The Boyhood of Jesus

Luke 2:40-52

GOLDEN TEXT: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”—Luke 2:52

THE story of the boy of twelve among the Doctors of the Law, discussing the various types of the law and what these probably signified, and what would be expected to be their antitypes, furnishes us very interesting picture, especially when we remember that the one who was asking the questions was the one who ultimately would give correct answers to those questions in His own experiences. We are not to assume that Jesus was unduly bold or forward, nor are we to presume that He undertook to teach the Doctors of the Law. The narrative is that He was found hearing the Doctors and asking them questions; not attempting to teach them.

We may reasonably assume that. Jesus had previously, after the manner of the Jewish boys, attended the synagogue worship at His home town, and that hearing there the Law and the prophets, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, read Sabbath after Sabbath, and having a perfect memory and an active mind, because not blemished by sin and the fall, the various questions of the Law and the various declarations of the prophets would greatly interest Him—especially as He realized that He had left the Father and had come into the world to do a redemptive work.

The Doctors of the Law doubtless remarked that they had never had such pointed questions asked them respecting the law and the prophets, even by wise men of their day and by each other; hence they evidently noticed the unusual development of this boy. This little item gives us a suggestion respecting the ability of mind that would belong to a perfect boy. It gives us a suggestion respecting what we may expect of the ancient worthies when they shall be resurrected to human perfection.

At twelve, our Lord could not begin His ministry because He was under the law and hound by its every restriction. We note, however, His desire to engage in His Heavenly Father’s business at the very earliest moment as we read that when Jesus began to be about thirty years of age, He came to Jordan to be baptized. We who are not under the restraints of the Law Covenant but, on the contrary, are under grace, are not thus limited as to the time we may present our bodies living sacrifices upon the Lord’s altar, to be used in His service; hence we rejoice the more if we find that at an early age we can give our hearts and our all to the Lord who loved us and bought us with His precious blood.—Eccl. 12:1

It was not the babe of Bethlehem that was to bless the world, nor the boy of Nazareth, nor the young man of Capernaum, but it was to be a full-grown man, a mature one, a corresponding price for the first man Adam, who was to redeem him and his posterity and satisfy the demands of Divine Justice against the condemned race. So then, while interested in everything pertaining to the divine character and plan, while interested to know how Jesus grew in stature and wisdom as He approached the maturity of manhood at thirty years, while interested to know about His miraculous birth, our chief interest in all of these things is that they established our faith in Him as the man Christ Jesus, the Redeemer—that He was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, and therefore able to make the atonement sacrifice—to give His own life a ransom, a corresponding price for the life of Adam, and thus for the life of the whole race of Adam in his loins at the time of his transgression, and thus sharers with him in his condemnation.

We do well therefore, to dwell less upon the birth and infancy of Jesus, and more and more to grasp the precious themes set before us in the Gospel, of which the cross is the great point or center of interest. Similarly, we regard all the followers of the Lord—not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. True, we are glad to know of some who even before their consecration and baptism of the Spirit, were noble-minded and virtuous; and we have a measure of regret when we hear of some who had a disposition contrary to this. Nevertheless our interest centers around the fact that they did turn from sin to become the Lord’s followers and that they have been begotten of His Holy Spirit. In this we rejoice. Thus we know each other according to the spirit as new creatures in the Lord and thus we know our Lord as the new creature, as the apostle suggests, “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we Him so no more.” Our special interest centers in our Lord from the moment of His anointing of the spirit until He completed the work there begun three and one-half years later on the cross, crying, “It is finished.” Our interest still holds beyond that point in the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, and the evidence thus given us that the begetting of the spirit at His baptism became the birth of the spirit at His resurrection, and that He was thus the first-born from the dead, born of the spirit to spirit conditions. Our hope then is to follow in His steps, and thus realize the promise that if we suffer with Him we shall also be glorified together and share His Kingdom and His nature in glory.

QUESTIONS:

Are we to suppose that Jesus attempted to instruct the doctors of the law at the time He talked with them in the temple?

Why was Jesus not able to begin His ministry when He was twelve years of age?

During what part of Jesus’ earthly career does our special interest center?

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