NOTES for Luk 2:51

Sometimes one wants to declare with complete certainty that no one likes to obey. The reasons for this are described in the book of Genesis: God created the human person free, and the human person used this freedom by carrying out his desire to be in charge, to determine good and evil independently, to be "like gods" (Gen. 3:5), and therefore to obey no one.

How often everything boils inside us when we understand that we need to submit, even though there is sense in it and we must do it because of our position. And what happens inside when we disagree, and we are not even very obligated to submit? How we want to do everything the other way around, and if that does not work, to give ourselves over to irritation and indignation!

But our Teacher gives us an entirely different example. By the way, it is worth paying attention to His age: despite the fact that in Israel a child of twelve ceased to be considered such, before us is still a twelve-year-old boy... And in a situation where He is undoubtedly right, for the Savior simply could not act wrongly, Jesus submits to His parents, and not only on the day when they found Him in the Temple, but also afterward. And He does this because the Lord commanded us to honor father and mother (Deut. 5:16), and the word of God, the will of God, is most important for Him.