- Luke 2:51-52
With these words, the first two chapters of Luke's Gospel come to an end. The 12-year-old Jesus goes obediently to his home in Nazareth, not to be heard from again until he begins his public ministry about 18 years later.
Early in the public ministry, Luke writes: Jesus came to Nazareth where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah ...
But this story does not have a happy ending. After Jesus had preached to them: They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
It tells in miniature the rest of Jesus' life - the gradual disaffection of some people, the attempt to get rid of him by killing him, and his passing through death to resurrection.
How would you, looking back, describe your life so far? These are the beginning days of the new year, a good time to think about the future.
What would you want the rest of your life to look like?
- Little Blue Book, Diocese of Saginaw