Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

¹⁹ The answer then of the Lord Jesus Christ, “I must be about My Father's service,” does not in such sense declare God to be His Father, as to deny that Joseph was His father also; And whence prove we this? By the Scripture, which says on this wise, “And He said unto them, Did you not know that I must be about My Father's service; but they understood not what He spoke to them: and when He went down with them, He came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” It did not say, “He was subject to His mother,” or was “subject to her,” but “He was subject to them.” To whom was He subject? Was it not to His parents? It was to both His parents that He was subject, by the same condescension by which He was the Son of Man. A little way back women received their precepts. Now let children receive theirs— to obey their parents, and to be subject to them. The world was subject unto Christ, and Christ was subject to His parents.