Luke 2:39-52 - Growing Pains
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Introduction:
During our men’s prayer time this past Tuesday morning, one of the men brought up dealing with growing pains in their child. I am sure anyone here who is a parent has gotten that wake up call from one of our kiddos about leg pain in the middle of the night. And if you don’t have kids, I am sure you probably remember some of that leg pain yourself as a child. Growing hurts my friends!
Today we are going to cover the entire childhood and young adulthood of Jesus available to us. We start today off with him being 40 days old, then 12 years old, and when we see him next appear in this book - Jesus will be around 30 years old! That sounds pretty daunting at first glance. But if you notice, we are only covering 14 verses today! We aren’t given a ton of information about Christ’s childhood and transition into manhood. But we are given some key insights into it which we will seek to explore further today.
Join me as we read God’s Word today.
Read Full Scripture:
And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.
And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.
And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it,
but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.
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 Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Prayer
Today we will see some of the growing pains that Christ experienced by being both fully God and fully man. We will also see how He grew in His humanity all the while continuing being fully God. The first understanding that we can glean is…
I. Christ Being Fully God and Fully Man… Grew in Strength (39-40)
I. Christ Being Fully God and Fully Man… Grew in Strength (39-40)
And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
We see that after satisfying everything according to the Law of the Lord regarding purification, they went back to Nazareth. And then Luke gives us an overarching verse that describes Jesus from 40 days old until 12 years old when we pick up in the following verses. Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon Him.
Jesus grew in strength. It is difficult to consider God made flesh needing to grow in strength. See Colossians 1:15-17
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
This same God is now also fully man. He has humbled Himself in the form of man and now has to grow in physical strength. This same God that literally holds all things together - meaning that He maintains gravity, the universe, the earth, and everything by His glorious strength and power - is now having to learn to crawl and walk and toddle and eventually learn how to labor with His father as a carpenter.
Luke’s primary focus in this is to proverbially put some flesh on Christ here. His goal is to let the readers know that although Christ is still fully God - He also became fully man.
But we are also told that not only did Christ grow in strength, but He grew in wisdom. Again, looking at our verses in Colossians, by Him all things were created. He knows everything and He has created everything. Yet, His human mind had to grow like ours. He had to grow in wisdom and knowledge. This does not negate His deity. He continued with two distinct natures. As we see Him minister on earth, there are many moments when His divine nature informs His human nature. He understands the thoughts of man as we see in one of His dialogues with the religious leaders:
When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts?
His divine nature is also at work in His miraculous healings and in His casting out of demons as we will see as we move throughout this book.
But His human nature is also fully present as He needs rest and sleep.
The church formally addressed those who sought to teach erroneously regarding the two natures of Christ by forming a council in 451. This council was the “Council of Chalcedon.”
The Council affirmed that Christ is “the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man.”
Council of Chalcedon - 451 AD
This Council was incredibly important because many sought to explain away that Christ was fully God or fully man. And others tried to intermix the two natures. These were heretical teachings that were not consistent with Scripture. By making this statement of faith clear, it became easier for the church to recognize truth and error.
Before moving forward, I think we have another important teaching to consider in understanding how to read and interpret the Gospels. For those of you who have read the Gospels multiple times, you might have noticed something that Luke omits between Day 40 of Jesus’ life and 12 years old. This series of events is highlighted in great detail in Matthew 2 but isn’t mentioned at all in Luke’s Gospel. Matthew goes into great detail about the wise men visiting, the escape to Egypt, and King Herod’s slaughter of the innocent.
Omissions like these have left some to criticize the Bible. They assert that if God wrote the Bible, then why are there omissions like this?
One cannot miss that although this is the inerrant Word of God, it was men that He wrote it through. And we cannot miss the fact that each author had a certain audience that the book was written to. Matthew, addressing the Jews, spent much of his gospel highlighting the Messianic prophesies - one of which was that Christ would come out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:15). While Luke was writing primarily to a Gentile audience and wanted to stress that Jesus was fully human as well as fully God. The Gentile audience would have been heavily influenced by Greek mythology and would have likely erred on the side of dehumanizing Jesus. So Luke emphasized the incarnation.
But despite some heterogeneity of the Gospels, there is uncanny consistency in the accounts when taken as a whole.
J. Warner Wallace, author of Cold-Case Christianity, is a homicide detective who investigated the claims of the Gospels. And his study concluded that the Gospels are accurate and reliable. His book details many of these reasons, but I want us to hone in on one in particular.
He actually turns Gospel-critical scholars on their heads with his argument regarding corroborating evidence. He asserts that true and reliable witnesses to a crime - when multiple witnesses are present - never have accounts that are exactly the same. There is always some heterogeneity in what they remembered. There is also the issue of perspective. Each witness might have been in a different location and saw the incident from a different angle and view. If multiple witnesses gave the exact same account to the letter, this would actually mean that they all got together and made up a story. True witnesses remember different parts of the account and investigators take each part and put them together like a puzzle to understand the full account.
The fact that the Gospels are not verbatim, have some heterogeneity, and yet remain remarkably consistent actually serves to show that they are more reliable!
I pray that you always hold the Scriptures in high regard and understand them to be the inerrant Word of God.
Getting back to our Scripture and next point we see that...
Scripture References: Colossians 1:15-17, Luke 5:22, Matthew 2, Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:15
II. Christ Being Fully God and Fully Man… Grew in Subjection (41-51)
II. Christ Being Fully God and Fully Man… Grew in Subjection (41-51)
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.
Time would fail us to go through the Christological significance of the Passover in the depth it deserves, but the Passover is seen instituted in Exodus 12:1-19. It is here that the Israelites are set free from slavery in Egypt during the tenth plague sent upon the land. Those in Israel are commanded to sacrifice a lamb and place the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their homes. This blood sacrifice allowed for “the destroyer (Exodus 12:23)” to pass over their homes. Those without the lambs blood, or the Egyptians, were not so fortunate and every first born was killed by the destroyer.
The lamb was a foreshadowing of Christ who is the sacrificial lamb as John the Baptist proclaims in John 1:29:
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
How beautiful is this parallel and understanding here as Jesus, along with His parents, goes to the Feast of the Passover. He is celebrating the feast that points to His own death on the cross that is to come.
We now know that by His death on the cross, death can now passover those who are in Christ. Those who have believed, placed their faith in Jesus Christ, and repented of their sins.
And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.
And being twelve years old as seen in verse 42, they went up according to custom. At twelve years old, Jesus would have been beginning to make the transition into manhood. Although 13 years old was the official transition into manhood, 12 was pivotal in making this transition.
This trip was also significant because it was tradition that the parents of a 12-year old boy would bring him to the temple to show him around and get him acclimated and prepared for the following year transition into being a recognized man in Jewish culture.
And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.
As we read this, we cannot help but think ‘how did they lose Jesus!’
Actually, in my dad-like humor, I spent a little time trying to place myself in these frightened parent’s shoes. Can you imagine going to God and telling Him you lost His one and only Son? I can imagine that being terrifying!
Luckily, God knows where He is. He wasn’t searching for Him.
But these poor parents sure were! And they had already went a day’s journey or some 25 miles away before they noticed He was absent!
Can you imagine how they felt? People often traveled in caravans from the feasts and so both parents probably assumed that Jesus was with the other or maybe they assumed He was with the other kids his age. Either way, they have to sleep under the stars that night without their son - not having a clue of where He might be.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
As we can see, they didn’t just sleep one night without Jesus, it was two! They had to travel all the way back to Jerusalem and start searching. We don’t know how many places they searched for Jesus before coming to the temple. We are told that they had been searching for Him in great distress in the next verse.
But either way, they finally find Him. And He is in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And those around are amazed at His understanding and answers.
Remember our last point - that Christ grew in wisdom. We see this wisdom in action now. Here are these learned religious scholars who would sit around and talk about theology after the feast. And they are being amazed and impressed by a 12 year old boy!
And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
Verse 48 is an interesting in verse. We see that they are astonished. We don’t know why they are astonished. It may very well be because they see Jesus hanging out with a bunch of religious leaders. But either way, the astonishment wears off quickly, and His mother scolds Him for not being with them. Note how Luke does not clarify Mary’s statement regarding the fact that she states that His ‘father’ and Mary have been searching for Him (obviously we know that God is His true Father). We will see this clarified in Jesus’ response in a moment.
Here we see some of the difficulty for Joseph and Mary raising the Son of God. How are they to navigate these difficult paths? See Jesus’ response next:
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.
Here we see the divinity of Jesus and the humanity of Jesus shown clearly. In fact we see some definite growing pains here. His two natures collide in a practical way. He has two earthly parents that He is in subjection to. And He has His Heavenly Father in Whom He is in subjection to. This creates quite a dilemma for Him in this situation.
As theologian John Nolland asserts, “...he had had no intention of dishonoring either of his sonships.”
These first recorded words of Jesus in the Scriptures are often taken as disrespectful to His parents. However, His question to them is one of innocent and factual reality. He knows that His true Father is God.
But they did not understand what He meant. They did not understand that Christ was 100% God and 100% man. They did not fully grasp and understand exactly Who Jesus was. As Robert Stein alludes to in his commentary on Luke, many may wonder how after such a miraculous conception and birth that Mary and Joseph could be so clueless and not understand what Jesus meant with His statement. Yet some 12 years had transpired since His birth and the lack of other stories in Jesus’ silent years likely infers that they were quite normal. But this normalcy was shaken quickly here and it would be shaken again when He began His ministry.
In fact, we can quite easily infer that Jesus led a fairly normal life (albeit never sinning) because His brothers refuse to believe in Him during His earthly life.
Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him.
Yet another fact of Jesus’ true resurrection is that His half-brother James - the son of Mary and Joseph - died a martyr for Christ after the resurrection. This same man who denies Jesus’ Messianic nature on earth died a dedicated follower of Christ. He actually even wrote the book of the Bible bearing His name.
Here we see that Jesus’ parents and even His siblings did not understand who He was. But eventually, it was revealed to them and they followed Him.
I want you to ask yourself an important question as we reflect on Jesus’ family.
Do you know who Jesus is?
You may be like His earthly family and know that He was a carpenter and that He was a nice guy who did nice things. You might know that He lived in the first century.
But do you really know who Jesus is?
Do you know that He is the Messiah who died on the cross for your sins? Do you know that He is God-made-flesh - who lived a sinless life before his crucifixion and then raised from the dead?
Do you know Him as your personal Savior?
James did when he died a martyr.
If you don’t have a saving knowledge of Christ - Believe in the Lord Jesus, repent (or turn away from your sins), and be saved my friends.
Moving forward we come to verse 51:
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.
But we see here that even though He is on the cusp of being a man by Jewish law, He is still considered a child. And He submits to His earthly parents and goes back to Nazareth with them.
His time is coming. Interestingly, we will see that God not only has Him wait until His formal Jewish manhood to start His ministry, but it is 18 more long years before Christ begins His ministry to the world at 30 years of age.
Mary, again, as Luke notes so often, treasures up these things in her heart.
Moving on to our final verse, we see that…
Scripture References: Exodus 12:1-19, Exodus 12:23, John 1:29, John 7:2-5
III. Christ Being Fully God and Fully Man… Grew in Stature (52)
III. Christ Being Fully God and Fully Man… Grew in Stature (52)
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Luke stresses yet again the true humanity of Christ. He grew like the rest of humanity grows. He grew taller. He grew stronger physically. He grew in wisdom. And through it all, favor was upon Him. This one verse stretches from Jesus being 12 years old until Jesus being around 30 years old when we see Him again later in the next chapter.
As we mentioned earlier, there has always been a tendency for people to go off the rails in understanding the humanity and deity of Christ. Today’s modern liberal scholars seem to be erring on the side of presenting Jesus in strictly human terms. David Garland asserts that many liberal theologians today portray Jesus as a political revolutionary, a Galilean charismatic holy man, or a wandering peasant.
There has been much effort to discredit the deity of Christ from liberal scholars since 1770 with three distinctly described ‘quests for the historical Jesus.’ There is much heterogeneity in these quests as well as the theologians that have been a part of them. However, one major commonality remains. Their goal is to downplay the supernatural seen in Scripture - meaning to ignore the deity of Christ.
The most recent quest began in 1970 and is hyper-focused on the gnostic false Gospel of Thomas as well as another theoretical (and might I add made-up) document called the Q document.
I don’t want us to get lost in the weeds and down rabbit trails here, but I want you to be aware that there are many liberal theologians today who spend all of their time denying what the Scriptures state. They will even go so far as to make up a theoretical document (like the Q document) to try to be freed or liberated from the actual text of Scripture.
My friends, Jesus Christ grew in stature. He was 100% man and also 100% God. He never quit being God to be man and since His incarnation He continues as both fully God and fully glorified man.
We will always have skeptics that seek to discredit Christ. David tells us in Psalm 53:1
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
But remember the truth of the Scriptures: 2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Our God is faithful. We can trust the Words of Scripture because they are the very words of God.
It is interesting that those who seek to discredit the Bible as a biased book written by biased authors are actually the ones clearly guilty of bias. Those who oppose the Scriptures come at them with a presupposition that they are false in order to be able to explain away the commands that they do not wish to follow. We must see through this double standard.
And as a final critique of these ungodly men and women, their skepticism of the Biblical authors is unwarranted. Many of these New Testament writers went on to die a martyr’s death for Christ. It suffices to say - Who would die for something they knew to be false?
We have a choice to make brothers and sisters. Do we believe the New Testament writers, who sacrificed their comforts and many even their lives for Christ? Or do we believe sinful men and women who seek to discredit Whom they do not wish to follow. As Paul warns us regarding those who are not true to the faith:
For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
That is the state of many in our churches today. Let us be a church that seeks the interests of Christ. May we be a church that follows hard after Him.
Scripture References: Psalm 53:1, 2 Timothy 3:16, Philippians 2:21
Conclusion:
As we come to a close, we have covered a lot of Scripture as well as church history and apologetics. Church history and apologetics can be very beneficial as we study Scripture. But may we always remember that Scripture is where we start and where we end. The authority of Scripture does not lie with church history, church tradition, or even apologetics and man’s ideas. The truth starts and ends with the inerrant Word of God. Scripture is the all sufficient source of truth.
Today we have seen the early life of Jesus Christ. This understanding of Christ growing up reminds us that it was not always easy for Him. He had His own growing pains while on earth. And as we grow in our understanding of Christ, we will have our own growing pains - theologically speaking. Studying God’s Word and getting deeper and deeper into His word may cause some growing pains in your spiritual walk. Growing in Christ sometimes hurts as you have to die to the flesh and submit to His ways ant not your own. Yet seeking to understand the deeper doctrines of our faith is highly rewarding and brings you closer to Christ.
But as you do so, keep your eyes focused on the Jesus of the Bible. Keep your eyes focused on the Word of God. If you do, you will continue to enjoy a deeper and deeper understanding and relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ will be more and more revealed to you through His Word.
May we seek to know Him more and more, Church.
Prayer