Luke 2:49-50

Mary and Joseph’s anxiety contrasts with Jesus’ calmness. Mary’s reference to Jesus’ earthly father also contrasts with Jesus’ reference to His heavenly Father. Jesus’ first question prepared His parents for His significant statement that followed in His second question. Jesus’ response to Mary and Joseph showed that He regarded His duty to His heavenly Father and His house as taking precedence over His duty to His earthly father and his house.

"Jesus’ point is that his career must be about instruction on the way of God, for the temple was not only a place of worship, but was also a place of teaching. Jesus has a call to instruct the nation. Though he is twelve now, a day is coming when this will be his priority." [Note: Bock, Luke, pp. 100-1.]

Even as a boy, Jesus placed great importance on worshipping God and learning from and about God. However, Jesus’ obedience to God did not involve disobedience to Joseph. Jesus implied that His parents should have understood His priorities, but they did not grasp the true significance of His words.

Did Jesus not owe it to His parents to tell them beforehand that He planned to linger in the temple so they would not worry about Him? He may have done so and they may have forgotten, but this was not something Luke chose to explain. His purpose was to record Jesus’ response to Mary and Joseph that expressed His awareness of His unique relationship to God and His duty to God. [Note: See I. Howard Marshall, "The Divine Sonship of Jesus," Interpretation 21 (1967):87-103.]

"Jesus’ reply, though gentle in manner, suggests the establishment of a break between himself and his parents, although this will be modified in Luke 2:51. There is thus a tension between the necessity felt by Jesus to enter into closer relationship with his Father and the obedience which he continued to render to his parents." [Note: Idem, The Gospel . . ., p. 128.]

All committed young believers who live under their parents’ authority have struggled with this tension.

These are the first words that Luke recorded Jesus saying in his Gospel, and they set the tone for what follows. All of Jesus’ words and works testified to the priority He gave to the will of His heavenly Father. "Had to" (Gr. dei) reflects a key theme in Luke’s Gospel that highlights divine design. The Greek word occurs 99 times in the New Testament and 40 times in Luke-Acts. [Note: See Bock, "A Theology . . .," pp. 94-95, for further discussion of it.]