Passover Visit
57
and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever.”
Luke 1:32, 33
.
These words Mary had pondered in her heart; yet while she believed
that her child was to be Israel’s Messiah, she did not comprehend His
mission. Now she did not understand His words; but she knew that
He had disclaimed kinship to Joseph, and had declared His Sonship to
God.
Jesus did not ignore His relation to His earthly parents. From
Jerusalem He returned home with them, and aided them in their life
of toil. He hid in His own heart the mystery of His mission, waiting
submissively for the appointed time for Him to enter upon His work.
For eighteen years after He had recognized that He was the Son of God,
He acknowledged the tie that bound Him to the home at Nazareth, and
performed the duties of a son, a brother, a friend, and a citizen.
As His mission had opened to Jesus in the temple, He shrank
from contact with the multitude. He wished to return from Jerusalem
in quietness, with those who knew the secret of His life. By the
paschal service, God was seeking to call His people away from their
worldly cares, and to remind them of His wonderful work in their
deliverance from Egypt. In this work He desired them to see a promise
of deliverance from sin. As the blood of the slain lamb sheltered the
homes of Israel, so the blood of Christ was to save their souls; but
they could be saved through Christ only as by faith they should make
His life their own. There was virtue in the symbolic service only as it
directed the worshipers to Christ as their personal Saviour. God desired
that they should be led to prayerful study and meditation in regard to
Christ’s mission. But as the multitudes left Jerusalem, the excitement
of travel and social intercourse too often absorbed their attention, and
the service they had witnessed was forgotten. The Saviour was not
attracted to their company.
As Joseph and Mary should return from Jerusalem alone with
Jesus, He hoped to direct their minds to the prophecies of the suffering
Saviour. Upon Calvary He sought to lighten His mother’s grief. He
was thinking of her now. Mary was to witness His last agony, and Jesus
desired her to understand His mission, that she might be strengthened
to endure, when the sword should pierce through her soul. As Jesus
had been separated from her, and she had sought Him sorrowing three
days, so when He should be offered up for the sins of the world, He
would again be lost to her for three days. And as He should come