The Boy Jesus

Scripture Reading

Luke 2:40–52 NKJV

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it; but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day’s journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances. So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them. Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

I. Why is this the only story of Jesus’ boyhood?

Jesus’ growing up years were normal, so really, there wasn’t much to tell. How do we know this? Because when Jesus returned to Nazareth after his baptism, no one said, “I always knew there had to be something different about that guy. Now it makes sense.” Instead they said Matt 13:54-57

Matthew 13:54–57 NKJV

When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.”

II. How could Jesus’ Parents lose him?

It was common for people to travel in large groups for safety.

Jesus was perfect and sinless, therefore he was a very trustworthy kid. Prov 20:11

Proverbs 20:11 NKJV

Even a child is known by his deeds, Whether what he does is pure and right.

It was routine, therefore for Jesus to be off spending time with other kids his age, as is rather normal in any culture. Therefore, his parents just assumed that he was with the group, and didn’t see a need to check up on their perfect kid.

III. Why does Jesus do this now?

Because Teenagers hadn’t been invented yet. In modern Judaism, the Bar Mispah is a ceremony to welcome a boy to manhood on his 13th birthday; I’m not sure it was quite as rigid in Jesus’ day, but still, around 12-14, boys were considered to become men, with all the rights and privileges that come with adult manhood. Teenagers still were not allowed the highest responsibilities, as age was respected, but there wasn’t the awkward transition where a kid is no longer a child but not quite a man. At adulthood, a boy was expected to begin working with his father.

Because Jesus was following his culture’s assumptions, that it was time to begin working with his father. Because Jesus knew exactly who he was, and he was therefore ready to begin doing his heavenly father’s work - that is, he was intent on beginning his Messianic ministry right away. Yet, the boy Jesus was mistaken. He did not sin, as he was seeking to do the will of his heavenly Father, as he always did. But his Heavenly Father wanted him to wait, and instead to do the work of his earthly father - for another 18 years. As soon as Jesus realized God wanted him back home, he returned and never did anything like this again.

IV. How did Jesus know so much?

Now here we must carefully tread on the mystery of the God-Man. Jesus is one person - he doesn’t have a split personality; he chooses to do one thing. However, he has two natures, a human and a divine nature. The properties of each nature pertain to that nature - Since Jesus is divine, he remains in his deity omniscient (John 21:17). However, he is also fully human, so all the natural limitations of perfect humanity applied to him as well. And people do not know everything (Mark 13:32, Jesus states clearly that there is something he does not know). How can this be?

John 21:17 NKJV

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.

Mark 13:32 NKJV

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

When God became man, it was necessary for God to limit the independent exercise of his divine attributes. He cannot give up his divine attributes, for if he did, he wouldn’t be God anymore; but neither can he just automatically use them all the time, or he wouldn’t really be operating as a normal human being. So he can only use his divine power/knowledge when the Spirit permits it. Before Jesus’ baptism, he doesn’t have the same access to the Spirit’s enabling as he does later.

So since it isn’t necessary to know everything to be a perfectly sinless boy, Jesus genuinely doesn’t know some things, and in fact, he had to learn just like any other boy. He was there in Eden, but since he doesn’t need to remember that to be a sinless boy, he has to learn about the story of Eden along with the other boys who went to Synagogue; He was there when Moses came up to receive the law - but since boys don’t need to remember Sinai to be able to follow God, he had to learn about that story along with the other boys.

But the Boy Jesus was also sinless and loved God as he should, something none of us have ever done. So when he learned about the Bible, he listened and thought about it with perfect, pure thoughts. He found the things of God interesting because he loved God and thus was very quick to learn about the Bible. You would have been impressed at his knowledge, because he learned with a perfect human mind and was interested with a single-minded pure love of God that no one else has ever had.

V. Why are his Parents amazed when they find him?

Jesus was sinless, so he had never done anything rebellious in his entire life. He was trustworthy and therefore his parents trusted him.

What do you assume when your trustworthy kid is unexpectedly missing? you assume something bad must have happened to him, don’t you? But when they found him in the temple, they discovered that nothing bad had happened to him. He had, in fact, “run away.” This seemed really out of character to the boy they had known for twelve years.

VI. Why is Jesus surprised they are looking for him?

He assumed they knew he had to do God’s work (“In my father’s house” or “about my father’s business”) (1 Cor 7:32-33)

He assumed they knew he had to do God’s will - “It is necessary” δει refers to doing God’s Will. In other words, he must be preoccupied with the things of God, it was his mission, so he thought they would assume he would start this at the temple, learning more about the Scriptures.

He is genuinely surprised they are looking for him. He thought they would understand that he was doing God’s work, so he thought they would simply let him go.

He calls God his Father in contract to Mary’s “your father” for Joseph. No Jew would normally do this. God was “our father” the father of the Jewish nation, but never “my father.” This boy knows exactly who he is, and his use of this phrase shows that he understood his own identity without being told. He does need to know that he is God in the flesh, so he knows it.

Thus, Jesus humanity is seen in his innocent mistakes - he assumed God wanted him to begin his public ministry, when in fact God wanted him to begin doing the work of his earthly father. He assumed his parents understood more than they did. Thus, he certainly still respected them, but his assumption was incorrect, leading to the miscommunication that caused them to lose him. But his divinity is seen in his knowledge of who he is, and in his perfect obedience and humility.

Now Jesus is one person, but has two natures, one human the other divine. The two natures don’t combine - if they did, Jesus would no longer be either God or man, but some third thing. The two natures don’t alternate either, as if he first functions as a man and only later as God. Rather, the two natures work together at all times - one or the other might be more obvious, but if one stopped working then for that moment he wouldn’t be either human or divine. So in practice, you would see him operate consistently as a human prophet, and as someone who can do and know things that no one but God could know and do. But sometimes he was tired, or hungry; sometimes he asked questions because he didn’t know the answer; sometimes he revealed his divine nature more than other times. All along the way, both natures function the way they ought to for perfect humanity and absolute deity. Humans can receive revelation, and therefore know things that God told them; God never tells everything he knows. Humans were created; God can become man. Humans can be empowered by God to work miracles; God can choose to do miracles through a human.

VII. Why don’t his parents understand him?

They knew he would be the Messiah the Son of God (Luke 1:32-33), and it’s not likely they forgot it in the twelve years since.

But that mission was expressed in terms of his future reign as King of Israel. Since this hadn’t happened yet, and no such thing was likely to happen soon, either, they were not expecting this future reality to impact their present. Mary and Joseph were believers who were ready for the Kingdom, but they did not see how talking in the temple would accomplish this activity.

They did know he was the Son of God, but how were they supposed to connect this with a choice to stay behind to study at the temple? They don’t see how this political activity must begin with the spiritual task of leading Israel to turn to God. Even Jesus’ disciples later don’t understand Jesus’ work despite also believing he was the Messiah Luke 9:44-45, 20). So his parents had continued treating Jesus they way they had always done; they didn’t know what he really needed to do; they don’t get him.

VIII. What happened when he got home?

He submitted to imperfect authority, despite being the perfect Son of God. This submission wasn’t necessarily because he really wanted to be a carpenter. An intellectual boy like that is usually bored out of his skull doing manual labor; yet that’s just exactly what he did for the next two decades. He didn’t do that because he wanted to live that way; he did that because it was the right thing to do.

He grew up like any other kid - he got taller.

He increased in wisdom - how does the infinite God get wiser? God cannot get wiser, for he is already as wise as it is possible to be. But humans can get wiser; and in fact having greater wisdom is not the same as sinning less. Jesus never sinned, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t need to learn wisdom. He applied the truths of God’s word every day, and continued to figure out how best to do that.

He increased in favor with God - he was already sinless, so there was no progress that way. so how did he increase in favor with God? Because as he continued to learn how to reconcile his heavenly mission with his rather mundane existence, he increased in his ability to serve God.

He increased in favor with man - he learned more about how to live in society. He didn’t have to learn to control his temper, or to be selfless, etc., because he was already these things. But that doesn’t mean he always understood social situations perfectly. He had to learn how society works just like the rest of us.