Luke 2:49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

Ever play hide and go seek? The seeker would cover his eyes and count to one hundred and then say “Ready or not, here I come.” Here in chapter 2 of Luke, Jesus stays behind after he is declared a man, by tradition. He knows He is ready, willing and eager to enter into the ministry of His Father’s house.

I do not know just when and how Jesus came to know His heavenly Father. Scriptures do not relate any clear text as to the behavior and relationship of our Savior in those early years. We have no idea how much time He spent in prayer, in communion, in instruction directly from the Father. It can only be seen that by His actions this day, He believed He was ready.

It would be another twenty odd years before His people would come to know who Christ was in their midst. His ministry did not begin until a wedding feast. Or did it? Those years between this day and that were also darkened from the pages of testament. We have little to view accept one comment in which it said Jesus read “as was His custom.” Jesus grew up in the church, in the Jewish synagogue.

What must have gone through the heart and mind of Jesus to know the Father and the possible yet constrain Himself until the appointed time? Was His heart any less eager to help? Did He feel any less for the suffering of His people as He stood and waited for His ministry to begin?

Compassion comes at a price.

Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Sunday I had several conversations with church members that involved distractions. It reminded me of my Vietnam experience. Any time you saw something that caught your eye, danger was near. If your eye was drawn up, look down, danger was at your feet.

That got me thinking about coming deceptions. What form might they take? How strong would the illusion have to be? How crafty would the lie be to deceive many? Then I saw that for the non-believers it already has them in their grasp. A full third of the earth’s people believe in a lie so strongly they are willing to die for their faith with absolutely no hope of any promise.

Much of the world lives in the moment with no expectation of anything except more of what they faced yesterday, so they do what they can with what they have. They have no hope.

This Word from Jesus was not given for the lost, it was given to the elect. The lost need not worry about being deceived, they do not know the truth. It is our responsibility to tell them truth, to show them truth, to overcome darkness with light. It is our responsibility to show them our hope and that it too can be theirs.

As for the delusion, the deception, He did say “if it were possible”. That is another way of saying it is impossible. To know Christ is to know truth, and if you know truth deception will be seen for what it is, a distraction, an illusion, a lie. It might be a good one, but it will not stand up in the face of the truth.

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.