Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
I have read more than my share of comic books. I was thinking of Superman this morning. He came from another planet and was raised on a farm by earthly parents: the Kents. It’s not hard to find comics that show him as a boy helping out around the farm. Like lifting a tractor so his father can work on it! They knew he was different from the beginning!
Jesus’ origin story is a little different. We really don’t have much in the Bible about Je-sus as a child, but that hasn’t stopped our imaginations running away with us, creating stories to fill in the gaps. We may have heard stories of boy Jesus doing all sorts of miracles like heal-ing hurt pets or raising them from the dead. It’s easy to find paintings of baby or boy Jesus with a halo. But Luke paints a different picture. Jesus grew.
Of course He grew. No one questions that! But He grew in wisdom and stature. In other words, He was more wise at age 13 than at age 12, and so on. That may be hard for us to wrap our minds around. Jesus was God, wasn’t He? How can God gain wisdom? Doesn’t that imply that He, at some point, didn’t have as much wisdom? Well, yes. Because Jesus wasn’t just God. He was fully human also. He had to be.
Only God could save us from our sins. But only a man could pay the rightful price - death, for our sins. If Jesus was only God we are in big trouble! If He was only a man we’re in big trouble! He had to be both. As a human, He lived a normal human life and He grew in wis-dom and stature.
Jesus lived His life as a man and to assure He grew in wisdom, He did the things that God would have His people do: He was a student of the Bible and He participated in public gatherings for worship. It was His regular practice to do so.
Shouldn’t I want to be like Jesus and also grow in wisdom? I would never claim to be better than Jesus. Can I really make the assertion that it is acceptable to God that I treat the Bible and church as mere options to my daily and weekly life?
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
