Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Luke 2:49b "Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?"
DO WE KNOW WHAT JESUS HAS COME FOR?
This was certainly not what Mary and Joseph expected to hear from their Son whom they had thought was hopelessly lost. After all, THEY were His parents! Mary had said, "Your father and I have sought You anxiously . . ." Wasn't He, as so many assumed, the son of Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth?
What Mary did is certainly to her faith's credit -- "His mother kept all these things in her heart."
How could it have happened? Could it actually be that Mary and Joseph had forgotten, if only for a moment, that Jesus was God's Son? Certainly we would not have made such a mistake! Who could have forgotten the words of the angels, the worship of the shepherds and Magi, the praise of Simeon and Anna!
Before we are too harsh with Mary and Joseph, let us look at ourselves. Just how easy is it for us to "forget" about Jesus and what He came to do? How quickly do we get caught up in our day to day lives, and let "religion" become "habit"?
How much we need those kindly words of reproof that Jesus directed to His earthly parents! What did Jesus come for? He has not come merely as a great Man, a great Teacher. He has not come merely as One who sets the example of His life for us to follow with ours. He did not come merely as a Miracle Worker. He had come to be about His heavenly Father's business -- that of redeeming us and all lost mankind from sin.
Let us join Mary in keeping all these things in our hearts. In that way when we see Jesus on the cross, we will not be offended, for we will remember that it was for this that He was revealed -- that He must drink the cup that His Father gave Him to drink!
