His Mother Treasured These Things

Luke 2:51 (ESV)
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. I suppose if I were Roman Catholic I might make this out to be some sort of hagiography concerning Mary displaying how righteous she was. No doubt it displays that. Though I have to tell you, I wish the Roman Catholics would talk as much about her son as they do her sex life. Listening to Catholic radio the other day I was about nauseated as they went on and on about how Joseph and Mary had a chaste marriage. One of them look up chaste please? One does not have to practice abstinence to be chaste. In fact, if what they claim of Mary is true, I’d question her chastity. And there is nothing about her marital relations with Joseph that would have profaned her womb. All this does is make people feel less holy for engaging in an act with their spouse that God intends for them to engage in. He told someone somewhere to be fruitful and multiply, he was very well aware of what that meant. Mary’s womb is not the Ark of the Covenant. In any case, I can’t remember who the apologist was, but someone should make him aware that the Ark of the Covenant contained a bit more than the Ten Commandments. I digress I suppose. She was a Godly woman and Joseph was a Godly man, and they had Godly relations just as every chaste couple who heed the advice of Paul in 1 Cor. Do when they don’t cut each other off from the goods. True chastity demands married couples have sexual intercourse. This is what the institution is about. Marriage preserves chastity by confining sex to a God pleasing relationship.
However, I think the true purpose of this little note, was not hagiography, but to indicate from whom Luke was receiving this material. Luke is citing his source. His mother treasured these things up, as only a mother can. Her witness gives reliability to what Luke is writing. It is being documented by someone who has seen the events themselves. It really doesn’t matter how much time has passed. The mom remembers these things. It isn’t a whole lot. After Jesus is born there isn’t a whole lot about his childhood that matters. What does has been recorded.
Jesus was submissive to his parents. He listened to them. There is something to be learned there. Perhaps I’ll try to figure that out some other day…