Re: Verse reading–Exodus 20:12; Luke 2:45-52; John 19:25-27 (day three)
“Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.”
It is no coincidence that two sentences after we about Jesus’s obedience, we read that Jesus grew in all aspects of his personhood—body, mind, spirit, social context. Children are not physically smaller versions of adults. They are not capable of the complex moral reasoning required to help shape the social order for the common good. Obedience is the discipline that helps children develop such capacities. To teach children to obey is not to burden them with an oppressive power structure; rather, it is to take seriously their potential as moral creatures—capable of great good or great harm. Obedience is the only pathway towards the good life God created each child to live. Are you teaching children to obey?
