{"id":7184,"date":"2015-12-10T00:05:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T08:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7184"},"modified":"2015-12-09T23:09:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T07:09:43","slug":"questions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/12\/10\/questions-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year Jesus\u2019 parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn\u2019t miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn\u2019t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends.<\/p>\n

\tWhen they couldn\u2019t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.<\/p>\n

\tHis parents didn\u2019t know what to think. \u201cSon,\u201d his mother said to him, \u201cwhy have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut why did you need to search?\u201d he asked. \u201cDidn\u2019t you know that I must be in my Father\u2019s house?\u201d But they didn\u2019t understand what he meant.<\/p>\n

\tThen he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart.<\/p>\n

\tJesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. (Luke 2:41-52)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tBeing a parent to Jesus could not have been easy. Although he never misbehaved, he did behave in ways that were surprising and unexpected. <\/p>\n

\tReligiously, boys became men during their bar-mitzvah, the coming of age ceremony during which a thirteen year old gave a set of rote questions and answers. When Jesus stayed behind at the temple, he was only twelve. So Jesus surprised the teachers in the temple with his questions and answers that went beyond those rote requirements.<\/p>\n

\tHis parents spent a frantic three days trying to locate him once they realized he wasn\u2019t with them anymore. They blamed him for their fear. Jesus\u2019 response was to ask them why they\u2019d been looking for him at all, since they knew he had to be in his \u201cfather\u2019s house.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tJesus was reminding them that he was not just an ordinary child: he was the Messiah, sent to Earth for a specific purpose. So how could he ever be at risk? Mary and Joseph had no reason to ever worry, unlike normal parents. <\/p>\n

\tMary \u201cstored these things in her heart.\u201d That is, she thought about what Jesus had told her and tried to make sense of it all.<\/p>\n

\tAs Paul would later write, if God is for us, who can be against us? <\/p>\n

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Every year Jesus\u2019 parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7186,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions\/7186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}