Luke 2:51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Submissive. Now there is an unpopular world: in the home, in politics, in society, in the workplace. We have a hard time "putting ourselves under" the authority of anyone else. Imagine the character it took for the perfect Son of God to do so in so many ways, beginning with His less than perfect human parents. Again, Jesus not only shows us an example - that it can be done - that we can and often should submit to human authorities, but even more so, Jesus does it for a reason. He chose to put himself under every human condition, except sin, to identify with us and become our perfect sacrifice, and as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, the one Who can sit at the right hand of the Father and mediate on our behalf. Jesus gets us. He understands. The second verse here is not unrelated: He increased mentally, physically, and spiritually. Children who do not listen to their parents make stupid mistakes and their rebellion gets them in trouble; they can stifle their own development. Children of God are the same way. If we are not willing to submit to Him, learn from Him, and trust in Him, we make a lot of foolish mistakes and stifle our own spiritual growth, affecting all of our relationships, vertical and horizontal. Let's try a little submission out today.
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