Daily Bible Reading 5th 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.
All that has been said thus far, in the past two Notes, has a bearing on our Lord's words about being 'about His Father's business'. What is shown forth is His obedience to authority, and this is really the key to the work He came to do on earth. It is 'by the obedience of One' that many are made righteous. He was 'obedient unto death, even the death of the cross'. He was, in the fullness of the time, a man under authority, as the centurion in Luke 7 was able to discern, and it was this that gave Him His power to save and redeem. As Paul puts it in the famous words of Philippians 2:9, 'Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name...' - because of His obedience, because He was intent on doing His Father's will. Standing at the threshold of the story of His life and ministry, this surely has a symbolic value and significance in Luke's presentation of the gospel. For, of course, He is the second Adam, who did what the first failed so miserably to do in the Garden of Eden. Here is the outworking of what Newman expresses so beautifully in the words of the hymn,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.