Close Menu X
Navigate

Jesus Grows Into Manhood

December 30, 2018 Speaker: Brian Wilbur Series: Christmastide 2018

Topic: Christmastide Passage: Luke 2:39–52

JESUS GROWS INTO MANHOOD

An Exposition of Luke 2:39-52

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:    December 30, 2018

Series: Christmastide

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard            Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  

INTRODUCTION

In the timeframe of Luke 1:26-56, our Lord Jesus Christ – the divine Son of God – was conceived as a human being in the womb of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Eternal One had become a human embryo.

In Luke 2:1-20, Jesus was born, “wrapped in swaddling cloths, and [laid] in a manger” (Luke 2:12). The High King of heaven made His entrance into our world as one clothed with humility.

In Luke 2:21, ‘the newborn King’[1] was circumcised and officially named: “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21)

In Luke 2:22-38, Joseph and Mary took six-week-old Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem. We know that He was approximately six weeks old at this point because of the reason for their trip. After a male child was born, the mother needed to go through a purification rite about six weeks after she gave birth (Leviticus 12:1-8). Scripture also instructed parents to consecrate their firstborn sons unto the Lord God in a special way (Luke 2:23). All this was a standard part of Israel’s worship. Joseph and Mary were both faithful to God and, as such, they walked in obedience to God’s instruction and did what the Law required. Even so, their experience in the temple was anything but standard because Mary’s son was anything but ordinary. He was the Christ, the Messiah, the true King who would bring salvation to “all peoples” (Luke 2:31), and a “righteous and devout” (Luke 2:25) man named Simeon knew it. Simeon was in the temple that day, and He had the tremendous privilege of holding Jesus Christ in his arms and when he did, he “blessed God” (Luke 2:28) from the depths of his heart and declared aloud the glory of Christ. Other faithful worshipers were present – “a prophetess, Anna” (Luke 2:36) and a number “who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38) – and they all had the opportunity to rejoice that the Redeemer had indeed come, though at this point the Redeemer Jesus was not yet even two months old. Like all other newborns, Jesus needed to experience growth on every front in order to advance to boyhood and youth on route to the full flowering of manhood – and to the manly work that would be His to accomplish.

With only a few exceptions, Scripture tells us nothing specific about Jesus’ life from the time He was taken to the temple at the tender age of six weeks and the time He was baptized by John in the river Jordan when He was thirty years old. As for the few exceptions, Matthew 2 tells us about the wise men who came to Bethlehem and worshiped the young child Jesus, and the subsequent sojourn of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in Egypt before they returned to Israel and settled in Nazareth. The only other exception is in Luke 2:41-50 (part of this morning’s passage), which gives us a brief but important snapshot of Jesus’ life when He was twelve years old. Other than these exceptions, we lack specific details about Jesus’ life as a toddler, a young boy, a teenager, and a twenty-something adult. But even though we lack these specific details, the general picture is clear.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT    

This general picture, along with the brief snapshot of Jesus at twelve, is set forth in Luke 2:39-52. Let’s humbly receive God’s holy words, which were written down for our benefit, that we might know the Lord and walk in His ways. Scripture says:

"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." (Luke 2:39-52)

THE GENERAL PICTURE OF JESUS’ GROWTH INTO MANHOOD

The general picture of Jesus’ childhood and youth is clear. I am referring specifically to verses 40 and 52, which serve as the ‘introduction’ and ‘conclusion’ to the specific event that is explained in our passage. Verse 40 says: Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” Verse 52 says: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

These two verses summarize in a general way what was always happening in Jesus’ childhood and youth. Jesus, the Son of God who entered our world as a true human being, “grew” and “increased” in every aspect of His humanity.

Jesus Grew in Every Aspect of His Humanity

He ate and drank, and slept, and yesterday’s clothes didn’t fit anymore. He played; He helped His parents with household tasks; He ran errands – and the older He got, the more He could do. He grew physically.

He also learned. He learned that three plus three equals six and that three times three equals nine, that the birds of the air have nests and are well-supplied by the Father above, that gravity is constant and scraping your knee isn’t fun and there really is no substitute for good footing, and that Jacob had two wives and two concubines and twelve sons, and that a man should only have one wife and no concubines, and that Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and that Jerusalem was once home to King David, and that Israel was now oppressed under the power of Rome, and that Caesar is not god, and that you shouldn’t trust someone who thinks that Caesar is god. He made connections, He began to make sense of the world, He came to understand ‘what is’ and ‘what ought to be’. He grew intellectually and theologically.

But it was never mere theology. It was theology pulsating with life, knowledge bearing fruit in wisdom – in wise and skillful living. The Law and the Prophets weren’t written to make a man smart, but to make a man holy and loving and wise. He developed a keen sense for what is good and what is not good, what is true and what is not true, what is beautiful and what is not beautiful. His delight was in all that was good, true, and lovely, and He developed a holy repulsion to all the forces and manifestations of evil. He was a true theologian: not only one who knows God but also one who loves God. He grew spiritually, and God’s favor was upon Him in bountiful measure.

The favor of humanity was also upon Him. Think about the shape of Jesus’ life: if one is truly growing in the grace of God, then one will also be growing in love for others. “[The] wisdom from above” is characterized by such things as peaceableness, gentleness, reasonableness, and mercy (James 3:17). Jesus would have come to understand that the greatest commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30), and the next greatest commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31), were rightly and tightly connected (Matthew 22:34-40). How can one fairly claim to love the invisible God and yet have no love for God’s visible image-bearers? (1 John 4:20) As we declared when we sang “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem,” Jesus really was “the sinless Boy.”[2]

Jesus didn’t increase in favor with the people around him because he was a child prodigy or because he was clever or because he was the star participant in the local chapter of The Gifted & Talented Club. Jesus increased in favor with the people around him because He was showing forth the fruit of wisdom: He was gracious and kind, respectful and trustworthy, articulate and discerning beyond his years. He obeyed His parents, respected His elders, loved his siblings, and cared for his neighbors. True holiness in a grown man might be over-the-top threatening to sinful people, which is one of the reasons that sinful people put Jesus to death. But the blending of holiness, humility, and happiness in a child is endearing: the holiness is admirable, the humility is disarming (unlike a ‘know-it-all-smarty-pants’ kid with the attitude), and the happiness is charming. God delighted in His faithful Son, and people also delighted in Him, and for the same reason: He was well-pleasing, the aroma of life and hope in a dying world.

In every way, then, – spiritually, socially, intellectually, and physically – Jesus grew, making steady progress toward godly manhood. In so doing, He provides an example for our children, how they ought to grow in each and every area of life. Unlike Jesus, Samuel was sinful, but Scripture tells us that “the young man Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and also with man” (1 Samuel 2:26). Sound familiar? Unlike Jesus, John the Baptist was sinful, but Scripture tells us that “the child [John] grew and became strong in spirit” (Luke 1:80). As parents and grandparents, and as older members of the church family care for the younger members, we ought to seek the God-centered, well-rounded growth of our children. But brace yourself: the enemy will come along and tell you that well-rounded growth means less God-favor and more people-favor, less spiritual development and more sport, less church and more world, less wisdom and more savvy – and before you know it, well-roundedness will have become well-rounded ungodliness. Wisdom, however, insists that our well-rounded development – all of it! – be in glad submission to our heavenly Father, so that the point of our increase and growth is that we are increasingly fit to serve Him with the totality of who we are and what we have.

Jesus Grew Up in a Godly Home

Let me make one more observation from our passage about Jesus' growth. I am currently reading a book by Pastor Douglas Wilson, and in it he made this statement: “May God spare us from the indignity of having children who do well despite us.”[3] In other words, we want our children to “do well” and become godly men and women in large part because we have “[brought] them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Our part isn’t enough, of course, for God must work in the hearts of our children, but God delights to do His work through faithful parents.

Now it is obvious that Joseph and Mary could not take credit for Jesus’ sinlessness. That said, they raised Jesus in the context of a faithful household that worshiped God. Scripture reveals Joseph and Mary to be humble and obedient people. When God gave specific directions to Joseph in Matthew 1-2 and to Mary in Luke 1, they obeyed. When Mary declared her own psalm of praise in Luke 1, the words and ideas of Scripture poured out of her lips. They kept God’s Word, as we see in verse 39: “And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord...” They kept the Feast of the Passover, as we see in verse 41 “Now his parents went up to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.” So the fact of the matter is “the child [Jesus] grew and became strong, filled with wisdom” in the context of a believing, faithful, Scripture-filled household that worshiped God and followed His instructions.

So then, let us be encouraged to shape our households in like manner.

JESUS IN HIS FATHER’S HOUSE

With this clear general picture in mind, let’s proceed to the specific event of the temple visit when Jesus was twelve.

As verse 39 tells us, Joseph and Mary and Jesus settled in Galilee, specifically in the “town of Nazareth,” about 65 miles north of Jerusalem. Every year, Joseph and Mary “went to Jerusalem” in order to celebrate the Passover. The Passover Feast was an annual celebration of the great deliverance that God had given His people Israel when He rescued them from slavery in Egypt. It was similar, in part, to our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, in that both celebrations involve remembering the wonderful salvation and liberating grace that God has lavished upon His people. The Passover Feast, however, was a weeklong celebration that featured “a holy convocation” on the first day and on the seventh day (Leviticus 23:7, 8). As faithful worshipers, Joseph and Mary participated in this holy remembrance. When Jesus was twelve, He “went up” with them.[4]

Jesus: A Faithful Student of God’s Word

The focus of our passage, however, isn’t the Passover celebration per se, but what happened afterward. Ordinarily, what happened afterward would have been unremarkable: families returned home and resumed life as normal – no big deal. In this case, however, Joseph and Mary began the 65-mile trek back to Nazareth, but “the boy Jesus stayed behind” because, as we shall see, He had other business that required His attention. As far as Joseph and Mary were concerned, though, they thought Jesus was with them. Joseph and Mary weren’t traveling by themselves, but as part of a larger caravan of “relatives and acquaintances” who were traveling together. They assumed that the twelve-year-old Jesus was somewhere “in the group,” and it is safe to assume that their assumption was a reasonable one given the context and customs of their day. In other words, we shouldn’t read parental neglect or stupidity into this text.

After “a day’s journey,” however, they got to wondering about Jesus’ whereabouts. To their dismay, they didn’t find Him anywhere. So “they returned to Jerusalem” and “in great distress” they frantically and nervously searched for the holy child who had been entrusted to their care. Several hours, let alone two or three days, without knowing the whereabouts of your twelve-year-old son is a parental nightmare. I got quite worked up one time because I didn’t know where Matthias was, and I got panicky and afraid. As it turns out, he was in his bedroom, off to the side, sleeping on a strange and unexpected part of the floor. The fearful experience lasted all of one minute! But a couple days is long enough to become sick with overwhelming despair over the plight of your lost child.

“After three days they found him,” but whatever relief they may have felt was rivaled or surpassed by the feeling of astonishment at what he was actually doing. No mischief, no foul play, no victimization, no lawless behavior on any side, just theological dialogue with the scholars hanging out in the temple.

Think of that kid who stays up late, or stays in his room, or stays behind, or shows up late, because he loves his Bible and his devotional books, and he can’t get enough sermons and theological podcasts to edify his growing mind. The reason why more than half the world thinks that that kid is strange is because they are approaching it as sinners, and holiness always seems strange to sinners, devotion always seems strange to the impious, theology always seems strange to the self-obsessed. Of course, that kid – if he is anyone other than Jesus – is almost certainly going to get himself or herself into trouble, because that kid is sinful, too, and his or her youthful devotion will almost certainly have some gaps.

But I digress. We are not here to talk about that kid. We are here to talk about Jesus, “the sinless Boy” whose youthful devotion had no gaps. No pride, no intellectual showoff, no vainglory, no ill-will toward His parents who were about to tell Him that it’s time to come home, no scorn for the adult teachers who were destined to have less wisdom than He would have. There He was

“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.” (v. 46-47)

Brothers and sisters, we who believe in Jesus have been called into fellowship with Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:9). Consider what this passage shows us is important to our Savior. The Son of God loved to ponder the things of God. The One destined to be King loved to meditate on the law of God. The “Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11) loved to trace the saving hand of God through the Old Testament. The Holy One loved holy conversation. The living Word of God loved to converse about the written word of God and its proper interpretation and meaning. The embodiment of wisdom loved to inquired about the roots and fruits of wisdom, that He Himself might increase in it, acquire it, be filled with it. Behold the boy, growing up in a godly home, and delighting to be in the house of God, where God’s life-giving truth is openly declared. He asked prudent questions (v. 46) and gave perceptive answers (v. 47), and “all who heard him” – the teachers, and perhaps bystanders in the temple – “were amazed” at Jesus’ depth of understanding.

The Beautiful Backdrop of Ordinary Human Experience

As for Joseph and Mary, “they were astonished” as they were still reeling from the anxiety of the past few days:

“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.”” (v. 48)

This passage is instructive for a reason that we might sometimes overlook. Do you see the humanity – the humanness – in this passage. Although Jesus was sinless, He was not like a child prodigy or ‘boy wonder’ or superman who was always wowing His parents. His sinlessness was truly remarkable, but Jesus’ daily experience of life was fundamentally ordinary. He partook of family meals, He felt tired after a long day’s work, He laughed and played, He could enjoy wholesome humor, and He made conversation about everyday things, everyday blessings, everyday trials. The reason I call your attention to this ordinary humanness is because in our passage Joseph and Mary weren’t saying to themselves, ‘Jesus is just pulling another stunt that only He can do because He is the Son of God’; they weren’t saying to themselves, ‘Of course He is in the temple holding His own with the teachers because He is “Christ the Lord” and this is just the sort of thing that a future Savior would do’; they weren’t saying to themselves, ‘Just another day of God-in-the-flesh drama in Joseph and Mary’s house’. Do you understand? Although they knew that Jesus was the Son of the Most High – the Savior and King who would bring salvation to the people – part of the beauty of the Incarnation is that Jesus lived a truly human life in all its ordinariness, in an ordinary family, in an ordinary town, with ordinary experiences. If Jesus was regularly doing divine stunts, then this event would have been nothing but another day at the proverbial office. But Jesus wasn’t doing any divine stunts, and what is happening here in the temple in Luke 2 is no stunt. It is rather a picture of the humble and innocent Jesus growing in wisdom and becoming more attuned to His true identity as the Son of God.

In contrast to all the ordinary days of life back at Nazareth, this event stands out because Jesus shows intense interest in conversing with the teachers and growing in the knowledge of God, set against the backdrop of having gone missing from his parents for a few days. Joseph and Mary “were astonished” because this sort of thing wasn’t happening every day. I don’t mean that wise conversation wasn’t happening every day; I mean that dialogue with seminary professors in the big city and having gone missing wasn’t happening every day. The humanness of the situation is seen in Mary chiding her twelve-year-old son: “why have you treated us so?” They had “great distress” on account of His absence, which means that they didn’t expect Him to miraculously transport Himself back home after He finished the latest Son-of-God-excursion. Because life wasn’t like that: “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) and for thirty years the Incarnate Word lived an ordinary life in the small town of Nazareth. Jesus didn’t walk this earth as a superhero, but as a real boy.

Jesus: The Faithful Son in His Father’s House

As we come now to verse 49, we come to the high point of this passage. In verse 48 Mary says to Jesus, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” Jesus’ answer is stunning – and remember, He is only twelve years old. As far as I know, this is the only quotation we have from Jesus’ childhood. From His first words as a toddler until His late 20s, Jesus must have made hundreds of thousands of statements, but the only statement recorded for us is what is written in verse 49 – so this one statement is important! Everything else you’ve heard from the lips of our Lord was spoken when he was in his early 30s. He is not thirty here, but twelve:

“And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”” (v. 49)

Here we get profound insight into the identity of our Savior and, more to the point, we get profound insight into the Savior’s understanding of His own identity. If we have been reading through the Gospel of Luke, we already know that Jesus is “the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32), “Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11), “a Savior” (Luke 2:11) who would bring salvation not only to Israel but also to the Gentiles (Luke 2:30-32). But the aspect of sonship is particularly important: Whose son is He?

With respect to His humanity, He is “[Mary’s] firstborn son” (Luke 2:7). Legally speaking, He was also Joseph’s son, although Joseph was not His biological father (Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 3:23). Practically speaking, Joseph and Mary were “his parents” (v. 41) and Mary referred to Joseph as Jesus’ “father” (v. 48). But Jesus blows the categories of human understanding, because though He is truly human, He is not only truly human. Jesus is also truly God: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” said the angel to Mary, “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) An angel had also spoken to Joseph: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20)

In due course, the holy child was born. His birth was celebrated by the shepherds, His presentation in the temple at six weeks old was celebrated by Simeon, and the less-than-two-year-old Jesus was worshiped by the wise men. But normalcy and simplicity returned to the lives of Joseph and Mary and, being good parents, they enjoyed having a healthy and happy child in their home. The question of Jesus’ sonship and divine identity may have lingered in the back of their minds, but you cannot live life in a prolonged state of intense theological inquiry. Joseph was a carpenter and he had things to do in his workshop – indeed he had a family to feed. Mary was busy managing her home, preparing meals, making clothes, receiving guests, growing vegetables on the small plot to the side of the house. The matter of Jesus’ divine sonship was so much in the back of their minds that they were unprepared for the humble, kind-hearted, God-loving twelve-year-old Jesus to calmly drop this bombshell in the temple that day.

Mary said “why have you treated us so?” but He replied “Why were you looking for me?” No attitude, no arrogance, just an honest question in light of a deeper reality.

Mary said “your father and I have been searching for you” but He replied “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” No disrespect to His earthly parents, no disowning of them, just an honest question in light of a deeper reality. Whose son is He? Which father is the father?

The deeper reality is that Jesus is the Son of God, and at the still-formative age of twelve He was beginning to understand His special relation to the Father in heaven. Jesus had an important relationship to His earthly father and mother, but He had an even more important, more foundational, more defining relationship to His heavenly Father. As such, Jesus was showing Himself to be a faithful Son: a Son ought to be in His Father’s house or, as the phrase can also be rendered, a Son ought to be “about his Father’s business,”[5] which is to say that a Son ought to be with His Father and involved in His Father’s work.

Regarding Jesus’ answer to His parents, James Edwards makes a profound observation: “Jesus is not surprised that his parents came back for him; he is surprised that they did not know where to find him.”[6] In other words, they should have known that He would have been in His Father’s house: “Did you not know…?” But, as both James Edwards and Darrell Bock point out, Jesus’ parents are like Jesus’ later disciples and indeed like us: slow to understand.[7]

Friends, behold the faithful Son, loving His Father and delighting in His Father’s Word and growing in His Father’s wisdom and living in His Father’s favor, even at twelve.

Joseph and Mary, faithful and obedient though they were, did not comprehend what was being revealed to them. We comprehend it, at least in part, because we have the whole Bible in front of us.[8] But they were in the moment, and in that moment “they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them” (v. 50).

Jesus: Submissive to His Earthly Parents

Although the revelation of Jesus’ divine sonship in verse 49 is in some sense the high point of this passage, it is not the end point, and what follows in verse 51 is of great importance:

“And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.” (v. 51)

This statement gives us another window into the general picture of Jesus’ childhood and youth, and this window shows us that He was “submissive” to His earthly parents.

There is profound beauty in seeing Jesus’ sonship to God the Father (v. 49), and His submission to Joseph and Mary (v. 51), side-by-side.

When a proud and sinful kid gets wind of his own specialness, what can happen at home? The answer: the opposite of submission. ‘I’m a star athlete, so I shouldn’t have to obey my very ordinary Dad and Mom.’ Or: ‘I’m the spelling bee champ and math whiz all wrapped up in one, and the honors are pouring in, so I shouldn’t have to submit my life to the will of my blue-collar parents.’ ‘Or: ‘I’m special, I was chosen for the lead role, I am destined for greatness, so I shouldn’t have to comply with parental directions.’ Or the Christian version: ‘I’m spiritual, I know God, I long to obey God’s Word, my church family agrees that I’m someone special, and frankly my parents aren’t half as committed to the Lord as I am, so I shouldn’t have to live under their authority.’ Really? Let me show you what ‘spiritual’ looks like: “the sinless Boy,” “Christ the Lord,” “filled with wisdom,” with God’s favor all over Him, and destined for the throne, “went down with [his parents] … and was submissive to them.” This is what obedience looks like.   

The main duty of children is set forth in Exodus 20: “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12); and in Ephesians 6: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1). God’s design is that children render heartfelt honor, obedience, and submission to their parents. If Jesus had not lived in submission to His parents, then He would have been unqualified to be our Savior. In other words, the submission of Jesus to His parents is essential to His role as Savior. Think about it: if He hadn’t submitted to His parents, then He would have been disobedient, and if He had been disobedient, then He would have needed to be forgiven and saved, and if He had needed to be forgiven and saved, then He would have needed a Savior and couldn’t have been one Himself. Jesus’ submission to His parents is a part – a good and necessary part – of His perfect record of obedience, righteousness, and sinlessness. If He had failed here, the whole project would have collapsed.

But we also need to understand that there is a tight relationship between growing in wisdom, submitting to parents, and becoming a godly man. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, with the weight of our sin about to be thrust upon Him and the wrath of God about to be poured out upon Him, He prayed to His heavenly Father: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Herein we see the essence of submission: “not my will, but yours, be done.” Jesus didn’t wait until the really big matters came His way to start submitting. Growing up as a child in the home of Joseph and Mary, in very ordinary and everyday matters – hour after hour, day after day, year after year – He yielded to the will of His parents.

Be sure of this: a society in which children do not learn obedient submission to their parents is a society that will be characterized by independent, self-willed rebels who don’t want to submit to anyone, especially to God. The Bible calls citizens to submit to their governing officials (Romans 13:1), servants to submit to their masters (Ephesians 6:5-8), Christians to submit to their church leaders (Hebrews 13:17), wives to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-24), and children to submit to their parents (Ephesians 6:1-3). The shape of authority varies according to context, but the heart of submission remains the same: deferring to the will of the person that God has placed over me, and doing so as an act of obedience to God. Ultimately, our call is to live in complete surrender to the will of our heavenly Father: “we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” (Hebrews 12:9) The prayer of our heart ought to be: “not my will, but yours be done.”

But here’s the thing: the point of this particular message is not that you should be more submissive. To be sure, you should grow in the grace of submission at every level, but that’s not the point of this passage. The point of this passage is to show us the beauty and holiness of God’s well-pleasing Son. You see, you and I have failed to keep the Law at many points. We have often failed to honor God, we have often turned away from wisdom, we have often squandered opportunities to meet with God and ponder His Word, we have often disobeyed our heavenly Father – and this disobedience showed itself very early in disobedience to our parents.

By contrast, our Lord Jesus was totally attuned and totally aligned to His Father’s will. After thirty years of ordinary life, before He began His public ministry, our Lord Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, and the Father declared from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) As a grown man Jesus would say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19) But this attunement and alignment with the Father’s will didn’t start as an adult; it started at home under the direction and care of Dad and Mom, and expressed itself in submission to them. One of the favorite words of other children is ‘No!’ – as in, ‘No, I really don’t want to do what you are telling me to do, and I’ll throw a fit to show you how serious my resistance to parental will is!’ One of Jesus’ favorite words was ‘Yes!’ – as in, ‘Yes, Sir’ and ‘Yes, Ma’am.’ In Jesus’ submission, we behold the aroma of life and hope in a dying world!

BEHOLD THE SON!

Mary experienced all this in real time, one day at a time, and it was a lot to take in: “And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.” (v. 51) She might have pondered how her twelve-year-old son fit in so naturally with the theologians at the temple. She might have pondered how He referred to the temple as “[his] Father’s house” and, moreover, how He said that “[he] must be in [his] Father’s house.” She might have thought: ‘He must be in His Father’s house, and yet He comes to our house. He must be in submission to His Father, and yet He comes to our house and lives in submission to us! How do I wrap my mind around this?’ She might have pondered how this manifestly bright boy, showing forth the grace and wisdom of another realm, should be so loving and kind – and further, how this holy child should always – never once failing! – should always submit to her and her husband, and to think that He always does so with good cheer. What child is this?[9]

We know. Jesus is the Son of God promised in Luke 1, the submissive Son in Luke 2, the well-pleasing and Spirit-anointed Son at His baptism in Luke 3, the faithful Son who resists satanic temptation in the wilderness in Luke 4, the powerful Son who casts our demons in Luke 8, the obedient Son who yields to the Father’s will in Gethsemane in Luke 22, the dying Son who laid down His life for us and who prays “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” in Luke 23, the risen Son who has conquered sin and death in Luke 24. He is the “Savior, Christ the Lord.” He is “the sinless Boy” who, because of His sinlessness, because of His perfection, is able to save the sinful boys and girls, the sinful men and women, who have gathered in this sanctuary today. Do you trust Him? Do you love Him?

Praise God for this One who, without any corruption or shortfall, “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (v. 52)

Let us pray.

 

ENDNOTES

[1] The phrase ‘the newborn King’ is found in the hymns “Angels, from the Realms of Glory” and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.”

[2] The phrase “the sinless Boy” is found in the hymn “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem.”

[3] Douglas Wilson, Rules for Reformers. Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2014: Kindle Version Page 185 of 281.

[4] Bock writes, “Some speculation exists whether this was Jesus’ first trip with the family, but the text provides no answer. All that concerns Luke is that Jesus went this time.” Darrell L. Bock, Luke 1:1–9:50 (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994: p. 264.

[5] On Luke 2:49 the ESV has a footnote indicating that “in my Father’s house” might also be rendered “about my Father’s business.”

[6] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Luke (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015: p. 95.

[7] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Luke (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015: p. 96. Darrell L. Bock, Luke 1:1–9:50 (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994: p. 272.

[8] In this line of thought, Douglas Wilson (“Christmas with Both Feet on the Ground,” December 22, 2018, published by Blog & Mablog and available online: https://dougwils.com/the-church/s8-expository/christmas-with-both-feet-on-the-ground.html) writes:

“One of our great temptations is to project doctrinal anachronisms back into the past. When Jesus was living among us, and teaching His disciples, it is pretty easy for us to take post-resurrection realities, or post-ascension realities, or even post-Nicene realities, and project them back into the minds of the disciples. Now these were realities at these earlier times, but they were not known or confessed realities. Yet.

“The disciples had a dim and hazy understanding of who Jesus was, but it did not really come into focus for them until after the resurrection. And even the understanding that Jesus grew up into, as He grew, was an understanding of His own identity and mission which increased.”

[9] There is, of course, the very relevant hymn by this title: “What Child Is This?”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bock, Darrell L. Luke 1:1–9:50 (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994.

Edwards, James R. The Gospel According to Luke (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015.