Daily Bible Reading 4th April 2026 // Luke 2:41-52
41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.
An independent, responsible existence, yes and yet, as we are told in 51, He went down from the temple with Mary and Joseph, and was subject to them. There is a fine - and significant - association of ideas here, between 'my Father's business' and being 'subject unto them'. As G.C. Morgan puts it, 'the perfect response of the Boy to the will of God meant for Him natural correspondence to ordinary conditions. It did not set Him free from responsibilities to the home in which He had been brought up; but under the mastery of the will of His one Father, He submitted His life to the authority of the home'. Conformity, in other words, was the keynote of His experience. This is a salutary lesson for those who appear to think that one can only be faithful to God by abandoning home and parents. It was not so with Jesus. The question of motive needs to be examined here. There is so often an element of the carnal in all this. It is easier, and more exciting and thrilling to the flesh, to leave home than to be obedient to the law of God. It should not be forgotten that, for some, surrender to God will mean just this: willingness to accept parental discipline. Humdrum? Yes, but pretty basic and fundamental for a true Christian position!