Were We Created for Good or Evil?
As we continue on our quest to know Jesus, let’s look at what we have discovered so far.
We have already identified Jesus, as John 1:1 describes HIm.
In the beginning was The Word,
and The Word was with God,
and The Word was God!
John 1:14 furthered defined that
The Word became flesh
and made His Dwelling among us!
We have seen His Glory,
The Glory of the One and Only Son,
Who came from The Father,
full of Grace and Truth!
As recorded in John 14:20, we have heard Jesus say,
On that day you will realize that
I AM in My Father,
and you are in Me,
and I AM in you.
The One is in our very DNA. God created us! When He spoke of all He created, He said, “It was good.” Because of the sin that slipped in, after Adam and Eve were created, the tendency to sin was passed on to the humans who followed.
Why didn’t God just eliminate Adam and Eve and start over? Because He is Merciful and Loving and because He does not take back The Gifts He gives the world. God had designated Adam and Eve as His First humans and He was not changing His Mind.
God had given them special gifts, among them, free will. They were not robots. They were His, both inside and out. God loved them. He did not banish them from the Garden of Eden to go out alone. He went with them, as He taught them again how to partner with Him in creation.
We each have choices to make every day. Even as we strive to follow The One, the choices are not always easy. And sometimes making the right choice may initially seem like the wrong choice to those around us.
Jesus Makes a Choice!
Luke 2:41-52 tells an interesting story about a choice Jesus made at age 12. Jesus had gone with His Parents, Mary and Joseph, to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. After the festival, everyone headed home … well, almost everyone.
Jesus stayed behind. On the second day of the journey, Jesus’ parents discovered He was not with the group of relatives. Bad parenting? No! It was common for kids to hang out with the extended families. Also it is likely Jesus had been the kind of Child His Parents could trust. They did not need to ride herd on Him, because He had been trustworthy.
But, as soon as they discovered Jesus was not with them, they hurried back to Jerusalem and looked for Him. After three days, they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Verse 47 documents
Everyone who heard Him
was amazed at His Understanding
and His Answers!
Mary, however, was not so impressed. As recorded in verse 48, Mary said to Jesus,
“Son, why have you treated us like this?
Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You!”
The story gets more interesting. What was Jesus’ reply? Did He look down and say He was sorry? No.
Verse 49 records Jesus saying,
“Why were you searching for Me?
Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s House?”
What is going on? His parents couldn’t figure it out either. Verse 50 records,
But they did not understand what He was saying to them.
However, verse 51 records,
Then He went down to Nazareth with them
and was obedient to them.
But His Mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Wait! Mary just went from sounding a bit exasperated to “treasuring all these things in her heart.” What caused the change?
Well, Jesus did “straighten up and do right!” He went home with them and was obedient. In fact, verse 52 goes on to say,
And Jesus grew in wisdom
and statue, and
in favor with God and man.
Why Did Jesus Make The Decision He Did?
At the early age of 12, Jesus was modeling submission to both The Father inside of him and the Mother and Father outside of Him.
Why go to the Temple? In earth language, we are fond of saying, “Opposites attract.” However, in the Kingdom of God, “like” attracts “like.” Remember Jesus Himself IS The Word. It was His Mission to be the Living, Speaking Demonstration of what God created humans to be.
When Jesus would later be tempted by satan in the desert, He would speak nothing, but the pure Word of God. Jesus heard The Word of God being read in the Temple. It must have sounded so good to hear them “playing His Song,” so to speak. He heard His Father’s Voice, and every part of Him rose to the Mighty Symphony inside of Him.
I believe Jesus did think of Mary and Joseph. Maybe He believed they heard the Song too. They had certainly heard the Songs before and after His Birth. Surely they would remember why He was on earth! He was The Word — That very Word the people in the Temple were reading about and discussing. How could He not be there?
I don’t believe Jesus spoke to His Mother in any kind of disrespectful way. I believe He may have looked at her with all the Love in the world, and said softly,
“Didn’t you know I had to be in My Father’s House?”
And Mary did know. She perhaps used the time on the return trip home to bring out from her heart all those things she had started treasuring from the first moment she had said, “Let it be to Me as you have said.”
So this was a part of that — Her Son, so lovingly cared for by Joseph, was also God’s Son … God with her. Luke 2:19 recorded what Mary did after the birth of Jesus.
But Mary treasured up all these things
and pondered them in her heart!
When gently reminded by Jesus that He had Work to do, Mary remembered all that had come before and all that was now beginning to unfold. As noted, Luke 2:52 records what Mary did in response to Jesus’ question on that day at the temple.
But His Mother treasured all these things in her heart!
Jesus’ first miracle was recorded as the wedding at Cana, but perhaps His first visible miracle was the day He gently reminded His Parents Who He was. Perhaps that day, Jesus’ question prompted another question in Mary’s spirit.
“What about you, Mom? Who do you say I AM?”
Points to Ponder
What things has God shown you that you keep in your spiritual treasure box? What things do you treasure and ponder in your heart?
Where is God calling you to be? Are you there?
Is it possible that sometimes we think people are off base and yet they are exactly where they are supposed to be at this time? Is this true for you as well?
Jesus lived for 12 years before we know much about Him. What do you think He learned from Mary and Joseph that prepared Him to make the choice He made on that day at the temple?
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