I’ll Be Home for Christmas: An Obedient Home AKA The Generous Gospel
In our Gospel for this Sunday, we will finish the story of Jesus’ childhood with Mary and Joseph discovering Him teaching the men in the Temple. Jesus lived out His Righteousness Before Men by teaching and being obedient to His parents and authorities. As we read in Luke 2, “40and the Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom…52And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with … Man.” We call this a Horizontal Righteousness that exists between people. This is a righteousness of our own “good works in order to meet the urgent needs, so that they may not be unproductive.” Titus 3:14 This righteousness is good, but it only affects our relationships with other people.
Then there is a Righteousness that only Jesus knew, a perfect obedience to God, the Father. This Vertical Righteousness comes to us from Christ’s Work on the Cross through Faith. It is God’s work to fix our relationship with Him and is a gift apart from anything that we do.
Listen in as we look at this encounter between the Teachers of the Law who focused on Horizontal Righteousness and God Himself who works in a whole other direction.
-Pastor Kyle