Obedience is Part of the Purpose

I want to talk about Luke chapter 2, particularly verses 46–52, because there is so much here about understanding, identity, humility, submission, and obedience.

Luke 2:46–47 (KJV) says:

“And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.”

Jesus is sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and that immediately makes me think about God in the garden.

After Adam sins, God asks:

“Where art thou?” — Genesis 3:9

“Who told thee that thou wast naked?” — Genesis 3:11

“Hast thou eaten of the tree…?” — Genesis 3:11

God wasn’t asking because He lacked information.

His questions drew Adam into an encounter with truth. They required Adam to examine himself, speak, and respond before God.

And when I think about the way Jesus would later teach throughout His ministry, I see something similar.

Jesus certainly spoke directly. He declared truth. He corrected. He rebuked when necessary. But He also repeatedly asked questions.

Rather than always simply talking at people or telling them what to think, He often asked questions that required them to examine what they believed, consider what was already before them, and articulate the truth confronting them.

“But whom say ye that I am?” — Matthew 16:15

“What is written in the law? how readest thou?” — Luke 10:26

“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?” — Luke 10:36

“Whose is this image and superscription?” — Matthew 22:20

“Which of them will love him most?” — Luke 7:42

“What think ye?” — Matthew 18:12

That Luke 10 exchange especially stands out to me.

A lawyer asks Jesus:

“Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus could have simply given him the answer.

Instead, Jesus asks:

“What is written in the law? how readest thou?”

And the man answers.

Then Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan and asks him another question:

“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?”

Again, the man answers.

“He that shewed mercy on him.”

Only then does Jesus say:

“Go, and do thou likewise.”

Jesus knew the Law. Jesus knew the truth. Yet He asked questions that required the man to bring forth what he knew and confront what that truth required of him.

And I think there is something incredibly important there.

The question isn’t always asked because the Teacher needs an answer. Sometimes the Teacher asks because the hearer needs to confront the answer.

The truth wasn’t originating within the people Jesus questioned—the truth originates with God. But His questions often caused people to examine themselves and articulate the truth that was confronting them.

So there is this beautiful consistency:

In the garden: “Where art thou?”

In the temple: “hearing them, and asking them questions.”

Throughout His ministry:

“What think ye?”

“Whom say ye that I am?”

“What is written in the law? how readest thou?”

“Which…was neighbour unto him?”

Jesus shows us that possessing truth does not mean we always have to wield it by talking at people.

Sometimes wisdom asks the right question and gives someone room to encounter what is true.

Sometimes the answer itself exposes the heart.

Questions can be instruments of revelation, examination, instruction, and conviction.

And that brings me back to Luke 2.

Verse 47 is important because Jesus wasn’t merely sitting there asking questions.

He was listening. He was asking. He was answering.

And those around Him were astonished at both His understanding and His answers.

“And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.”

There is humility in that posture.

The One whose understanding astonished everyone around Him is still depicted as listening.

At the same time, we have to hold something important about the incarnation together.

Jesus is fully God and fully man.

He is Truth:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life…” — John 14:6

Yet Luke also explicitly tells us in verse 52:

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

So we shouldn’t reduce this passage to either side of that truth.

Jesus was not merely pretending to experience human development. His humanity was real. He truly grew and developed in His human experience. Yet His genuine humanity did not diminish His divinity.

Luke is not necessarily presenting this scene as a demonstration of the exhaustive expression of divine omniscience through Jesus’ human experience. He is showing us the incarnate Son genuinely interacting, listening, asking, answering, and later increasing in wisdom.

So rather than assuming that Jesus asked questions simply because He needed answers—or going to the opposite extreme and assuming that every question was asked because He already knew every answer—we can stay with what Scripture actually tells us:

He listened. He asked.

He answered.

He demonstrated extraordinary understanding.

And He increased in wisdom.

Then comes verse 49:

“Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”

At twelve years old, Jesus already understands something fundamental about His identity and His primary duty.

He belongs to the Father.

He knows who His Father is.

He knows He must be about His Father’s business.

And that makes what happens next even more powerful.

Luke 2:51 (KJV):

“And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them…”

Jesus returned to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and submitted Himself to them.

The Greek word translated “subject” is hypotassō—to place oneself under, to submit, to be subject.

Think about the order Luke gives us.

Jesus knows who His Father is.

Jesus knows He must be about His Father’s business.

His understanding has just astonished the people sitting around Him.

Mary and Joseph don’t even fully understand what He tells them in verses 49–50.

And Jesus goes home with them anyway.

That is profound.

He doesn’t say:

“You don’t understand my calling, so I don’t have to listen to you.”

He doesn’t use His identity to excuse rebellion.

He doesn’t use His extraordinary understanding to reject legitimate earthly authority.

The Son of God submits.

Jesus modeled obedience for us even there in His human form so that we could see that obedience is necessary.

He was obedient to His earthly parents, but His obedience to them existed beneath His ultimate allegiance and obedience to His Father.

His primary duty was always to God.

And that distinction matters.

Biblical obedience is never simply, “Do whatever another human being tells you.”

Human authority remains subordinate to God’s authority.

Acts 5:29 says:

“We ought to obey God rather than men.”

But where submission to legitimate earthly authority does not require disobedience to God, Jesus demonstrates something incredibly important:

Submission is not weakness.

Submission is not inferiority.

Submission does not mean you don’t know who you are.

In fact, Jesus knew exactly who He was and still submitted.

And this wasn’t merely something Jesus demonstrated as a child.

Jesus didn’t merely command obedience. He embodied it.

John 6:38:

“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”

John 8:29:

“…I do always those things that please him.”

Then Gethsemane gives us perhaps the clearest picture:

Luke 22:42:

“Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

And Philippians takes it all the way to the cross:

Philippians 2:8:

“…he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

So Luke 2:51 isn’t an isolated childhood anecdote.

It is an early glimpse of the posture that characterizes Christ’s entire earthly ministry: submission to the Father’s will.

There is a line running through His earthly life:

Nazareth: He was subject unto them.

His ministry: “I seek not mine own will.”

Gethsemane: “Not my will, but thine.”

Calvary: “obedient unto death.”

His submission to Mary and Joseph never displaced His allegiance to God.

His earthly obedience existed underneath His ultimate obedience to the Father.

And then there is something beautiful immediately afterward:

Luke 2:52:

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

Submission did not interfere with His purpose.

It was part of His preparation for it.

Jesus did not merely come to fulfill His assignment; He showed us the posture in which God’s assignment is fulfilled:

Humility. Submission. Listening. Obedience.

He knew He must be about His Father’s business, yet He still returned home and submitted to His earthly parents.

His calling did not exempt Him from obedience. His obedience was part of His calling.

And ultimately, the Gospel itself rests upon obedience.

Romans 5:19 says:

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

And there is such a powerful contrast there.

Adam’s story centers on disobedience.

Christ’s story centers on obedience.

The first Adam says, in effect:

My will.

Jesus says:

“Not my will, but thine.”

That makes Luke 2 much bigger than a lesson about children obeying their parents.

We are already being shown, in the childhood of Jesus, something fundamental about the character and mission of the obedient Son who would eventually redeem humanity through His obedience.

And there is something beautiful about seeing both themes together in the same passage.

Jesus knew truth, yet He listened. Jesus possessed understanding, yet He asked questions. Jesus knew His identity, yet He submitted. Jesus knew His assignment, yet He obeyed.

He modeled obedience before He asked it of us.

He modeled submission without surrendering His identity.

He modeled humility without diminishing His authority.

He modeled listening while possessing understanding that astonished those around Him.

He knew who He was.

He knew who His Father was.

He knew what He had been sent to do.

And He still submitted.

Because obedience was never an interruption to His purpose.

Obedience was part of the purpose.

And that’s today’s Bit O’ Honey. 🍯