Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, January 3, 2021
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Jesus saw God as a parent, which was an unusual perspective for the time. Choosing to see God through a variety of relational lenses can shift our perspective and shape our behaviors.
From before his birth, Jesus was an unusual child. At the young age of 12, he was already well versed in the Jewish traditions and quickly learning the Jewish scriptures. He understood what he learned so well, even some of the temple scholars had trouble keeping up with him.
When his family left Jerusalem to return home, assuming Jesus was traveling with other family within the caravan, they had no idea he had remained in the temple. It seems odd to us, but it would not have been unusual for large families to tend to one another’s children. When Mary and Joseph finally discovered he wasn’t among them, they frantically returned to Jerusalem to find him. They did find him in the temple, learning and teaching. They were surprised to find him there, and even more bewildered by his words, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house (2:49)?” Such familial language for God would have seemed foreign to Jewish ears. God was many things, but “daddy” was not one of them. Even at 12, Jesus had a perspective on God that most did not. He recognized the relationship that God had established with Abraham, Moses, and David. He saw the loving, parental relationship that others missed. The relationship he saw would shape his ministry and his life.
Many of us have settled on the kind of relationship we have with God. Friends, parent/child, savior/rescued, master/servant. Invite your congregants to consider the kind of relationship that is their go-to, and challenge them to open their perspective. Invite them to consider another (or a few other) type of relationship they haven’t before and see how the shift in perspective changes them.
