And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
49. Did ye not know? Our Lord justly blames his mother, though he does it in a gentle and indirect manner. The amount of what he says is, that the duty which he owes to God his Father, ought to be immeasurably preferred to all human duties; and that, consequently, earthly parents do wrong in taking it amiss, that they have been neglected in comparison of God.
We have here the only passage of story recorded concerning our blessed Saviour, from his infancy to the day of his showing to Israel at twenty-nine years old, and therefore we are concerned to make much of this, for it is in vain to wish we had more. Here is, I. Christ's going up with his parents to Jerusalem, at the feast of the passover, Luk 2:41, Luk 2:42. 1.
Commenting on Luke 2:41-52
And they understood not the saying,.... What he meant by his Father's house, or his Father's business, and the necessity of his being there, and about that: which he spake unto them; at that time, and as above related.