Luke 2:50

50. Understood not Sceptics like Strauss have pronounced it unaccountable that, when Mary had been assured by Gabriel that Jesus was son of the Most High, she and Joseph should not understand that Jesus now claimed God as his Father. 1. But they understood not the great transition that had taken place within him at this age of becoming a son of the law. Since the time of the angel’s declaration the word father at Joseph’s home had been Joseph’s name. This sudden transfer of the title to God was without warning to these parents. Mary had just called Joseph his father, and she naturally understood Jesus’s use of the term in the same sense. She cannot therefore at the moment understand how loosing himself from his father’s company was being about his Father’s business. 2. The parent’s views of the Messiahship included the idea of royalty, righteous dominion, and perhaps warlike heroism and bold exploit. Mary’s song at his conception, as already remarked, was strongly tinged with the Old Testament images of this nature. It might not, therefore, be very obvious to her at the instant how a quiet interview with the doctors in the temple was any part of his business as Messiah or as the Son of God. 3. But “his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.” When this first doubtful sign of his conscious divine Sonship was confirmed by other proofs, she soon saw, we may believe, its joyful meaning. The predictions of his infancy will be fulfilled; he is the great Messiah. This first saying was so felt by her heart and preserved by her memory as to be recorded in this Gospel forever.