The poster in the church hallway pictured a young boy dressed in Middle Eastern clothing, with Bible in hand, walking up a hill to church. The caption read: “Jesus was a good Christian boy who went to Sunday school every Sunday.”

As a Jewish boy, Jesus didn’t go to Sunday school and church on Sunday, so the poster was inappropriate. But the picture is correct in portraying Jesus’ desire to be in His Father’s temple to listen to His teaching.

When Jesus was 12, He went with His parents to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover (Luke 2:41-42). On their way home, His parents realized He was not with them. When they returned, they “found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions” (v.46).

Jesus had the heart of a learner-disciple. Isaiah writes of Him as Jehovah’s Servant: “The Lord God . . . awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear” (50:4-5). In His humanity, the Son was open to learn from His Father.

Jesus’ example challenges us to be listeners to God’s Word. We too can become learner-disciples if we’ll keep our hearts open to God’s teaching.  — Anne Cetas