feast of
the Passover with his parents, Jesus was twelve years of age.
After the feasts,
Joseph, Mary, and company headed back to the city of Nazareth in Galilee while
Jesus lingered in Jerusalem. After about a day’s journey, they realized
Jesus was not among “their relatives and acquaintances” (Lk 2:44). Panic-stricken and grieved over their negligence (assuming without getting a head
count) in leaving Jesus (Lk 2:48), His parents returned to Jerusalem, looking
all over for Him and finally finding the twelve-year-old sitting in the temple,
listening and asking questions! His parents were in panic mode, and Jesus was
having a good old time, content as can be in the temple. Mary spoke to her
Son,
"Why have you
treated us like this, my son? Here have your father and I been very worried, looking for you everywhere [one day
search in Jerusalem, emphasis mine]" (Lk 2:48, JBP).
It is interesting that
Mary was not questioning what Jesus had been up to. The fact was that they
didn’t know where He was and were looking all over the city for Him! Jesus was
amazed that his parents were so torn out of the frame, spending the whole day
searching for Him because they should have known that the only possible place
in Jerusalem to look for Him was in the temple! He replied,
"Why were you
looking for me? Did you not know that I
must be in my Father's house" (Lk 2:49, ESV, emphasis mine)?
Remember, Mary had
been stockpiling all the information surrounding Jesus when Gabriel passed the
ball, and Mary rushed to catch it and ran with it! She was being a parent, forgetting in the
rush of things that her son Jesus was her Lord and Savior! That had to have
been quite a mental juggling match for her. On a side note I don’t know if Mary and
Jesus ever had this conversation, but imagine if you will Mary saying, “You may
be God, but for now I am your mother!” Soon we will see the words, “He continued
in subjection to them.”
No one knows when
Jesus became aware of His Messianic task, but the clause “I must be” reveals that Jesus was twelve
years of age when He possessed an awareness of His Messianic mission (Mt 1:21; Lk 19:10 Jn 3:16; Rom 5:6, for some examples). This was the first of many dei (Gk, translated “must,” of
necessity) in Luke (Lk 4:43; 9:22; 13:33; 17:25; 19:5; 22:37; 24:7, 26, 44). We
can only imagine what must have been going through His young mind as He
celebrated the Passover, knowing that on this very day in the future, He would
be the Passover Lamb suspended
between heaven and earth dying for the sins of the whole world (1 Cor 5:7; cf.
Mt 5:17; Heb12:2).
When Jesus said, “My
Father,” He is essentially reminding Mary and Joseph that “My Father is God!” I
don’t know how that made Mary or Joseph feel if anything, but neither Joseph
nor Mary understood what He was saying (Lk 2:50) which I find rather odd given
all the data they had surrounding their Son. We will review that shortly.
However, I am not sure if even I understand all that had taken place with this
incident, but we are given a peek through a very narrow window at Jesus at the
tender age of twelve giving us insight that Yeshua knew He was the Passover
Lamb (“I must be in my Father’s house”). What a precious thing for a twelve-year-old to say.
So they all returned
as a family to the city of Nazareth in Galilee approximately 120 miles if
avoiding Samaria due to the racial hatred and hostility between the Jews and
the Samaritans. A direct route going through the country of Samaria would be
around 90 miles, give or take a dozen.
“And He went down
(literally, an elevation difference, contrast “went up to Jerusalem,” Lk 2:42) with them and came to Nazareth, and He
continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured (to keep continually)
all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:51, NASB).
Jesus continued to be
subject unto His parents (cf. fifth commandment to honor the father and the
mother, Ex 20:12), and Mary thoroughly guarded all these things in her heart.
Between the words of the angel Gabriel (Lk 1:30-33), Joseph (Mt 1:19-25),
Elizabeth (Lk 1:42-45), the Shepherds (Lk 2:15-18), Simeon (Lk 2:27-35), Anna (Lk 2:38), the Magi (Mt 2:9-11), and Jesus’ words at the temple (Lk 2:49),
Mary had a heart full of ponderings to treasure for a lifetime (cf. Lk 2:19).
More wonder and complexity and even horror were to come when her Son’s destiny
would take Him out of her reach twenty-one years later, but for the next
eighteen years until His public ministry, Luke said of Him,
“Jesus increased in
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Lk 2:52).
He grew mentally
(wisdom), physically (stature), spiritually (in favor with God), and socially
(in favor with men), but the God-Man Jesus was nothing like any of His siblings,
except for the shared physical features of their mother. Mary and Joseph knew
Jesus was from the Father, but all the happenings surrounding their son
Jesus and what they did or did not understand are baffling to me. But I know
they loved Jesus, and as parents were worried sick over being separated from
Him. That which was necessary for the life of Jesus was to do the Father’s will
(cf. Jn 8:29).
The ultimate priority of Christlikeness is doing the will of God, and it was God’s will for Jesus to be in the temple while His parents headed back to Nazareth. For what purpose did this serve? It is unclear, but it provides believers a glance at His Messianic awareness at the age of twelve (cf. Mt 5:17). Jesus was all God and all boy, 100% either way, yet without sin, even though He was separated from His parents for three days while waiting for His parents to pick Him up at the temple!
The ultimate priority of Christlikeness is doing the will of God, and it was God’s will for Jesus to be in the temple while His parents headed back to Nazareth. For what purpose did this serve? It is unclear, but it provides believers a glance at His Messianic awareness at the age of twelve (cf. Mt 5:17). Jesus was all God and all boy, 100% either way, yet without sin, even though He was separated from His parents for three days while waiting for His parents to pick Him up at the temple!
Recall when Jesus was
in Samaria, a hotbed of Jewish hatred and hostility. He had talked to the woman
at Jacob’s well while the disciples went for food. When they returned He
diverted the attention of His disciples from the material (food) to the
spiritual when His disciples urged Him to eat, and He said, “I have food to eat
of which you do not know.”
They questioned among
themselves as to where He had gotten any food. Jesus said, “My food is to do
the will of Him who sent Me” (Jn 4:34). He wasn’t implying He wasn’t hungry,
but His passion and desire were more in doing the will of God than catering to
His body (cf. Lk 4:4). For what Jesus saw was not a people who hated
the Jews but a field of people ready for harvesting (Jn 4:35). He was hungry
and thirsty. So the woman at the well gave Him a drink of water. Later Jesus
would eat the bread the disciples brought back for Him.
Let’s read why Jesus
“needed (dei)” to go through Samaria
and stop at Jacob’s well (Jn 4:4).
Jn 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city
believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told
me all that I ever did."
Jn 4:40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they
urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
Jn 4:41 And many more believed because of His own
word.
The Creator God of the
Universe (Col 1:16) came into Samaria, and many were saved! I am sure the humanity part of
Jesus had desires, but they never converted into a need. His wants were not
controlling His body as the God-Man. Wants are not sinful unless they hinder,
delay, or prevent God’s will from being done in life. Being Christlike is
not striking a balance between need and want but finding the will of God to be
a necessity in life as air is to our lungs. The fields were ripe for harvest.
It was out of necessity that Jesus went to Samaria.
When we see the world
through the eyes of Jesus, the wants are culled from what is necessary. We see
the urgency of the necessary with greater clarity and priority, and purity of
heart. Discovering the Divine necessity, “I must be,” can only be seen through
the eyes of Jesus because our vision becomes blurred and distorted by the
impulses of the flesh, the world system, and demonic adversaries. We
desperately need a renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2). It is of necessity that we see the world as Jesus does, through the lens
of Scripture. The problem is believers putting off putting on the spectacles of
Scripture. For us to know the mind of Christ we have to know His Word for God
operates through the principles of Scripture. The Word helps us to see how God
looks upon the world at large.
Though he wasn’t
talking about spiritual matters, Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of
the United Kingdom during WWII, believed that it wasn’t enough to say, “We are
doing our best;” he insisted that “You have got to succeed in doing what is
necessary.” Our best is not good enough when we are failing to do what is necessary according to the Scriptures.
If we do nothing, according to Edmund Burke who supported the American colonies
in revolting against the tyranny of King George III, “The only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Jesus went to the
temple as a twelve-year-old boy because it was of necessity; He visited years later a place repugnant to the Jews
in His day because it was of necessity
to go to the city of Sychar in Samaria, “He left Judea and departed again to
Galilee (Jn 4:3). But He needed (dei, of
necessity) to go through Samaria” (Jn 4:4).
We have to discover what is of necessity (God’s will for our life)
through the viewpoint of Scripture and pursue it in the power of the Holy
Spirit and quit depleting our energies and resources on our wants outside the
will of God. We can have the wisdom and the ability to do it through Him (Php
4:13)! It is of necessity; we must (dei) know and do the will of God for our
life; it can be nothing short of a consuming passion in order to make a
difference in a world heading for hell in a hand basket; anything less is
unlike Jesus. <><
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