There is a lot riding on this passage.  It is, after all, the only insight into the decades of Jesus’ incarnate life prior to His being baptized by John.  It’s as if Luke thinks everything e need to know about Jesus’ preparation for His public life and ministry is contained in these handful of verses. 

Put yourself in Mary & Joseph’s position.  How would you go about raising the ‘Son of the Most High’, the One who would inherit the throne of David, and whose Kingdom would never end (Lk.1:32-33)?  Some might assume they wouldn’t need to do anything.  He is after all the Son of God, and one would assume, quite capable of preparing Himself?  Others perhaps would want to enroll Him in high octane theological studies?  Mary & Joseph (and herein we see the wisdom of God) take neither extreme.  They simply raise Him in accordance with God’s vision for family life.  Nothing more, nothing less.

To be fair we’ve already had the sense of their commitment to the Lord.  They’ve been introduced as ‘faithful to the Law’ (Matt.1:19); obedient (Matt.1:24, 2:24; Lk.1:38 etc.); students of God’s Word (see Lk.1:46-55).  They are willing to suffer and sacrifice in order to be part of what the Lord is doing.  They have already presented Jesus to the Lord, ‘as it is written in the Law of the Lord’ (Lk.2:22-24).  and in the passage before us we see they continued this pattern of simple observance of what God had decreed in the Law.  They celebrate the Festivals (2:41, see e.g. Deut.16:16), immersing Jesus in the history of God’s dealing with His people, and in the Church’s worship.  They live in Nazareth (the town associated with the Nazirites, Num.6:1-21).  There is something beautifully simple about their faithfulness to the ordinances of God.  They know what they are called to, and with utter lack of ostentation, they follow it. 

Perhaps the only thing more beautiful in the passage before us, is that Jesus Himself also submits to the structures of life and worship that are distilled from the Law of God.  If anyone could have excused themselves from such observance, it might have been Jesus.  And yet in life and worship, He was obedient.

Questions

How much of a priority is celebrating the festivals of the Church for you?  How do they shape your year, and the rhythm of your worship and devotion through the year?  …or do you think that things like Festivals belong to the OT in a way that doesn’t affect Christian worship?

Do you think it was sinful of Jesus to behave as He does?  If not sinful, then what..? 

At 12, Jesus is already leaving the ‘teachers’ and indeed ‘everyone’, ‘amazed at His understanding and His answers’ (presumably to the questions He Himself set in v.46 as well as the questions the teacher put to Him).  How much of Jesus’ identity and mission do you think He understood by this stage?  How had He come to this understanding?  What should we learn from this?

This isn’t the last time Jesus will question and be questioned in the Temple.  Luke 20:1-44 is Jesus’ last public teaching.  Everything after that is directed to His disciples.  What is Luke teaching us as He brackets Jesus’ adult life with these two accounts of Jesus in the Temple?

Why do you think Jesus ‘had’ to be in His Father’s house (2:49, the first words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel)?  What does it tell us that Jesus understood God to be His Father?  Do you think we should still talk about buildings as the ‘House’ of God in this way? 

One of the things that grips me in this passage is Jesus’ humility.  His humility in submitting Himself to His own Law, to His parents, and to the limits of His humanity.  What does this example of humility teach us (maybe have a look at Phil.2:1-11)?  How can we foster this humility in our own experience of discipleship?

‘And He is our childhood’s pattern’.  What example does Jesus give here that should shape the attitude and lives of children growing up in Christian families?   How can you support children growing up through MIE to follow His example? 

What would you say to someone who objected that it wasn’t realistic to expect children & teenagers to be characterized by such obedience today, or that some kind of ‘pushback’ against a Christian upbringing should only be expected?

How can you better support the parents you know in MIE as they seek to raise their children in the training and instruction of the Lord?