16 The Amazing Child Who Was God (Luke 2:39–52)
When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, 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 amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (2:39–52)
History has recorded some truly amazing children, child prodigies who performed astonishing feats. Early in the eighteenth century Jean Louis Cardiac, known as the “wonder child,” was said to have recited the alphabet at the age of three months. By the age of four, he read Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and translated Latin into English and French. Christian Friedrich Heinecken, known as the “infant of Lubeck,” was a contemporary of Cardiac. He reportedly knew the major events recorded in the Bible by the time he was a year old. At the age of three, he was familiar with world history and geography, as well as Latin and French. No doubt the most famous child prodigy of the time was the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The young Mozart began playing the keyboard by ear at the age of three. By the time he was six, he had begun composing his own pieces. At that same age Mozart, along with his older sister, began touring Europe, giving both private concerts for the nobility, and also public concerts. At eight, he composed his first symphony.
The noted nineteenth-century philosopher John Stuart Mill was also a child prodigy. Under the rigorous tutelage of his father, John learned Greek at the age of three. At the age of eight, he began learning Latin, geometry, and algebra. Another nineteenth-century child phenomenon was Truman Henry Safford, noted for his remarkable powers of calculation. When the ten-year-old Safford was challenged to calculate the square of 365,365,365,365,365,365 in his head, he did so in less than a minute. At about that same age Safford devised a new method for calculating the moon’s risings and settings that was significantly faster than the existing one.
William James Sidis (1898–1944) was the son of a Harvard-trained psychologist. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent persons who ever lived, with an IQ estimated to have been well over 200. According to his biographer, Sidis was reading the New York Times at the age of eighteen months, and had taught himself Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian by the time he was eight. At eleven he entered Harvard, where he lectured the Harvard Mathematical Society on four-dimensional bodies.
One of the most noted contemporary child prodigies is Kim Ung-Yong, born in South Korea in 1963. By the time he was four, he was able to read Korean, Japanese, German, and English, and at that same age solved complicated calculus problems on Japanese television. Kim came to the United States at the age of seven at the invitation of NASA, and earned a PhD in physics before he turned sixteen.
But the accomplishments of these and all other child prodigies combined pale into insignificance compared to one twelve-year-old boy named Jesus. No human genius, no IQ in excess of 200, no precocious feats of learning can compare with the infinite mind and capabilities of the child who was God incarnate. In a dramatic and moving account of the only recorded incident of Jesus’ childhood, Luke revealed from His own words that the child was God.
Luke has already presented compelling testimony that Jesus Christ was the Son of God (1:35), the One through whom God would redeem and save His people (1:68–69, 78–79; 2:10–11, 27–32, 34, 38). But in this passage he turned from the testimony of others to the testimony of the child Himself. Luke’s account reveals plainly that at the age of twelve, Jesus already possessed a complete understanding of His nature and mission; He was God the Son, come to do the Father’s will.
In this the only recorded incident from Jesus’ childhood, we have the only words He is recorded to have said before the start of His public ministry. Luke’s inclusion of it signifies its monumental importance. Jesus’ identity as the Son of God incarnate was not something thrust upon Him by Jewish messianic expectations, or invented by His followers. Nor was it something He assumed for Himself when He began His public ministry. It was His true identity, which He had become aware of by the age of twelve—eighteen years before His public ministry began.
After presenting the testimonies of Simeon and Anna (2:25–38), Luke noted that when they (Joseph and Mary) had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord (cf. vv. 22–24) they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. But between verses 38 and 39 a very important part of the birth narrative took place. It was after their encounter with Simeon and Anna in the temple and before their return to Nazareth that the wise men visited Joseph, Mary, and Jesus (Matt. 2:1–12) and they fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous rage (vv. 13–15), which culminated in his brutal slaughter of the male infants in the vicinity of Bethlehem (vv. 16–18). It was only after Herod’s death that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus returned to Nazareth (vv. 19–23).
This one brief passage contains everything that is known about the life of Jesus Christ from His infancy to the outset of His public ministry. Two statements summarizing the silent years of His childhood and His adult years at Nazareth bracket the incident at Jerusalem when He was twelve, which is the main thrust of this passage.
THE SILENT YEARS OF CHILDHOOD
The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. (2:40)
Scripture passes over Jesus’ childhood in silence, in contrast to the fanciful legends recorded in the apocryphal inventions of a fantasy childhood. The latter range from having Jesus perform magician’s tricks (e.g., turning clay birds into live ones) or malicious acts completely inconsistent with His character as revealed in the Bible (e.g., killing another child who bumped into Him, then striking the child’s parents blind for complaining to Joseph and Mary).
The statement that the Child continued to grow demonstrates that Jesus was fully human. He developed as all children develop, though unaffected by sin. The phrase become strong should be taken grammatically with the following phrase, increasing in wisdom. To be sure, Jesus possessed a unique physical strength because of His sinlessness. But Luke’s primary emphasis is on Jesus’ spiritual development, as He matured in wisdom until, as the Greek text literally reads, He was “filled with wisdom,” the profound wisdom of the mind of God. Jesus did not possess all of that knowledge as an infant, toddler, or young child. But by the time He was twelve, the fullness of divine wisdom had come to fruition in His mind. A feature of Christ’s incarnation was that He relinquished control of His use of His divine prerogatives to the Holy Spirit, who mediated between His deity and His humanity. By the time He reached twelve, the Spirit had disclosed the understanding of His identity and mission.
Hebrews 5:8 reveals that much of His increase in wisdom came as Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” At every stage of His development, Jesus faced the full, unabated onslaught of temptation, so that He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
Not only was Jesus filled with the wisdom of God, but also the grace of God was upon Him. John describes Him as “full of grace” (1:14). The grace in view here is not, of course, the saving, redeeming grace that God grants to undeserving sinners, since Jesus was sinless. Instead, it was the favor of God granted to His “beloved Son, in [whom He is] well-pleased” (Luke 3:22). He was both the recipient of grace as favor deserved and the giver of grace as favor undeserved.
By the time Jesus turned twelve, He had a complete grasp of His true identity. He fully understood the wisdom of God and its application to the mission for which God had sent Him into the world. William Hendriksen writes, “The development of this child was therefore perfect, and this along every line: physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual; for from beginning to end progress was unimpaired and unimpeded by sin, whether inherited or acquired. Between the child Jesus and his Father … there was perfect harmony, limitless love” (The Gospel of Luke, New Testament Commentary [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978], 180).
THE INCIDENT AT AGE TWELVE
Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, 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 amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. (2:41–51)
The incident that comprises the bulk of the passage finds Jesus on the brink of adulthood, twelve years after His presentation in the temple (2:22–38). It is a powerful and poignant story, and a profound testimony by Jesus to His true identity as God the Son (v. 49); yet there is nothing miraculous or supernatural about it.
The incident began at Passover during Jesus’ twelfth year. Joseph and Mary, as a devout couple, went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover to celebrate with the nation God’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt (Ex. 12:1–51). Passover was one of the three major annual feasts in Israel, along with Pentecost and Tabernacles. Immediately following Passover day was the seven-day long Feast of Unleavened Bread. The entire eight-day period eventually became known collectively as Passover.
According to Exodus 23:17; 34:22–23; and Deuteronomy 16:16, all Jewish men were required to attend the three major feasts. But by the first century, the dispersion of many Jewish people outside of Palestine had made that impractical. Consequently, many Jewish men came to Jerusalem only for Passover. Women were not required by the law to attend (though some rabbis strongly encouraged them to do so); for a woman to attend the feast was considered a sign of unusual spiritual devotion.
As they did every year, the year that Jesus became twelve Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast. The trip from Nazareth was an arduous one of about eighty miles, lasting three or four days. They did not travel alone, but with a large company of people in a caravan (v. 44). To journey to Jerusalem in a group offered both the opportunity for fellowship and protection from the threat of highway robbers. Such caravans would also include children, since the rabbis taught that Passover should be a family celebration (cf. Ex. 12:26–27).
When they arrived in Jerusalem, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus would have found the city teeming with hundreds of thousands of fellow pilgrims, who would have been trying to find lodging and a place to celebrate the Passover meal, along with purchasing their sacrificial animals. The city would have been filled with the noise of hundreds of thousands of sheep, which the priests would have been busy butchering. Beggars, no doubt decked out in their most ragged clothes, would have been out in force. Roman soldiers would have been on patrol, jostling with the crowds and trying to keep some semblance of order. Joseph would have taken the family’s lamb to be sacrificed, and one can only imagine what went through Jesus’ mind, knowing that He was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The whole frenetic scene in Jerusalem must have made a profound impression on Him.
This particular Passover was especially significant for Jesus. Jewish boys became accountable to the law of God at thirteen, a transition later marked by the ceremony known as Bar Mitzvah (“son of the law” or “covenant”). The last couple of Passovers before a boy turned thirteen were particularly important in preparing him for his responsibility to the law.
Luke did not describe any features of that Passover but picked up the story afterward, when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were returning to Nazareth. The seeming aside that Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem after spending the full number of days there is actually another affirmation of their devotion to the things of God. In contrast to most people, who stayed for only part of the eight-day celebration, Joseph and Mary stayed the entire time.
Instead of returning with the others, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Nothing was said to His parents, who were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan. It was not until the end of the first day’s journey that Joseph and Mary realized that Jesus was missing and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. But their worst fears were confirmed; Jesus was not with the caravan. When they did not find Him, Joseph and Mary spent an anxious night before they returned the next morning to Jerusalem looking for Him.
Jesus’ staying behind was not an act of disobedience to His parents, nor was it irresponsibility on their part. They had never before known Him to do anything other than what they had expected Him to do. He was responsible, obedient, sensitive, thoughtful; in every way sinlessly perfect. This act, however, marked a transition. Jesus was moving from responsibility to His earthly parents to responsibility to God (see the discussion of v. 49 on the next page).
Finally, after three anxious days (one day’s journey away from Jerusalem, one day back, and one day searching Jerusalem for Jesus) Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the temple. Incredibly, He was sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. This was a typical, traditional setting for teaching in Israel. The teachers would be seated, with the students, sitting in their midst. Only here does Luke use didaskalos to refer to Jewish teachers; in the rest of his gospel the term is reserved for John the Baptist (3:12) or Jesus. No one is called “teacher” after Jesus became the teacher.
Many eminent teachers would have been in Jerusalem for Passover. Jesus seized this opportunity, which would never have been afforded him in tiny, insignificant Nazareth, to dialog with some of the greatest minds in Judaism. He had a burning, passionate, consuming interest in the Word of God, and must have wanted to hear their views on the Old Testament, especially messianic prophecy, the sacrificial system, and the Law. The dialogue method was the customary pattern for teaching in Judaism and was employed by the apostle Paul (Acts 17:2; “reasoned” translates a form of the Greek verb dialegomai, “to discuss”). Students would gather around a teacher or teachers and stimulate the discussion by asking questions. Only here in the Gospels is Jesus portrayed as the student; after this He is always the teacher—who would ask questions for which the Jewish teachers had no adequate answers (cf. 11:19–20; 13:2–5; 20:41–44).
So impressive was Jesus’ performance that all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. Jesus’ questions and answers were penetrating, insightful, and profound; His wisdom and knowledge far exceeded that of any twelve-year-old boy that they had ever known. This was not the first (cf. 2:18, 33), nor would it be the last time Jesus elicited wonder and amazement in Luke’s gospel (cf. 4:22, 32, 36; 5:9; 8:25, 56; 9:43; 11:14; 20:26; 24:41).
Finally, after hours of anxious searching, Joseph and Mary found their missing son. When they saw Him, they were astonished along with everyone else, not so much by the dialogue, but by His location. Assuming that He was lost, they no doubt expected Him to be searching frantically for His parents. Instead, they found Him sitting calmly in the temple, dialoging with the elite teachers in Judaism.
As anxious as any parent would be under the circumstances, Mary was both relieved and upset. In exasperation she said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way?” Her question was designed to make Jesus feel guilty, as if He had intentionally caused His parents to suffer. Mary’s next statement intensified her rebuke. “Behold,” she continued, “your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” As mentioned above, Jesus’ behavior in this incident was totally unlike anything Joseph and Mary had ever experienced and thus to them inexplicable.
Jesus, of course, had not intentionally defied or hurt His parents. What He had done was to make evident the necessary break that was to come between Him and His earthly family. As He would later say, Jesus had “come down from heaven, not to do [His] own will, but the will of [His Father] who sent [Him]” (John 6:38; cf. 4:34; 5:30). Although that break would not be fully realized for another eighteen years, it is made evident here.
Jesus’ reply to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house (the temple)?” is not only the crux of the passage, but also expresses the definitive reality of Christian theology. This statement is the first time in Scripture that any individual claimed God as his personal father. The Jews viewed God as the Father of all in a creative sense, and the Father of Israel in a national sense. But no one had the audacity to claim God as his father in a personal, intimate sense, because of the profound implications of such a claim (see the discussion below). In this confession, Jesus made it clear that His first priority was to do the will of His heavenly Father. He also lifted Himself above the human realm. He was not in the ultimate sense Joseph’s son, or Mary’s son; He was the eternal Son of God, who came down from heaven (John 3:13; 6:38, 42). As such, He was under the authority of His heavenly Father, not His earthly parents.
The biblical teaching that Jesus is the Son of God is clear and unmistakable. The angel told Mary before Jesus’ birth that He “shall be called the Son of God” Luke 1:35). Jesus often referred to Himself as the Son of God or claimed that God was His Father (e.g., 10:21–22; John 6:39–40; 8:18–19, 28–29, 38, 49; Rev. 2:18). Mark opened his gospel with the words, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). John the Baptist (John 1:34), Nathaniel (John 1:49), the twelve apostles (Matt. 14:33), Martha (John 11:27), Paul (Acts 9:20; Rom. 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:19; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:13), the writer of Hebrews (Heb. 4:14; 6:6; 7:3; 10:29), and the apostle John (John 20:31; 1 John 4:15; 5:5, 10, 12, 13, 20) all affirmed Jesus’ divine sonship. Even Satan (Luke 4:3, 9), the demons (Matt. 8:29; Luke 4:41), and a Roman centurion (Matt. 27:54) acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God.
It was Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God above all else that infuriated His Jewish opponents and led to His execution. In John 5:17, Jesus defended His healing of a crippled man on the Sabbath by saying, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” The Jewish authorities were outraged, and as John noted in verse 18: “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” In John 10:36, they accused Him of blasphemy for calling Himself the Son of God. At Christ’s mock trial it was His affirmation that He was the Son of God that gave the Sanhedrin the excuse to declare Him guilty of blasphemy and thus deserving of death (Matt. 26:63–66). After Pilate pronounced Jesus innocent “the Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God’” (John 19:7). And when Jesus was on the cross, they mocked His claim to be the Son of God (Matt. 27:40, 43).
The reason Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God infuriated the Jewish leaders is that such a claim, as they understood perfectly, was a claim to deity, to full equality with God. The title Son of God describes Jesus as the second person of the Trinity, God incarnate. The full, rich meaning of the title Son of God is not evident from the English concept of sonship. In Jewish culture “son” denoted more than just a male offspring. A young, underage child was considered a boy; only when that boy had become an adult was he a son in the fullest sense. It was then that he became equal to his father under the law and in terms of adult responsibility, and received the privileges his father had reserved for him. “Son,” in this more technical sense, came to mean “equal to” or “one with.”
There are a number of examples in Scripture where “son” identifies a person’s nature. Barnabas’s name means “son of encouragement;” he was so much an encourager that he was identified with encouragement. Jesus called James and John “Sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17), identifying them with that term because of their bombastic personalities. Similarly, He described some people as “son[s] of hell” (Matt. 23:15) because they had the characteristics of those who are hell bound. In much the same way, both Judas (John 17:12) and the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3) are called sons of perdition or destruction (the same Greek word is used to describe both individuals), identifying them with their eternal destiny. Ephesians 2:2 calls unbelievers “sons of disobedience,” while Matthew 13:38 describes them as “sons of the evil one” (cf. John 8:44). Luke 16:8 and John 12:36 call believers “sons of light;” and Luke 20:36 calls them “sons of the resurrection.”
“Son” in the above examples does not refer to origin, but to nature. The term is used to refer to Jesus Christ to establish His being of the same essence and nature, with the same rights and privileges, as God Himself. As noted above, the Jewish leaders understood perfectly that by claiming to be the Son of God, Jesus was claiming deity and full equality with the Father.
Some might argue that the terms “only begotten” (monogenēs; John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9) and “firstborn” (prototokos; Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 1:5) indicate that Jesus came into existence, and thus was not God from all eternity. But neither of those terms refer to origin. Monogenēs means “one of a kind,” and distinguishes Jesus as the unique Son of God from believers, who are sons of God in a different sense (cf. 1 John 3:2). The Bible calls Isaac Abraham’s monogenēs (Heb. 11:17), even though Isaac was neither Abraham’s oldest son nor his only son, because he alone was the son of the covenant (Gen.21:12; cf. Rom. 9:7). Prototokos, when used of Christ, does not refer to chronology, but to preeminence. Both Colossians 1:18 and Revelation 1:5 call Jesus the “firstborn from the dead,” because of all who will ever be resurrected, He is the preeminent one. In Exodus 4:22, God refers to Israel as His firstborn; though Israel was not the first nation to come into existence chronologically, she was the first among the nations in preeminence.
To argue that the terms “firstborn” and “only begotten” mean that Jesus was a created being is contradictory. Jesus could not be both the “only begotten” and the “first begotten.” Nor could He be the creator of the universe (Col. 1:16) if He Himself were a created being.
Joseph and Mary did not fully understand the profound statement which Jesus had made to them. They understood that He was the Messiah, the Son of David, conceived in a virgin’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the full meaning of His divine sonship eluded them. This would not be the last time that His followers would fail to grasp what Jesus was saying (cf. Luke 9:44–45; 18:34; John 10:6; 12:16).
But the time for Jesus to leave His parents’ authority had not yet arrived, so He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them. His relationship with His heavenly Father did not yet abrogate His responsibility to obey His earthly parents. His obedience to the fifth commandment was an essential part of Jesus’ perfect obedience to the law of God.
Here was the first fulfillment of Simeon’s warning to Mary in 2:35, as she treasured all these things in her heart. She had much to think about as she pondered Jesus’ amazing reply. Mary had to realize that her Son was her Savior, and she would have to exchange her parental authority over Him for His divine authority over her. The sword would pierce her heart again later in her last appearance in Luke’s gospel (8:19–21), when Jesus distanced Himself from His human relationship with her and His siblings (cf. 11:27–28). Ultimately, the sword would pierce Mary’s heart as she watched her Son suffer and die on the cross.
THE ADULT YEARS IN NAZARETH
And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (2:52)
This summary statement reveals all that is known about the eighteen years Jesus spent in Nazareth from the age of twelve to the beginning of His public ministry at the age of thirty (3:23). Increasing translates a form of the verb prokoptō, which means “to progress” or “to advance.” In the unfathomable mystery of the incarnation, when Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and [was] made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7), and was “found in appearance as a man” (v. 8), He was subject to the normal process of human growth and development. Jesus grew in wisdom as His intellectual grasp of divine truth increased, physically in stature, and spiritually in favor with God, strengthened by His victories over the assaults of temptation (Heb. 4:15). The reference to His finding favor with man describes His increasing social maturity and the respect He commanded.
The question arises as to why Jesus needed to live all those years, instead of simply coming to earth, dying as a substitute for sin, rising from the dead, and ascending back to heaven. The answer is that He had to live a perfectly righteous life and “fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15), and thus prove to be the perfect sacrifice to take the place of sinners (1 Peter 3:18). Only then could His righteousness be imputed to believers and their sins placed on Him. When Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God made “Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” he expressed both aspects of Christ’s substitionary atonement. Not only did Jesus bear believers’ sins, God also imputed His righteousness to them. To put it another way, God treated Christ as if He had lived believers’ sinful lives, and believers as if they had lived His perfectly righteous life. Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life from childhood through adulthood, so that His righteous life could be imputed to believers. Salvation comes only to those who do not have a “righteousness of [their] own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9).
It was not without purpose that the Holy Spirit–inspired account of the Savior’s life in the four Gospels included only this episode from the years between His birth and the launch of His public ministry. This brief narrative, bookended by two sweeping summary statements, reveals Jesus Christ as the Son of God, whose perfectly sinless life qualified Him to be the only acceptable sacrifice for sin (1 Peter 1:18–19), both having believers’ sins imputed to Him and providing a righteous life to be imputed to them.