Articles
Do You Suppose?
Reading: Luke 2:25-52
The Holy Spirit reveals only one highlight from the early life of Jesus: when Jesus was 12 years old, after the Passover festival that year, Joseph and Mary accidently left Jesus behind in Jerusalem.
How could this have happened? Verse 44 says they were “supposing him to be in the group” they were traveling with. Once they realized their mistake, they returned and spent three days searching for him in the city (v. 46). (As a parent, I cannot even fathom what Joseph and Mary must have been feeling and thinking.) When they finally found him in the temple, Jesus explained that this was the obvious place for him to be: in his Father’s house, doing His Father’s business (v. 49).
Like Joseph and Mary, many people today just assume that Jesus is traveling with them down the road of life. But like his parents, we can all fall victim to the danger of presumption. And like his parents over those three days of searching, many people look for Jesus in all the wrong places. We don’t have to assume or guess when it comes to our relationship with God in Christ. Our confidence comes from finding Jesus in the church, the temple of the new covenant (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), and being about the Father’s business as we live by His will.
