Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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There’s a great difference between the Jesus that the Bible portrays and the Jesus that many people imagine in their minds. The Jesus we often imagine is always nice and welcoming. Coming from this mindset of Jesus, we ask the question, “What would Jesus do?” We expect some kind of answer in which we turn the other cheek, or be nice to people. There’s a small action figure called Buddy Jesus which characterizes how we often relate to Jesus. But the Jesus we find in the Bible often breaks these stereotypes. He drove people out of the temple. He turned people away when they said they wanted to follow him. He spoke in parables and asked some confusing questions. He even had to correct his own family as to who He was and why He had come.

Read Luke 2:40-52

This passage is the only glimpse we see of Jesus in his childhood. We read last week about his birth and circumcision. And then chronologically we could read about the visit from the Magi when Jesus was about 2 years old in the gospel of Matthew. Then comes this story from when Jesus was about 12 years old. But then the next we read of Jesus is when he’s about 30 years old, getting baptized.

So, with the Bible telling us so very little about the childhood years of Jesus, there may be a temptation to try to fill in the gaps. Don’t believe any other rumor you hear about Jesus’s childhood. Several books claim to record events from the life of Jesus during this period. One story tells of Jesus turning clay birds into real ones. Another story tells of how a bully punched Jesus in the arm, and then fell down dead after Jesus said, “You will go no farther on your way!” Another story tells of how wild lions, and panthers, and even dragons bowed down to Jesus as he traveled from Judea to Egypt. But there’s no reason to believe that any of these myths are true. They weren’t written by eye witnesses. They’re inconsistent with what we learn about Jesus in the Bible.

Everything we need to know about Jesus is written in the Word of God. Jesus was born of a virgin. He is the unique Son of God and Son of Man, the one and only God-Man, who is fully God and fully man. Jesus lived a life of sinless perfection. And then Jesus went to the cross to die for our sins, so that we can have life in Him. We don’t need to turn to any other book to know about Jesus, it’s all written in God’s Word.

Yet one of the most perplexing issues when talking about the incarnation is how Jesus grew from a boy into a man. Some will say that Jesus gradually became aware of who He was. They’ll point to Philippians 2:7, which says that in the process of Jesus becoming a man, He emptied himself. But the context of that verse is clearly talking about humility. Jesus, being God, knows all things. He knew all things all of his life. Even as an infant, Jesus knew everything. Yet the Bible says that he grew in wisdom (v. 52). How could this be?

Well, I think the answer is actually so simple that we might pass right over it. Not only did Jesus grow in wisdom, but he also grew in strength (v. 40). What’s going on here? Jesus, being limited by a human body, needed to grow! Jesus, being limited by a human brain, needed to learn!

At this point, you might be thinking, “That doesn’t make any sense!” How can Jesus both know everything, yet need to learn things? We all have a moral intuition. We all have innate knowledge that there’s a God. We all know that 100 and 1,000 are not the same number, even if we’ve never thought of that before. Jesus, being limited by a human mind and how it grows, could not think of everything at the same time, and wasn’t capable of all knowledge as an infant, but as soon as He was introduced to ideas and concepts, was immediately able to discern the truth of the matter, because He is God, and He knows everything.

So as we think about this story, never think for an instant that Jesus acted as He did out of childishness. He was not being disobedient. He was not being ignorant. As Jesus always lived, He was living in perfect harmony with God the Father, even as a child who still had a lot to learn.

If Jesus were any other boy, wouldn’t you have considered him out of line? He just decides to let his family leave without him (v. 43). Then when they come back to look for him, they find him just hanging out (v. 46). Then when they correct Him, He acts all self-righteous. “Don’t talk back to your mother that way!” “You should have stayed with your family!” His mother Mary certainly thought this was the case! (v. 48) It says that his parents were astonished. It also says that Mary scolded Jesus, saying “Son, why have you treated us so?” “Jesus, how could you have treated us this way!” “Jesus, I can’t believe you would make us worry like that!” “Jesus, I know we weren’t explicit in saying you needed to leave with us, but don’t you think that was at least implied?”

Now, I can’t come down too hard on Mary and Joseph here. We often talk about how unique Jesus was, but what about his earthly parents? They knew all of his life that he was the Savior! They probably had a great deal of trust in Jesus. Jesus had shown them utmost respect, love, and obedience. Otherwise, how could they even have gone a day without him in their sight. Mary and Joseph trusted Jesus. But at least in this instance, they didn’t see how Jesus was in the right.

But Jesus turned it around. Look at the way Jesus responded. He responded with questions (v. 49). Jesus wasn’t the one out of line. His mother was! She should have known. Of course Jesus should be in his Father’s house. Jesus was reminding His earthly parents that He was here for a purpose. And they should have remembered who Jesus truly was.

But in the process of correcting his parents, Jesus was correcting our understanding of Him, too. We often want Jesus as our Friend, but not our Lord. We want Jesus as our genie in a bottle, but not our Master who tells us what to want.

As we live as Christians, sometimes we forget who Jesus truly is. It’s become popular in Christianity today to focus on the friendliness of Jesus. He’s my best friend. But primarily, He’s your Savior. He died for your sin because your sin kept you from knowing Him at all. Trust Him.

Like Jesus, we need to have focus this New Year. We should all be about doing our Father’s business. But we so often we fail. Our minds get wrapped up in our own business. Or we get caught up with doing the things that others expect us to do. So sometimes we pray, “God help me to do what I want to do.” But we ought to make it our aim to seek out what it is that God would have us do. And trust Jesus.