"My Father"

Luke 2:47-50 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” 49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”  50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
 
WITH all the evidence of Jesus’ conception, birth and purpose, would it not be logical for Joseph and Mary to go directly to the temple to find their son? Is it possible they looked upon the past events now 8-12 years distant as dim images of God’s promises? Maybe in seeing Jesus’ humanity, his earthly parents had found it difficult to remember that Jesus is God’s Son.
    This holy relationship would be a challenge for the Jews as our Lord ministered some 20 years later. People doubted his identity, his authority and his miraculous powers because of he was Mary’s and Joseph’s son. See, for example, John 6:42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”    
    Yes, this is one of the great debates. Is Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph and Mary, the Son of God? Even now, many who say they belong to Jesus’ church doubt and even deny Jesus’ identity, authority and miraculous power. Some even become Bible “scholars” and theology teachers, so they can spread their lies against God the Father, Son and Spirit. Mankind’s sin nature began in the denial of God’s identity, authority and miraculous power. “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1) This question casts its dark shadow over the sinful heart even now.
    At his early age, Jesus clearly says who he is. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”  is our Lord’s first recorded announcement that God is his Father. Jews in those days would say “our Father”. To them it was blasphemy to announce, “Yahweh, the I Am is ‘my Father’.” The Jews who followed the law barely spoke God’s name for fear of breaking the third commandment.
    Jesus, though, consistently testified to I Am as his Father. One very powerful, convicting teaching is John 8:54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.” And this very simple, direct confession: John 14:9 “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
    God, the Son, has come to the world to reveal God, the Father through his incarnation and now through God, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity calls his own into his heavenly House. God’s will is that you will say, “My Father” as you dwell with him in the new Heaven and earth. John 14:2 “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” 
    Believe in Jesus, the Son. Live with God, the Father, forever.
 
Prayer: My Father in Heaven, thank you for sending Jesus to make it possible for his Father in Heaven to also become my Father in Heaven. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.