As a twelve-year-old boy, Jesus referred to God as ‘My Father’, but his parents did not understand what he was saying to them. The angel had told Mary twice that her son ‘will be called Son of God’, words she had often ‘pondered’. And he had connected this title to the promise God made to David: that He would be ‘Father’ to a descendent of David who would become great and rule over Israel forever—a promise that is repeated in the Tenakh (Old Testament) five times (Med.#D)! If Mary and Joseph understood the angel's words as referring to Jesus' future position and title, then Jesus' calling God ‘my Father’ as a twelve-year-old would have seemed premature, especially since he returned to Nazareth with them and remained ‘subject to them’.

But suppose Mary was thinking of how the angel connected Jesus’ title as 'Son of God' to his unique position as the ‘Holy One’, conceived by the power of the Spirit and born from a virgin's womb. Then her surprise would have been more about his behavior. If Jesus was the 'Holy One' (meaning ‘the one set apart’) from conception, then he was just as 'holy' growing up with his parents in Nazareth. He didn’t need to separate himself from his parents in order to be busy with the ‘things that belong to my Father’.

Whatever their understanding of the angel's words about Jesus' title and position as ‘Son of God’, his parents didn’t seem to understand that Jesus was speaking about the most important aspect of his being ‘Son of God’—his relationship with his heavenly Father. Similarly, many Christians today get so focused on Jesus' position as ‘Son of God’ that they seem blind to the revelation that Jesus came to bring: that his relationship with the Father is also about our relationship with the Father! As a result, they miss the significance of the final reference to Jesus as ‘son of God’ in the above texts.

In Luke's genealogy of Jesus, he is called ‘son of God’ by virtue of his being born into a human lineage stretching back all the way to Adam. In a human body like ours, Jesus bore the same ‘image [Heb. tselem] and likeness [Heb. demuth]’ of God as did Adam, and Eve (Med.#A)—something human beings did not completely lose even after sin entered the world (Gen.9:6). Thus in one sense, Jesus' title ‘Son of God’ is also about something he shares with us. Yes, his position as ‘the Holy One’ (1:35) also gives a unique meaning to this title. Yet it is by embracing the double meaning of his title—his being both untainted by sin, and like us—so that we can receive him as our ‘kinsman redeemer’ (Med.#7 & Med.#E), and receive what the above texts teach us about growing in our relationship with the Father.

We have seen in earlier meditations that being ‘placed as sons’ is about us coming of age, as ‘heirs’ of the Father and ‘co-heirs with Christ’ by the Spirit (Med.#4 & #5). In the above texts we see how Jesus goes through this change of position at about the age of thirty, when the Father publicly declares him to be: ‘My Son’. Since Jesus already knew God as his Father, this is coming of age language. And in John's gospel, Jesus' baptism is presented as a foretaste of what we too will receive (Jn.1:32-33, Med.#58).

While gaining our destined position through Jesus is important, we need to learn from him that being a son (or daughter) of God is first and foremost about having a relationship with our Father. And the above texts show us that we, like Jesus, can begin growing in this relationship even before we attain our Father’s purpose for us—the pre-destined position of adult son or daughter. Children and teenagers—and people with severe mental and emotional handicaps—can also enjoy a relationship with their Father. This is why entry into his kingdom is possible for ‘all who receive’ Jesus. Simply ‘receiving’ is not only comprehensible for little children, but Jesus even tells ‘grown ups’ to become like them in order to enter the Father's kingdom (Med.#18). As a boy of eight, I was able to grasp that the death of Jesus on the cross was for me; and I received him into my life. Though I already had an awareness of God growing up in a Christian home, I remember only getting busy with my Father's ‘things’ after that event.

While still a boy Jesus sought out the place where he knew that God, as Father to Israel (Med.#C), was present among his people—the Temple in Jerusalem. Secondly, he spent time listening to God's Word—to learn the Father's character and ways. Thirdly, he asked questions of teachers who had studied the Scriptures. I remember doing the same. Already as an adolescent I began to take responsibility to come to the Father on my own: to confess my sins and seek to know him through personal times of Bible reading and prayer. At age twelve, I joined my peers in a Bible class taught by our pastor. And at age thirteen I met with a group of fellow students every week to pray for our high school classmates and teachers.

If you are a teenager, are you following Jesus' example and taking time to be busy with your Father's ‘things’? Are you listening regularly to His Word? Are you able to receive from the Father through the Spirit—just by being in his presence? Are you part of a body of fellow believers where you can boldly ask your questions, and where you will be taken seriously when you talk about what you are learning from the Father—in his Word and through his Spirit? And if you are an adult, are you treating seriously the questions raised by children and teenagers, and the things they share, even if they don't yet have the full picture?