It’s all in the Timing

Joseph and Mary did everything they knew to do for Jesus in raising him as their son. Theirs was a simple, peasant-like faith and, yet, Jesus, the boy, prospered under their humble tutelage.

Only once is any tension between the parent’s peasant piety and Jesus’ Messianic mission recorded. And that is at the second Temple visit when Jesus is 12, which Luke records in chapter 2. Whether or not Jesus went with his parents every time (the record is not clear), his parents made the Temple visit an annual trek at Passover.

Now at age twelve, Jesus was considered adult enough to be more independent and to engage with other adults. Which is exactly what he did. There was astounding depth to this boy, wise beyond years. Knowledge can be demonstrated in facts and ideas. But Jesus amazed these teachers in the Temple with his thoughtful listening and questions which probed their breadth of understanding. While answers may show how smart you are, questions can reveal your depth of wisdom. Jesus provided proof of both, though not in a way that said such was his intention.

His parents were not as impressed with Jesus performance as the teachers were, for parents tend to use a different measuring stick. These parents were folks to whom the boy and his safety and upbringing had been entrusted. Luke doesn’t record the stories Mathew does about the way Jesus was hunted down as a baby and how many other boys lost their lives as a result. I am sure Joseph was ever vigilant for Jesus’ physical safety.

However his parents saw his Messiahship unfolding, they knew that this manchild of twelve was still in their care. He might be a child prodigy, but it was time for the child to go home.

Joseph and Mary don’t have a clue about Jesus’ behavior in the Temple or his response to them, “I must be taking care of my Father’s things” (Luke 2:49). The young lad Jesus is starting to express his unique calling. He senses that he must be working for Father God. But even without knowing the whys and the hows, Mary as mother has the innate sense that the timing is not right. It would be later in a story recorded by another chronicler (John) that Mary would sense the time had come. By then Jesus would be a more mature 30. But now was not the time for Jesus to unfurl his Messiahship. He was to go home and be an obedient son.

My mother often said that people don’t miss the will of God as much as they miss God’s timing. Perhaps it is a Mother thing, this sense of being in sync with the biological and emotional clock not only for themselves but also for their offspring. In any case, Mary and Jesus were both right in this situation. Jesus did not press his rightness, choosing to submit to the earthly authority in whose care he had been placed.