Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 2:40

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

40. filled ] Rather, being filled. The growth of our Lord is here described as a natural human growth. The nature of the ‘Hypostatic Union’ of His Divine and Human nature what is called the Perichoresis or Communicatio idiomatum is one of the subtlest and least practical of mysteries. The attempt to define and enter into it was only forced upon the Church by the speculations of Oriental heretics who vainly tried “to soar into the secrets of the Deity on the waxen wings of the senses.” This verse (and still more Luk 2:52) is a stronghold against the Apollinarian heresy which held that in Jesus the Divine Logos took the place of the human soul. Against the four conflicting heresies of Anus, Apollinarius, Nestorius and Eutyches, which respectively denied the true Godhead, the perfect manhood, the indivisible union, and the entire distinctness of the Godhead and manhood in Christ, the Church, in the four great Councils of Nice (a. d. 325), Constantinople (a. d. 381), Ephesus (a. d. 431), and Chalcedon (a. d. 451), established the four words which declare her view of the nature of Christ aleths, teles, adiairets, asunchuts ‘truly’ God; ‘perfectly’ Man; ‘indivisibly’ God-Man, ‘distinctly’ God and Man. See Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. Leviticus 10.

the grace of God was upon him ] Isa 11:2-3. “Full of grace and truth,” Joh 1:14. “Take notice here that His doing nothing wonderful was itself a kind of wonder As there was power in His actions, so is there power in His silence, in His inactivity, in His retirement.” Bonaventura. The worthless legends and inventions of many of the Apocryphal Gospels deal almost exclusively with the details of the Virginity of Mary, and the Infancy of Christ, which are passed over in the Gospels in these few words.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Strong in spirit – In mind, intellect, understanding. Jesus had a human soul, and that soul was subject to all the proper laws of a human spirit. It therefore increased in knowledge, strength, and character. Nor is it any more inconsistent with his being God to say that his soul expanded, than to say that his body grew.

Filled with wisdom – Eminent for wisdom when a child – that is, exhibiting an extraordinary understanding, and wise to flee from everything sinful and evil.

And the grace of God … – The word grace in the New Testament commonly means unmerited favor shown to sinners. Here it means no more than favor. God showed him favor, or was pleased with him and blessed him.

It is remarkable that this is all that is recorded of the infancy of Jesus; and this, with the short account that follows of his going to Jerusalem, is all that we know of him for thirty years of his life. The design of the evangelists was to give an account of his public ministry, and not his private life. Hence, they say little of him in regard to his first years. What they do say, however, corresponds entirely with what we might expect. He was wise, pure, pleasing God, and deeply skilled in the knowledge of the divine law. He set a lovely example for all children; was subject to his parents, and increased in favor with God and man.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Luk 2:40

And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit.

Our Lords early years upon earth

Notice a few things which are remarkable in our Lords Childhood, and which are too often wanting in that of others.

1. His obedience to His earthly parents.

2. A childhood of privacy and seclusion. He was kept in the background, not paraded by His parents as an instance of precocious excellence or intellect. He drank in the pure breezes of heaven, and was in secret.

3. A genuine thirst for improvement (Luk 2:46, &c.). How unlike that raging appetite for mere amusement which begins in our days so early, and has turned the very literature of the young into a jest and plaything. What we seek is something to make us laugh, something which may present to us the ludicrous side of everything, and turn away from us the real and the sobering. What Christ sought at the age of twelve years was knowledge, and He sought that knowledge in the courts of His Fathers house.

4. A spirit of docility. He sought knowledge even from men little qualified, indeed, to impart it, but who yet occupied the position to which it belonged to teach.

5. Christs childhood was stamped with a sense of duty, and elevated by a lofty aim. A sense of His relation to God, of the meaning and responsibility of life, of a work to be done on Gods earth in which He was Himself to be a fellow-worker with His Father–these motives had already dawned upon Him at that young age, and gave an unwonted seriousness to a childhood in all else so natural.

6. Notice the testimony which Christs childhood bears to Gods patience in working out His purposes; to what we may call the gradual character of Gods works. In due time is written upon all of them.

7. Our Lords early life was the consecration, for all time, of what are regarded, by way of distinction, as the more secular and the humbler callings. (S. P. C. K. Sermons.)

The holy Child Jesus

Christ might have been made full-grown at once. Adam was, and our Lord is called the last Adam, the second man; that is to say, Adam was a type or figure of Christ. One might have expected, therefore, that our Lord would be what Adam had been, a man sent into the world full-grown. Infancy, childhood, boyhood, are very humbling conditions. Why did Christ submit to them?

1. Our Lords condescension is infinite, and therefore, in coming into the world, He desired to stoop as low as possible, in order to set us the more striking example of lowliness of mind. Therefore tie preferred, for His entrance into the world, the condition of an unconscious babe, and of a child dependent upon its parents, to that of a full-grown and independent man.

2. Our Lord, out of His infinite compassion for us, earnestly desired to sympathize with men in all their trials, and in every condition in which they can be placed, in eider that He might bless and comfort them by His sympathy. So He came in by the usual gate–infancy.

3. One can quite see this, that for a grown-up person never to have known childhood, a home, or a mothers care, would cut them off from all the most beautiful and tender associations of our nature. It makes a man tender, as no other thought can, to look back on his childhood and early home, on the strong interest which his parents used to take in him, and on the sacrifices which they were at all times ready to make for him. Now our Lord was to be infinitely tender, in order that He might attract the miserable and suffering to Himself; and He was to exhibit all the beauties and graces of which human nature is capable; and therefore it was that He willed to have a home of childhood, and to be dependent upon a mothers care, and to lisp His earliest prayers at a mothers knee, which is the way in which all of us first learn to pray. These experiences contributed to make His human soul tender.

Concluding lessons:

1. Take to Him all your little troubles and trials in prayer, and assure yourselves that He is most ready to hear and help you. Why did He become a child, but to assure children of His sympathy with them?

2. Take Him for your example. Observe His love of Gods house, His teachableness, His desire for instruction, His submission to His parents (while all the while He was their God), His growth in wisdom and in favour with God and man; and try to copy Him in these points.

3. Trust with all your heart in the goodness which He as a child exhibited, and which was perfect goodness, such as yours can never be. Only for the sake of that goodness of His will God forgive your faults. (Dean Goulburn.)

The growth of children

The Child grew. Of course the Child grew. Every child grows. There is not a child in the world who is not older to-day than he was yesterday, and who, if he lives, will not be older to-morrow than he is to-day. And whatever needs to be done for a child while he is young as now ought to be done to-day. He will have outgrown the possibility–if not the need–of such doing for him when to-morrow is here. Childhood is quickly lost. It is not to be regained. Unless it is improved as it passes, it is unimproved for ever. A child grows by night and by day, whether he is cared for or neglected. Oh, how soon the child has outgrown the possibilities of training in the nursery, of a mothers training, of a fathers training, of a teachers training! And when he has outgrown all these, who but God can reach him? If you would do your work for your child, you must do it now–or never, Have that in mind with your every breath; for with every breath your child is growing away from his plastic and impressible childhood. (H. C. Trumbull.)

No abasement in growth

There is no abasement in the fact that Jesus grew as any other boy grows. The apple of June is perfect as a June apple, though it has not come to its maturity. The acorn is perfect as an acorn, just as the oak is perfect as an oak. Jesus was a perfect Boy, as He was a perfect Man. If Jesus was content to grow slowly, should not we? The mushroom may spring up in a night; it is many a year before the sturdy oak attains its full growth. (Sunday School Times.)

The source of Christs growth

When one sees a river flowing deep and strong through a parched country, as the Ganges in India, he becomes desirous of knowing something about its source. He follows it up, and finds that it comes from the cold hills of the north, issuing it may be, in full flood from beneath a glacier. So the source of Jesus growth in spirit and wisdom is here told–The grace of God was upon Him. (Sunday School Times.)

Youthful piety of Christ

There are three parts of our nature mentioned in the Bible–the body, the soul, the spirit. The body is what the animals have in common with us; it is the part of us in which we feel hunger, thirst, and weariness–the part which is fed by food cud rested by sleep. The soul means the feelings and affections; it is the part of us which feels pity for distress, fear of danger, anger at an insult, and so forth. The spirit is that higher part of our nature, which makes us reasonable beings; it is by the action of our spirit that we think of God, set Him before us, pray to Him, fear Him, worship Him. It is, then, a great thing to say of any child, and it could only be said of a good and holy child, that he waxes strong in spirit. It means not that he becomes taller, nimbler, cleverer, but that his conscience becomes more and more formed as he grows up, his will more steady in doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong, his prayers to God more earnest, his sense of Gods presence more keen, his dread of sin stronger. Alas! it is the very opposite with children in general. Their conscience, which was once tender, becomes hardened as they get to know more; they soon shake off any dread of sin and the fear of God; their will weakly yields to temptation, until it becomes easy and natural to yield. And it is added, He was filled with wisdom. The words imply that wisdom kept on flowing, like a running stream, into His human soul; there were, in His case, none of those thoughts of levity and folly, by which childhood is commonly marked. And the grace of God (meaning both the favour of God, and the precious influence of His Holy Spirit) was upon Him. When the sun shines out upon the dewdrops that cover the tender grass of spring in the early morning, how beautiful is each spangled bead of dew, glistening with all the colours of the rainbow t Such was the childhood of the Holy Child! The dews of Gods Spirit rested upon Him without measure. And the sunshine of Gods favour beamed out upon Him, as the Child of children, in whom–and in whom alone of all children that had ever been born–God the Father was well pleased. How early can a child love God, yearn towards God, hope in God, trust in God? I cannot say. Probably much earlier than we suppose. Do not the youngest infants stretch their tiny arms, and smile graciously when their mother comes into the room? They are not too young to show that they love and trust their parents; I do not know why it should be impossible for them to love and trust their heavenly Father, especially if He should give His grace to them without measure, as was the case with our Lord. Perhaps you say, It is impossible for a child in arms to understand or know anything about God. How can any one be sure of that? It was foretold of John the Baptist, that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mothers womb; and if this was the case with him, how much more must it have been the case with the Lord Jesus? Have you one single feeling of affection and trust towards your heavenly Father, as He had? Do you even wish to have some such feeling The wish is something, no, it is much; let it lead you to pray for the feeling, and in due time the feeling will come. If your earthly parents would deny you nothing that is good for you, which they had it in their power to give, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? (Dean Goulburn.)

Growth under ordinary events

These words, applied by St. Luke first to John the Baptist and then to our Lord, simply express an everyday occurrence–what we habitually take for granted as the natural course of things. This very fact–that they are so simple, so natural, so completely on the level of our common life–gives them the rich meaning that they possess for us. For they teach us that the Divine method of life is quite different from what we should expect; that each man may find in and about him, in his endowments and in his environments, just what he requires for the accomplishment of his work. We need not go from our proper place in order to discipline ourselves for Gods service; we need not strive after gifts which He has not entrusted to us, or forms of action which are foreign to our position, in order to do our part as members of His Church. It is enough that we grow and wax strong under the action of those forces by which He moves us within and without, if we desire to fulfil, according to the measure of our powers, the charge which He has prepared for us. Thus it was that John the Baptist, the stern, bold preacher, grew up in the desert according to the angels message–a lonely boy, a lonely youth, until the days of his showing unto Israel, communing only with the severest forms of nature and with the most awful thoughts of God. Thus it was that Jesus lived in the calm seclusion of a bright upland valley, in the Jewish fellowship of a holy home, subject to His parents and in favour with God and man, until His hour came. In that silent discipline of thirty years, there was no anxious anticipation of the future, no wistful lingering on the past; the past, used to the utmost, was the foundation of the future. (Canon Westcott.)

Gods mode of training men

We are always inclined to look for some joy or sorrow, as that which shall stir the energies of our souls; for some sharp sickness or bereavement, as that which shall make us trust more faithfully in God; for some blessing or deliverance, as that which shall bring us to love Him with tender devotion. But when these exceptional events happen, they do but reveal to us what we have already become; then, at length, when our eyes are opened, we see ourselves; then we know what we are; then we realize the value of little things, the abiding results of routine; then we marvel, it may be, to know assuredly that we despised Christ when He came to us in strange disguises; or it may be that we welcomed Him in the least of His little ones, or in the most insignificant of His workings. Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake and sleep, we grow and wax strong, or we grow and wax weak; at last some crisis shows us what we have become. (Canon Westcott.)

Great results from secret processes

The facts of the material world help us to feel the reality of this still and secret process which is the universal law of life. The ground on which we stand, the solid rocks which lie beneath it, are nothing but the accumulated results of the action of forces which we observe in action still. A few drops of rain gather on the hillside, and find an outlet down its slope; grain by grain a channel is fashioned, fresh rills add their waters to the flowing stream, and at last the runlet which a stone might have diverted from its course has grown into a river which no human force can stem. The sapling is planted on an open ridge, straight and vigorous; season after season the winds blow through its branches; it bends and bends and rises again, but with ever-lessening power; and when years have gone by, and the sapling has become a tree, its strange distorted shape bears witness to the final power of the force which at each moment it seemed able to overcome. And so it is with all of us. From small beginnings flow the currents of our lives, from constant and unnoticed impulses we take our bias; the stream is ever gathering strength; the bend is ever being confirmed or corrected. At any time of this life, our character is represented by the sum of our past lives. There is not one act, not one purpose, which does not leave its trace, though we may be unable to distinguish and measure its value. There is not one drop which does not add something to the flowing river, not one branch which does not in some way shape the rising tree. The appointed duty, heartily or carelessly gone through, makes us weaker for the next effort. The unkind word spoken, or the kind word not spoken, makes us less tender when our love is next needed; the evil thing done, or the evil thought cherished, makes a vantage-ground for the tempter when he next assails us. The prayer neglected, or said with the lips only, makes it harder for us to seek God when we next desire to find Him. The Communion superstitiously slighted, or superstitiously frequented, makes it more and more difficult for us to see life transfigured by the brightness of a Divine presence. In this way it is that we grow and wax weak, happy only if some day of reckoning startles us by the sense of our loss, and if we are constrained to offer to God in the humblest spirit what remains. And, on the other hand, every faithful answer to the least claim upon our service, every manful contest for the right, every painful struggle with self-indulgence, every sore temptation met in the name and strength of Christ, every striving towards God in prayer and praise, is fruitful for the future–fruitful in self-sacrifice, in courage, in endurance, in the joy of Divine fellowship. (Canon Westcott.)

Childhood disparaged by the ancients

In those brief sketches of Christ which are called the Gospels, eighteen years of experience are wholly wanting. The best explanation of the omission is, that in that epoch, and in almost all past periods, child life was not a matter of importance. It did not enter largely into literature, nor into the category of the great things of the world. In some nations the death-day rather than the birthday was celebrated, because the latter period was associated with fame or learning or some other form of merit, while the birthday enjoyed no association of worth–it was only the period of all shapes of weakness. In the most of the ancient philosophies the reasonable soul did not come to the body until it was about twenty years old. According to one of the old Rabbis a man was free at twelve, might marry at eighteen or twenty, should acquire property until he was thirty, then intellectual strength should come, and at forty the profoundest wisdom should appear. Amid just what opinions of this nature the youth of Jesus was spent is not known, but at least this is true that He lived in an era when early life seemed to possess but small worth, and no scholar or biographer encumbered with such details his record or oration or poem. Not only do we know little about the early life of Jesus, but the early years of Caesar, and Virgil, and Cicero, and Tacitus lie equally withdrawn from the public gaze. Old biographies make their first chapter out of the actual beginnings of the public service. (David Swing.)

An address to children on the Child Jesus

The Child Jesus grew. He did not stand still. Although it was God Himself who was revealed to us in the life of Jesus Christ, yet this did not prevent Him from being made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. And so in all things He is an example for us to imitate. Each one, whether old or young, must remember that progress, improvement, going on, advance, change into something better and better, wiser and wiser, year by year, is the only way of becoming like Christ, and therefore like God. The world moves, and you and all of us must move with it. God calls us all ever to something higher and higher, and that higher stage we must reach by steadily advancing towards it. There are three things especially which the text puts before us as those in which our Lords earthly education, in which the advance and improvement of His earthly character, added to His youthful and childlike powers.

1. Strength of character. Christ waxed strong in spirit. What we all want is a stout heart to resist temptation, a strong hardy conscience which fixes itself on matters of real importance and will not trifle or waste its powers on things of no concern. We must earnestly seek this strength. It comes to those who strive after it.

2. Wisdom. To gain this–to have your mind opened, to take in all that your teachers can pour into it–you are sent to school. You need not be old before your time, but you must even now be making the best use of your time. These are the golden days which never come back to you, which if once lost can never be entirely made up. Seek, therefore, for wisdom, pray for it, determine to have it, and God who gives to those who ask for it, will give it to you. Try to gain it, as our Lord gained it when He was a child, by hearing and by asking questions, i.e.,

(a) by being teachable, humble, modest, and fixing your attention on what you have to learn;

(b) by trying to know the meaning of what you learn, by cross- questioning yourselves, by inquiring right and left to fill up the blanks in your mind.

3. The grace or favour of God, or, as it says in Luk 2:52, the favour of God and man. Our Lord possessed Gods favour always, but even in Him it increased more and more. It increased as He grew older, as He saw more and more of the work which was given Him to do; He felt more and more that God was His Father, and that men were His brothers, and that grace and loving-kindness was the best and dearest gift from God to man, and from man to man, and from man to God. He was subject to His parents. He did what they told Him; and so He became dear to them. He was kind, and gentle, and courteous to those about Him, so that they always liked to see Him when He came in and out amongst them. So may it be with you. Look upon God as your dear Father in heaven, who loves you, and who wishes nothing but your happiness. Look upon your schoolfellows and companions as brothers, to whom you must show whatever kindness and forbearance you can. Just as this beautiful building in which we are assembled is made up of a number of small stones beautifully carved, every one of which helps to make up the grace and beauty of the whole, so is all the state of the world made up of the graces and goodnesses not only of full-grown men and women, but of little children who will be, if they live, full-grown one day. (Dean Stanley.)

The Child Jesus, a pattern for children

1. The Child Jesus was diligent scholar. He did not hate to go to school. He did not neglect His tasks, or slur them over anyhow, or think, as perhaps some of you think, that getting out of school was the best part of the whole business. We might be quite sure that He diligently attended to the wise Rabbis who asked and answered questions, who uttered so many wise and witty proverbs, and told so many pretty stories, if only because He Himself was, in after years, so wise in asking and answering questions, and spoke so many proverbs and parables which the world will never let die. But we can do more and better than merely infer what a good scholar He was. We can see Him while He was yet a lad, going to school of His own accord, and staying in it when He might have been climbing the hills or running through the fields with His friends (Luk 2:41-46).

2. This good scholar was also a good son. The Hebrew boys of our Lords time were very well bred. They were taught good manners as well as good morals. They were enjoined, both by their parents and their masters, to salute every one they met in the street, to say to him Peace be with thee. To break this rule of courtesy, they were told, was as wrong as to steal. And the Boy Jesus was well brought up, and was full of courtesy, kindness, goodwill; for not only did He grow in favour with men in general, but He had a large circle of kinsfolk and friends who loved Him and were glad to have Him with them (Luk 2:44). We know, too, that He had never grieved His parents before, in His eagerness to learn, he let them go on their way home without Him. For when they had found Him in the Temple, they were so astonished that He should have given them the pain of seeking Him sorrowfully, that they cannot blame Him as for a fault, but can only ask Him why He had treated them thus. He must indeed have been a good son to whom His mother could speak as Mary spoke to Jesus.

3. He was also a good child of God. Always about His Fathers business–feeling that He must be about it, wherever He went, whatever He did. The one great thing He had to do, the one thing which above all others He tried to do, was to serve God His Father; not simply to become wise, and still less to please Himself, but to please God by growing wise in the knowledge and obedience of His commandments. (S. Cox, D. D.)

Superstitious reverence of Christs person guarded against

After informing us that Jesus was filled with wisdom, the evangelist adds, that the grace of God was upon Him. Now as the grace of God is not said to have been in but upon Him, it seems intended to express something not internal, but obvious to the senses. Hence it has been supposed that here the grace of God denotes a Divine gracefulness. In confirmation of this opinion it has been said, that in several passages there are allusions to something highly graceful, dignified, and impressive in His manner. Thus, the officers of the chief priest declared that never man spake like this man; and even the inhabitants of Nazareth were delighted at first with the words full of grace which He uttered. It is particularly to be remarked, however, that neither in the four Gospels, nor in any of the other books of the New Testament, has any description been given of the personal appearance of our Saviour. There is not, indeed, to be found the slightest allusion to the subject. Yet, of the founder of every other religion, whether true or false, some description, however concise, has been preserved. Thus, we are told that Moses, when a child, was extremely beautiful. Tim followers of Mahomet have described their pretended prophet in a minute manner; and the persons of most of the eminent sages of antiquity have been delineated by their disciples. But of the external appearance of Jesus no record is left. Why this singular omission? Were not the apostles of Jesus attached to their Master? Yes: their attachment was stronger and more disinterested than the world ever witnessed, for they suffered everything and sacrificed everything for His sake. But the omissions of inspired writers are never to be ascribed to oversight, but to the design of an over-ruling Providence. Nothing, therefore, was to be inserted in the Sacred Records concerning Jesus which might lead to a superstitious veneration of His person, and thus draw away the attention of His followers from His sublime doctrines and precepts, and the perfection of His character. (James Thomson, D. D.)

The development of Christ through the influences of outward nature

The Ebionites thought the natural humanity of our Saviours early life unworthy of a Divine person, and denied His essential divinity. To them, Christ was, till His baptism, a common man. It was at His baptism that He received from God, as an external gift, the consciousness of His Divine mission and special powers for it. We, however, do not hold the necessary unworthiness of human nature as a habitation of the Divine. We hold, with the old writer, that man is the image of God. Hence instead of looking upon Christs youth and childhood and His common life as derogatory to His glory, we see in them the glorification of all human thought and action in every stage of life. The whole of humanity is penetrated by the Divine. This is the foundation-stone of the gospel of Christ. On it rest all the great doctrines of Christianity, on it reposes all the noble practise of Christian men, and we call it the Incarnation. But this re-uniting of the divinity and humanity took place in time, and under the limitations which are now imposed upon humanity. The Divine Word was self-limited on its entrance our into nature, in some such sense as our spirit and thought are limited by union with body. Consequently, we should argue that there was a gradual development of the person of Christ; and this conclusion, which we come to a priori, is supported by the narrative in the Gospels. We are told that Jesus increased in wisdom, that He waxed strong in spirit, that He learned obedience, that He was made perfect through suffering. This is our subject–the development of Christ. And, first, we are met with a difficulty. The idea of development seems to imply imperfections passing into perfection–seems to exclude the idea of original perfection. But there are two conceivable ideas of development; one, development through antagonism, through error, from stage to stage of less and less deficiency. This is our development; but it is such because evil has gained a lodgment in our nature, and we can only attain perfection through contest with it. But there is another kind of development conceivable, the development of a perfect nature limited by time. The plant is perfect as the green shoot above the earth–it is all it can be then; it is more perfect as the creature adorned with leaves and branches, and it is all it can be then; it reaches its full perfection when the blossom breaks into flower. Such was the development of Christ. He was the perfect child, the perfect boy, the perfect youth, the perfect flower of manhood. A second illustration may make the matter clearer. The work of an inferior artist arrives at a certain amount of perfection through a series of failures, which teach him where he is wrong. Such is our development. The work of a man of genius is very different. He has seen, before he touches pencil, the finished picture. His first sketch contains the germ of all. His work is perfect in its several stages. Such was Christs development–an orderly, faultless, unbroken development, in which humanity, freed from its unnatural companion, evil, went forward according to its real nature. It was the restoration of humanity to its original integrity, to itself, as it existed in the idea of God. Think, then, of His development through the influence of outward nature. From the summit of the hill in whose bosom Nazareth lay, there sweeps one of the widest and most varied landscapes to be seen in Palestine. It is impossible to over-estimate the influence which this changing scene of beauty had upon the mind of the Saviour as a child. The Hebrew feeling for nature was deep and extended. By care, then, alone, the Child Jesus was prepared to feel the most delicate shades of change in the aspect of outward nature. But as He was not only Hebrew but the type of pure humanity, we may, without attributing to Him anything unnatural to childhood, impute to Him the nobler feelings which are stirred in the Western and Northern races by the modes of natural beauty. (Stopford A. Brooke, MA.)

The early development of Jesus

I. The Child grew. Two pregnant facts, lie was a child, and a child that grew in heart, in intellect, in size, in grace, in favour with God. Not a man in childs years. No hotbed precocity marked the holiest of infancies. The Son of Man grew up in the quiet valley of existence–in shadow, not in sunshine, not forced.

II. This growth took place in three particulars–

1. In spiritual strength. I instance one single evidence of strength in the early years of Jesus: I find it in that calm, long waiting of thirty years before He began His work.

2. In wisdom. Distinguish wisdom from

(1) information,

(2) talent. Love is required for wisdom–the love which opens the heart and makes it generous. Speaking humanly, the steps by which the wisdom of Jesus was acquired were two–

(a) The habit of inquiry.

(b) The collision of mind with mind. Both these we find in this anecdote: His parents found Him with the doctors in the Temple, both hearing and asking them questions.

3. In grace. And this in three points–

(1) The exchange of an earthly for a heavenly home. My Fathers business, My Fathers house.

(2) Of an earthly for a heavenly parent.

(3) The reconciliation of domestic duties (Luk 2:51). (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Apocryphal stories of the Infancy

The Holy Spirit of God must have touched Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with the spirit of selection, which saved them from such miracle-mongering. For Christ–the Christ that I adore–rises above these pitiful tales. (George Dawson.)

A bishops dream of our Lords childhood

There was once–as Luther tells us–a pious, godly bishop who had often earnestly prayed that God would show him what Jesus was like in His youth. Now once the bishop had a dream, and in his dream he saw a poor carpenter working at his trade, and beside him a little boy gathering up chips. Then came in a maiden clothed in green, who called them both to come to the meal, and set bread and milk before them. All this the bishop seemed to see in his dream, standing behind the door that he might not be seen. Then the little boy began and said, Why does that man stand there? Will he not come in also, and eat with us? And this so frightened the bishop that he woke. But he need not have been frightened, for does not Jesus say, If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me. And whether the dream be true or not, we know that Jesus in His childhood and youth looked and acted like other children, in fashion like a man, yet without sin. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

St. Edmunds vision of the Child Jesus

There was once a boy whose name was Edmund Rich, and who is called St. Edmund of Canterbury; and his brother tells us that once, when, at the age of twelve, he had gone into the fields from the boisterous play of his companions, he thought that the Child Jesus appeared unto him, and said, Hail, beloved one! And he, wondering at the beautiful child, said, Who art Thou, for certainly thou art unknown to me? And the Child Jesus said, How comes it that I am unknown to thee, seeing that I sit by thy side at school, and wherever thou art, there do I go with thee? Look on My forehead, and see what is there written. And Edmund looked, and saw the name Jesus. This is my name, said the child; write it on thy heart and it shall protect thee from evil. Then He disappeared, on whom the angels desire to look, leaving the little boy Edmund with passing sweetness in his heart. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Jeromes love for the Child Jesus

There lived, fifteen hundred years ago, a saint whose name was Jerome, and he loved so much the thought of the Child Christ, that he left Rome, and went and lived for thirty long years in a cave at Bethlehem, close by the cavern-stable in which Christ was born. And when men wished to invite him by earthly honours to work elsewhere, he said, Take me not away from the cradle where my Lord was laid. Nowhere can I be happier than there. There do I often talk with the Child Jesus, and say to Him, Ah, Lord I how can I repay Thee? And the Child answers, I need nothing. Only sing thou Glory to God, and peace on earth. And when I say, Nay I but I must yield Thee something; the Holy Child replies, Thy silver and thy gold I need not. Give them to the poor. Give his only thy sins to be forgiven. And then do I begin to weep and say, Oh, Thou blessed Child Jesus, take what is mine, and give me what is Thine! Now in this way, by the eye of faith, you may all see the Child Jesus, and unseen, yet ever near, you may feel His presence, and He may sit by your side at school, and be with you all day to keep you from harm, and to drive away bad thoughts and naughty tempers, and send His angels to watch over you when you sleep. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Jesus the Friend of children

Once there was carried into a great hospital a poor little ragged miserable boy, who had been run over in the streets and dreadfully hurt. And all night he kept crying and groaning in his great pain? and at last a good youth, who lay in the bed next to him, said, My poor little fellow, wont you pray to Jesus to ease your pain? But the little wretched sufferer had never heard anything at all about Jesus, and asked who Jesus was. And the youth gently told him that Jesus was Lord of all, and that He had come down to die for us. And the boy answered, Oh, I cant pray to Him, Hes so great and grand, and He would never hear a poor street-boy like me; and I dont know how to speak to Him. Then, said the youth, wont you just lift your hand to Him out of bed, and when He passes by He will see it, and will know that you want Him to be kind to you, and to ease your pain? And the poor, crushed, suffering boy lifted out of the bed his little brown hand, and soon afterwards he ceased to groan; and when they came to him in the morning the hand and the poor thin arm were still uplifted, but they were stiff and cold; for Jesus had indeed seen it, and heard that mute prayer of the agony of that strayed lamb of His fold, and He had grasped the little, soiled, trembling hand of the sufferer, and had taken him away to that better, happier home, where He will love also to make room for you and me, if we seek Him with all our hearts, and try to do His will. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Religion in childhood

I can never, said the late Rev. George Burder, forget my birthday, June 5, 1762. It was on a Sabbath; and after tea, and before family worship, my father was accustomed to catechize me, and examine what I remembered of the sermons of the day. That evening he talked to me very affectionately, and reminded me that it was high time I began to seek the Lord, and to become truly religious. He particularly insisted upon the necessity of an interest in Christ Jesus, and showed me that, as a sinner, I must perish without it, and recommended me to begin that night to pray for it. After family worship, when my father and mother used to retire to their closets for private devotion, I also went to my chamber, the same room in which I was born, and then, I trust, sincerely and earnestly, and, as far as I can recollect, for the first time poured out my soul to God, beseeching Him to give me an interest in Christ, and desiring, above all things, to be found in Him. I am now an old man, but reflecting on that evening, I have often been ready to conclude, that surely I was then, though a little child, brought to believe in Christ.

Christ our example in youth

In what respects, then, is the youth of CHRIST AN EXAMPLE TO US

1. First, it is an example to us of personal piety, and that from our earliest years. The grace of God was upon Him, is the evangelists expression in our text; whilst, a few verses lower down, we have him saying, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

2. Again, in the youth of Christ we have an example of diligence in the use of means for our mental progress and improvement. He was filled with wisdom, says our text. And after His Visit to the Temple, it is said again, He increased in wisdom. The youth of Christ, then, we consider, may fairly be cited as furnishing us with an example of the dignity, and value, and importance of intellectual culture.

3. We note next that Christ in His youth was an example of reverent submission to parental authority. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.

4. Further, Christ in His youth is an example to us of the duty of a heartfelt and entire consecration of ourselves to the Divine service. Must ye not that I must be about My Fathers business? was the question of the Holy One to His parents, when they found Him in the Temple.

5. Once more, Christ in His youth is an example to us of patient and contented acquiescence in our providential lot however adverse, however obscure, however disappointing to the expectations which our friends may have formed for us, or which we, in our foolish pride, may be tempted to form for ourselves. (D. Moore, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 40. The child grew] As to his body – being in perfect health.

Waxed strong in spirit] His rational soul became strong and vigorous.

Filled with wisdom] The divinity continuing to communicate itself more and more, in proportion to the increase of the rational principle. The reader should never forget that Jesus was perfect man, as well as God.

And the grace of God was upon him.] The word , not only means grace in the common acceptation of the word, (some blessing granted by God’s mercy to those who are sinners, or have no merit,) but it means also favour or approbation: and this sense I think most proper for it here, when applied to the human nature of our blessed Lord; and thus our translators render the same word, Lu 2:52. Even Christ himself, who knew no sin, grew in the favour of God; and, as to his human nature, increased in the graces of the Holy Spirit. From this we learn that, if a man were as pure and as perfect as the man Jesus Christ himself was, yet he might nevertheless increase in the image, and consequently in the favour, of God. God loves every thing and person, in proportion to the nearness of the approaches made to his own perfections.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This verse shortly sums up all that we have in the Gospel of the history of the first twelve years of our Saviours life. Though there could be no accession to the perfection of the Divine nature in Christ, yet as to his human nature he was (as we are) capable of accession of habits, and wisdom and knowledge; for though the Divine nature was personally united to the human nature, yet there was no communication of properties.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

40. His mental development keptpace with His bodily, and “the grace of God,” the divinefavor, rested manifestly and increasingly upon Him. See Lu2:52.

Lu2:41-52. FIRSTCONSCIOUS VISITTO JERUSALEM.

“Solitary flowered out of thewonderful enclosed garden of the thirty years, plucked preciselythere where the swollen bud, at a distinctive crisis (attwelve years of age), bursts into flower. To mark that is assuredlythe design and the meaning of this record” [STIER].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the child grew,…. In body, in strength, and in stature; which shows that it was a true body Christ assumed, and like ours, which did not come to its maturity at once, but by degrees:

and waxed strong in spirit, or in his soul; for as he had a true body, he had also a reasonable soul; the faculties of which were far from being weak, they were exceeding strong, and appeared stronger and stronger every day; his understanding was clear, his judgment solid, and his memory strong and retentive, his will, and the desires of it, were to that which is good, and his affections cleaved unto it. The Persic and Ethiopic versions read, “was strengthened in”, or “by the Holy Spirit”; with the grace and gifts of it; but the former sense is best.

Filled with wisdom; and knowledge as man; for this is to be understood, not of his essential wisdom as God, nor of those treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which were hid in him as mediator, to be dispensed to his church; but of his created and natural wisdom, as man; in which he increased gradually, as his body grew, and the faculties of his soul opened under the influences of his deity, and the power of his Spirit;

and the grace of God was upon him; which designs not the fulness of grace that was in him, as mediator, for the supply of his people: but either that internal grace which was bestowed on his human nature, even the various graces of the Spirit of God, and which flowed from the grace of union of the two natures in him; or rather the love and favour of God, which in various instances was in a very singular manner manifested to him.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The child grew (). Imperfect indicative of a very ancient verb (). This child grew and waxed strong (, imperfect middle), a hearty vigorous little boy (). Both verbs Luke used in 1:80 of the growth of John the Baptist as a child. Then he used also , in spirit. Here in addition to the bodily development Luke has “filled with wisdom” ( ). Present passive participle, showing that the process of filling with wisdom kept pace with the bodily growth. If it were only always true with others! We need not be troubled over this growth in wisdom on the part of Jesus any more than over his bodily growth. “The intellectual, moral, and spiritual growth of the Child, like the physical, was real. His was a perfect humanity developing perfectly, unimpeded by hereditary or acquired defects. It was the first instance of such a growth in history. For the first time a human infant was realizing the ideal of humanity” (Plummer).

The grace of God ( ). In full measure.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The child grew, etc. The Jews marked the stages of a child ‘s development by nine different terms : the new born babe (Isa 9:6); the suckling (Isa 11:8); the suckling beginning to ask for food (Lam 4:4); the weaned child (Isa 28:9); the child clinging to its mother (Jer 40:7); the child becoming firm and strong (Isa 7:14, of the virgin mother); the youth, literally, he that shakes himself free; the ripened one, or warrior (Isa 31:8).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And the child grew,” (to de paidion nulsanen) “Then the child Jesus grew,” as normal children grow, except He grew with a life of stainless purity, doing no sin, living in a separate class from sinners, Heb 7:26.

2) “And, waxed strong in spirit,” (kai ekrataiouto) “And he became strong,” in mental, emotional, and spiritual development, as also noted, Luk 1:80; as also confirmed, Luk 2:52.

3) “Filled with wisdom;” (pleroumenon sophia) “Being filled with wisdom,” or controlled, dominated by and with wisdom, of a Divine nature.

4) “And the grace of God was upon him.” (kai charis theou en ep’ auto) “And (the) grace of God was (existed) upon him,” the special favor of Divine Presence of the Father was upon Him, Psa 45:2; Isa 11:2-3; Joh 1:14. He thus increased in three ways; in physical growth, in knowledge, and in favor with God, His Father who audibly acknowledged Him at His baptism, Mat 3:16-17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

40. And the child grew From the infancy of Christ Matthew passes immediately to his manifestation. (230) Luke relates here a single fact, which well deserved to be recorded. In the midst of his boyhood, Christ gave a specimen of his future office, or at least indicated, by a single attempt, what he would afterwards be. The child grew, and was invigorated in spirit These words show, that the endowments of his mind grew with his age. (231) Hence we infer, that this progress, or advancement, relates to his human nature: for the Divine nature could receive no increase.

But a question arises. From the time that he was conceived in his mother’s womb, did he not abound in all fullness of spiritual gifts? for it appears absurd to say, that the Son of God wanted any thing that was necessary to perfection. The reply is easy. If it takes nothing from his glory, that he was altogether, “emptied,” ( ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε , Phi 2:6,) neither does it degrade him, that he chose not only to grow in body, but to make progress in mind. And certainly when the Apostle declares, that, “in all things he was made like unto his brethren,”(Heb 2:17,) and “was in all points tempted like as we are, sin excepted,” (Heb 4:15,) he no doubt includes, that his soul was subject to ignorance. There is only this difference between us and him, that the weaknesses which press upon us, by a necessity which we cannot avoid, were undertaken by him voluntarily, and of his own accord. Christ received, in his human nature, according to his age and capacity, an increase of the free gifts of the Spirit, (232) that “out of his fullness” (Joh 1:16) he may pour them out upon us; for we draw grace out of his grace.

Some excessively timid persons restrict what is here said to outward appearance, and make the meaning to be, that Christ appeared to make progress, though, in point of fact, no addition was made to his knowledge. But the words have a quite different meaning, and this mistaken opinion is still more fully refuted by what Luke shortly afterwards adds, that he grew in age and wisdom with God and man, (Luk 2:52.) We are not at liberty to suppose, that knowledge lay concealed in Christ, and made its appearance in him in progress of time. There is no doubt whatever, that it was the design of God to express in plain terms, how truly and completely Christ, in taking upon him our flesh, did all that was necessary to effect his brotherly union with men. (233)

And yet we do not in this way suppose a double Christ: (234) for, though God and man are united in one person, it does not follow, that the human nature received what was peculiar to the Divine nature: but, so far as was necessary for our salvation, the Son of God kept his divine power concealed. What Irenaeus says, that his Divine nature was quiescent when he suffered, (235) I understand to refer, not only to bodily death, but to that amazing distress and agony of soul, which drew from him the complaint, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mat 27:46.) In a word, if we do not choose to deny, that Christ was made a real man, we ought not to be ashamed to acknowledge, that he voluntarily took upon him everything that is inseparable from human nature.

It is a foolish objection, that ignorance does not apply to Christ, because it is the punishment of sin: for the same thing might be said of death. Scripture declares, on the contrary, that he performed the office of Mediator: for all the punishment which we deserved was transferred from us to him. (236) Besides, it is a foolish mistake to say, that ignorance is the punishment of sin. For we must not suppose that Adam, while he remained in innocence, knew all things. Angels also are, to some extent, ignorant, and yet they do not endure the punishment of sin.

A more refined argument is employed by some, that there was no ignorance in Christ, because ignorance is sin. But those persons assume a principle which is altogether false and groundless: otherwise, the angels must either be equal to God, or they must be sinful. (237) There is no doubt a sinful blindness of the human mind, which is justly reckoned a part of original sin: but here we ascribe to Christ no other ignorance than what may fall upon a man who is pure from every taint of sin.

He was invigorated in spirit, and was full of wisdom Luke thus declares, that whatever wisdom exists among men, and receives daily accessions, flows from that single fountain, from the Spirit of God. The following phrase is more general, and the grace of God was upon him: for it includes all the excellence of every description that shone brightly in Christ.

(230) “ Au temps de sa manifestation;” — “to the time of his manifestation.”

(231) “ Avec l’aage les dons et graces d’Esprit croissoyent aussi et aug-mentoyent en luy.” — “With age, the gifts and graces of the Spirit grew also and increased in him.”.

(232) “ En dons et graces de l’Esprit;” — “in gifts and graces of the Spirit.”

(233) “ Avoit vrayement et entierement prins tout ce qui estoit possible et propre pour accomplir de tous points la conjonction fraternelle de luy avec les hommes.” — “Had truly and entirely taken all that was possible and fitted to complete, at all points, the brotherly union between him and men.”

(234) “ Deux Christs, ou un double Christ;” — “two Christs, or a double Christ.”

(235) “ Qu’il a souffert, sa Divinite ne demonstrant point sa vertu.” — “That he suffered, his Divinity not demonstrating power.”

(236) “ Pource qu’il a prins sur soy toutes les peines que nous avions meritees, afind nous en discharger.” — “Because he took upon himself all the punishment which we had deserved, in order to discharge us from it.”

(237) “ Autrement il faudra que les Anges soyent pareils a Dieu, et qu’ils sachent tout: ou selon le dire de ces gensci, ils seront vicieux.” — “Otherwise, the Angels must be equal to God, and know everything: or, according to the statement of these people, they must be sinful.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk. 2:40. Waxed strong.The words in spirit are added from Luk. 1:80; omitted in R.V. Filled with wisdom.Lit. becoming full of wisdom. The grace of God.The favour of God. The first point noted is healthy physical growth, the second a proportionate increase of knowledge, and the third an enjoyment of Gods favour.

Luk. 2:41.The male Israelites were commanded to attend the three yearly feasts (Exo. 23:14-17); but the custom seems to have fallen into abeyance. The attendance of women was not enjoined; but the great Rabbi Hillel had recommended it.

Luk. 2:42.At the age of twelve a Jewish boy became a son of the law, and came under the obligation of obeying all its precepts, including attendance at the Passover. It was probable, if not certain, that this was the first time Jesus had been in Jerusalem at this feast.

Luk. 2:43. The days.The seven days of the feast (Exo. 12:15). Joseph and His mother.His parents is the reading of the R.V.

Luk. 2:44. The company.The caravan, made up of those of the same district from which the pilgrims came.

Luk. 2:46. After three days.According to the Jewish idiom, this would be equivalent to on the third day. The days are easily accounted for: at the close of the first day Jesus was missed; the second day would be occupied with searching for Him on the way back to Jerusalem; on the third they found Him in the Temple. In the Temple.I.e. in the part of it to which Mary could go (Luk. 2:48), probably in one of the porches of the court of the women. The doctors.Teachers of the law, Jewish Rabbis. Hearing them, and asking them questions.The order of the words precludes the idea of Jesus sitting among them as a teacher. He was there rather as a learner, and, according to the custom of Jewish scholars, asking questions.

Luk. 2:48. Thy father and I.The use of this phrase is natural enough; but it is really inconsistent with the facts of the case. Jesus by implication draws attention to this fact in His reply. He knew and felt that there was something in Him and in His previous history, which ought to be known to Mary and Joseph, that justified His being where He was, and forbade their anxiety about Him (Popular Commentary, Schaff).

Luk. 2:49. About My Fathers business.Rather, in My Fathers house (R.V.). The phrase in the original might be translated in either way; but the latter rendering is so vivid and so happily suited to the circumstance of the case as to make it seem the more probable of the two.

Luk. 2:51. Subject unto them.Probably wrought at His reputed fathers trade (Mar. 6:3). This is the last notice of Joseph: tradition speaks of him as advanced in age on his marriage with Mary. Probably he died at some time during the eighteen years which elapsed between this time and the beginning of our Lords public ministry.

Luk. 2:52. Increased.Rather, advanced (R.V.). Stature.Or, age. The word, if taken in the latter sense, would include the former.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 2:40-52

Growth in Strength, Wisdom, and Grace.The fact that Jesus passed through various stages of development in bodily, mental, and spiritual life is one of great significance and importance, though we may find it impossible to reconcile it with our thoughts of Him as a Divine Being clothed with our nature. The assertion, however, that such was the case is made here, and in other parts of the New Testament we have testimonies of a similar kind. Thus in Heb. 2:10 we read of His being made perfect through sufferings, and in Luk. 5:8, though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience. Three stages of growth seem to be indicated in this brief record of His infancy and youth.

I. There is that of childish innocence.No instances of supernatural knowledge or of miraculous deeds are recorded in connection with His early years. The idea is conveyed to our minds that He lived a simple, blameless life, unconscious of the high calling that lay before Him, subject to His parents in the same way that ordinary children are while they are too young to think and act for themselves, and that neither His parents nor fellow-townsmen saw anything in Him to prepare them for the claims He put forward when He grew to manhood and entered public life.

II. There is that in which He first began to realise and manifest a sense of personal responsibility to God.This is indicated by His action in leaving His parents on the occasion of His first visit to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, and by His words in reply to their questions, in which He places His duty to God as an obligation superior even to that of ordinary filial obedience. He begins to distinguish between duties, and to give those which have paramount claims their due place. This stage is marked by the awakening of new and strange thoughts, and by His making inquiry concerning spiritual things from those who were qualified to teach them.

III. The third stage is that in which He finds the way in which to reconcile higher and lower obligations, so as to render perfect obedience to the law of God as it touches the duties we owe to Him and to our fellow-men.He returns to Nazareth, and is subject to His parents; but His obedience to them is of a higher cast than that which He had formerly rendered. It is intelligent, voluntary acceptance and discharge of duty, such as can only come with maturity of age. In all these stages of growth Christ has afforded a perfect example for all to follow.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 2:40-52

Luk. 2:40. A Picture of an Ideal Life.

1. Physical healthgrew and waxed strong.
2. Intellectual and moral developmentfilled with wisdom; acquiring true ideas
(1) concerning God, and
(2) concerning men and the world.
3. Having intimate relations with God:
(1) the object of His favour, and
(2) serving Him and loving Him perfectly and constantly.

Various Stages of Physical Growth.St. Luke mentions in order all the stages of life through which Jesus passedan unborn infant (Luk. 1:42), a babe (Luk. 2:12), a boy (Luk. 2:40), a youth (Luk. 2:43), a man (Luk. 24:19). He did not, like Adam, first appear of full stature; but sanctified every stage of life from infancy to manhood. Old age became Him not. Bengel

Filled with wisdom.Lit. becoming full of wisdom. The peculiar phrase here used implies both growth from less to greater and perfection at every point in the process; just as, if we could imagine it, a vessel increasing in dimensions and always remaining equally full, yet containing far more at the end than at the beginning.

Luk. 2:41. Went to Jerusalem every year.A hint is given of the pious atmosphere of the home in which Jesus grew up by the mention of the careful attendance of His parents year by year at the Passover feast in Jerusalem. His mother, like Hannah in earlier times, accompanied her husband, though the law did not prescribe her presence on the occasion. The fact of the corrupt and degenerate condition of religion and of the priestly order did not lead them to the disuse of public worship; and their example is a rebuke to those who become separatists on the ground of being unable to find that ideal purity in the Church which they desire.

Luk. 2:42. The First Pilgrim-journey of Jesus.This was apparently the first time Jesus had attended the Passover feast or been in Jerusalem since He was presented as a babe in the Temple. No doubt He came up regularly to the feast every year after this. Every one who can remember his own first journey from a village home to the capital of his country will understand the joy and excitement with which Jesus set out. He travelled over eighty miles of a country where nearly every mile teemed with historical and inspiring memories. He mingled with the constantly growing caravan of pilgrims who were filled with the religious enthusiasm of the great ecclesiastical event of the year. His destination was a city which was loved by every Jewish heart with a strength of affection that has never been given to any other capitala city full of objects and memories fitted to touch the deepest springs of interest and emotion in His breast. He went to take part for the first time in an ancient solemnity, suggestive of countless patriotic and sacred memories. It was no wonder that when the day came to return home He was so excited with the new objects of interest that He failed to join His party at the appointed place and time (Stalker).

When He was twelve years old.The age of twelve is no doubt specified as marking a new epoch in the life of Jesus, and a new attitude towards the law of God; for now, as having arrived at years of discretion, He, like other Jewish children, took upon Him the moral responsibilities of an adult. This corresponds to the action of joining the Church with us, an occasion when, in many Christian communities, the rite of confirmation is administered.

Luk. 2:43. The Child Jesus.The silence of Scripture is as eloquent as its speech. Here, as so often, the veil is the picture. There is a profound lesson in the fact that only one of the four evangelists has anything to tell us of the still unfolding of that perfect life before Christs entrance on His public ministry. The contrast between the one paragraph given to His childhood and youth, and the fulness of the narrative of His works, and still more the minute particulars of His death, ought to teach us that the true centre of His worth to the world lies in His ministering, and the vital point of it all in His giving His life a ransom for many.Maclaren.

The Education of Jesus.That Jesus was a solitary child seems unnatural to suppose. Compulsory education was the law of the land. If the law was in force in Galilee, He must have attended the national synagogue school, and formed one of a circle of children around the minister of the synagogue; joining, too, in childish sports with His school-fellows, as well as in childish lessons.Vallings.

The Boyhood of Jesus.This is the one only passage that speaks of the boyhood of Jesus, and I think all lovers of the graphic and picturesque touches of Holy Scripture will rejoice to find in the Revised Version the plain and very human expression the boy Jesus (Luk. 2:43). What a text that will furnish for the school-chapels of England, what a storehouse of exhortation and doctrine for the struggling and weary and heavy-laden (and there are many) among the young soldiers of Jesus Christthat large part of the human family which has all life before it, with its boundless capacities of use and abuse, of happiness and misery, of good and evil!Vaughan.

Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem.His tarrying behind in Jerusalem was an act which was only to be justified by the higher relationship of which He afterwards spoke to His parents (Luk. 2:49). His whole course of procedure on this occasion is an illustration of that wisdom which He possessed in ever-increasing measure, under the guidance of which He diverged from the course of conduct towards His parents to which He had hitherto adhered.

Luk. 2:44. Supposing Him to have been in the company.It is an indication of the confidence which His parents had in His discretion that they did not immediately seek Him when they discovered that He was absent. He evidently had been allowed a more than usual amount of liberty of action as a child by parents who had never known Him to transgress their commandments or be guilty of a sinful or foolish deed.

Luk. 2:45-46. The Lord Jesus a Learner.The only record of the interval between the Lords infancy and ripe manhood. No warrant for the gossiping stories of the early life and miracles of Jesus. An instructive incident, as showing how early the Lord began to display the inquiring and critical spirit which afterwards bore such precious fruits of knowledge and wisdom. The astonishment of the rabbis shows how different a student they found Him from such as were wont to sit at their feet. He asked no stock questions, and was to be put off with no stock answers. Not that He put Himself forward as a teacher under the guise of a learner. He questioned the doctors with a genuine desire to learn. Some of them were, as older men, in one sense wiser than Himself. It was possibly the acuteness with which He chose out and addressed Himself to such that chiefly raised the astonishment of the by standers.Markby.

In the midst of the doctors.The picture powerfully affects the imagination and stimulates the heart, of the sweet, serious Boy, with His fresh childface, touched with awe and eagerness, sitting at the feet of the grey-bearded rabbis, and bringing their so-called wisdom to the sharp test which so much learned lumber can ill endurethe questioning of a childs heart. How sharp the contrast between the cumbrous doctrines of the teachers and the way of thinking of such a Child! His purpose was not to put the doctors to confusion; but no doubt these questions of the Boy would be the germ of those later questions of the Man which so often silenced the Pharisee and the Sadducee, and made their elaborate wisdom look like folly by the side of His deep and simple words.Maclaren.

Luk. 2:46. After three days.Just as afterwards His friends and disciples lost Him for three days, and mourned for Him as for one dead, though their knowledge of Him should have prepared them to expect to see Him again. Even now a certain blame in like manner attaches to His parents for not knowing where at once to find Him. When He was left alone in Jerusalem, what other asylum could He seek but His Fathers house?

Both hearing them.He who would teach must himself be a learnermust have the docile spirit. Those who have made it their object to study and expound the word of God are sure, whatever may be their faults and failings, to have something worth imparting. The example of Jesus on this occasion teaches that due honour is to be paid to those who in the name of the Church teach sacred truth.

Sitting in the midst.This seems to imply a place of honouras though these doctors willingly received Him into their order, though He professed Himself but a learner, because of the wisdom He manifested. It is, as noted (see critical remarks), quite evident that He did not do more than put questions and answer questions; but none the less even the teacher of most authority there must have instinctively felt that this was no common pupil. The idea of a child lecturing or teaching in a formal or authoritative way is a repellent one, and utterly contrary to the Divine order according to which all things are ruled.

Luk. 2:47. Astonished.He brought with Him a clear knowledge of Gods word, in which no doubt He had been versed from earliest years, and a mind and spirit undisturbed and unclouded by the errors and fantastical interpretations that prevailed in rabbinical schools. He might say with the psalmist: I have more understanding than my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my study (Psa. 119:99). The Rabbins themselves said that the word of God out of the mouth of childhood is to be received as from the mouth of the Sanhedrim, of Moses, yea, of the blessed God Himself (Stier). Cf. Psa. 8:2.

Luk. 2:48. Why hast thou thus dealt with us?The first reproof which Jesus had ever received from His mother; yet in it there is quite as much of astonishment at His conduct as of implied blame. The way is still left open for Him to justify His action and approve Himself free from fault.

Sorrowing.No doubt often during those three days the ominous words of Simeon, spoken nearly twelve years before, had recurred to the Virgins mind (Luk. 2:35): Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also.

A Parents Complaint.The Lords mother was seriously disappointed with Him. We might indeed say she was vexed. But He defends Himself with warmth, as if injustice has been done Him. The incident is full of interest and importance, displaying Jesus as the type and ideal for opening youth.

I. There are stages, epochs, crises of growth in the spirit to be expected, appreciated, recognised.The laws of our moral as well as of our physical nature are inexorable and benignant. We must neither lament, resent, ignore, nor resist them; but face, accept, and use them as they manifest themselves in opening years.

II. Occasionally there will be apparent suddenness in their manifestation.Ripeness will seem to come all at once. The will has been maturing while the parent knew it not. It seems as if a mine had been sprung on him, and a sense of unfairness goes with it. This is natural, but unreasonable. Nature cannot wait for us till we are ready. When the blossom sets the fruit appears. There is no sin in this. It cannot be otherwise.

III. That surprise, disappointment, or pain results is no fault of the child.Mary probably soon regretted her momentary heat. On the part of sons and daughters there is often abruptness, wilfulness, and audacity towards parents. This is the accident of the case, resulting from human infirmity. That the parent feels pain is inevitable. But love, good sense, and an instinct of justice soon heal the wound.

IV. For with patience and tolerance on the part of parents will come gratitude on the part of youth, and appreciation of our large-heartedness. Youth, with all its disdains, and caprices, and conceits, is still the worlds leverage, and the most lovable thing in it.

V. A real love of knowledge is a noble thing.We are not to frown at it in the young, or be frightened, but encourage it, and judiciously direct it. The pursuit of knowledge has risks, but these are less dangerous than those which are concerned with the indulgence of the senses. Reason is a Divine gift, and is to be trained and cultivated for God.

VI. In the end our self-restraint and kindness, and faith in Gods holy will shall have their reward.Jesus went down to Nazareth, and was subject. So it will be in the end between us and our children. We shall lose nothing by granting what belongs to them, but we shall gain more. They must be helped, not hindered, at this difficult stage in lifes journey. We, too, have been as they are. Let us not forget our own youth. Let us try to make friends with our children, and encourage them to confide in us.Thorold.

Luk. 2:49. Jesus in the Temple (for boys and girls).The Boy in the Temple hallows the lessons of youth. The story that Luke tells should be full of interest and help to lads and maidens. Though only twelve, we should think of Him as we should among ourselves think of a youth of sixteen or seventeen. He was no longer a child. Those entering on the untried future of manhood or womanhood are standing just where Jesus stood. Learn then of Him. Follow in His footsteps. Find in His words

I. His trust.Wist ye not? It is a sad surprise to find that His mother had been in doubt as to where He was or what He was doing. He fully trusted in His mothers understanding of the thoughts of her child. You who are beginning to live a life of your own must often be misunderstood. Do you show the same trust in the knowledge and sympathy of your parents? You, too, may be feeling, like our Lord, that there is an inner life into which even the nearest and dearest cannot enter. Do not, as He did not, on that account, by suspicion and discontent strain the bond of unity of thought and feeling until it snaps.

II. His task.Even now He has an overmastering sense of duty. I must be. He began life with no thought of self-pleasing, but with the single aim to please His Father in heaven. He knew nothing of a divided heart or of a wavering will. As child, youth, man, there was wholehearted, steadfast surrender to God. Have you the single aim? Or is your desire only to be freeto do as you like? Do you wish to please yourself or God? Own His claim over you.

III. His thought.My Fathers house. My Fathers business. He knew and felt God to be near in the place where He was, in the task that He did. He was doing Gods will in learning about the law. In the Temple-worship and teaching God was making Himself known to Him. He lived with and for God. Of Him He thought, Him He served as Father. Have you thus known God as near to you? Have you acknowledged Him in your humblest duty? When you pray to and praise Him you are in His house. In your lowly daily work, if you do it because you know it is Gods will for you, you are about His business.Garvie.

My Fathers business.The first recorded words of Jesus. His calm repose is in strong contrast to Marys not unnatural excitement. In one sentence, like a sudden beam of light shooting into some profound gulf, He shows the depths of His child-heart.

I. The consciousness of sonship.There is an evident reference to Marys words, Thy father and I. She had carefully guarded from Him, hitherto, the mystery of His birth. His question is an appeal to her secret. There is no material given for deciding whether this consciousness was now felt or expressed for the first time. The words point to a distinct and unique con sciousness of sonship, apprehended in childish fashion. This is the first note to which the after-life is so true.

II. The consciousness of a Divine vocation.Here is the first expression of that solemn must of which we hear the echoes all through His subsequent life. Sonship implies obedience; the sense of sonship implies filial submission. His childish recognition of this necessity grew in depth and solemnity with His growing years; but here we have it clearly discerned as the guiding star of the Childs life. The parallel in youthful lines is when the sense of duty and responsibility becomes more active. It is a solemn time when young shoulders first begin to feel the burden of personal responsibility. Happy they who feel not only the pressure of a law, but the hand of a Lawgiverwho say not reluctantly but gladly, I must!

III. The subordination of all human ties to this solemn necessity.The incident itself illustrates this. The call to the Fathers business was more imperative than the call to Marys side. It was the first breaking away from the seclusion and peace of Nazareth, the first time that His conduct had shown that anything was to Him more sacred, than a mothers love or than a mothers sorrow. The dawning on the soul of that consciousness of supreme duty does not extinguish the light of filial duty to parents, nor darken the brightness of any of the sweet charities of family and kindred. But it decisively puts them second, and opens the possibility, so dreadful to exacting human love, of apparent conflict between two duties, in which the lower may have to give place to the higher. It is a great moment in every life when the young soul discerns a law more imperative, because he has become aware of a love more tender than the commandment of a father or the law of a mother. The recognition of the will of a Father in heaven, to whose business all earthly ties must yield, lies at the foundation of every holy and noble life.Maclaren.

I must.It is interesting to observe that it is the sterner view of duty that seems to influence the childI must. In other parts of Scripture we have indications that this was not His only viewthat doing Gods will was a joy to Him. But, strange to say, at the early age of twelve, we find Him rather girding Himself for what is trying and irksome to human nature; bringing His young soul to face it, like one breasting a hill or buffeting the waves. The lesson is obvious. Nothing is more salutary or more promising than this early grappling with labour: no flinching, but the stern, steady I must.Blaikie.

My Fathers business.The Fathers business on which He entered at twelve was not preaching, and working miracles, and going about doing good in a public manner, but for the time remaining at home, a dutiful child, a glad, helpful youth, and an industrious, growing man.Miller.

The First Words of Jesus.These are the first recorded words of Jesus, and are instinct with the Spirit that guided and animated His whole lifethat of devotion to His Father in heaven. The quiet repose, and serenity, and self-possession of this reply are highly characteristic of Him.

Christs Testimony to Himself.It is distinctly noticeable that to the thy father of Mary He opposes My Father, and that by His artless wonder that they sought for Him anywhere but in the Temple He claimed that special relationship with God which had been announced to Mary and Joseph before His birth (Luk. 1:35; Mat. 1:20). Hitherto pious Jews and lowly shepherds, waiting for the salvation of Israel, have borne testimony to the infant Messiah: He now bears testimony to Himself (Lange).

Jesus Lost and Found.The loss and recovery of Jesus may be taken to symbolise experiences in our own spiritual life. Certain it is that we also, if we would find Christ, must seek Him where He is ever to be found, in His holy Temple (Burgon).

Luk. 2:49-50 The Idea of our Life-work.

I. We have to pass through the period of necessary unconsciousness.There was a period in our Lords life of pure sensation. So it is with ourselves, with even the most intellectual and most spirituala time when there is scarcely any thought of God or knowledge of duty.

II. Then comes a time when the light of life dawns upon the soul.Before Jesus was twelve years old He had pondered the great thoughts with which the Scriptures deal. The loftiest truths ask early admission to the soul. The little child has ideas immeasurably above the reach of the cleverest and best-trained animal.

III. The hour arrives when the idea of our life-work is recognised by the soul.In our Lords case this life-work was exceptional, unique. Even now He did not understand all that it meant. As He increased in wisdom He became more fully conscious of His mission, and the shadow of the cross deepened. Still, in the Temple He had a very definite idea that His Father had chosen Him to do some great work. In our case the life-work of following Christ is binding upon allthe particular career varies, in which this following is to be carried out. It may not be a distinctively religious calling.

IV. At this momentous crisis we have to decide alone.His parents understood not the saying. We might have thought His mother would have been sympathetic and intelligent. So Jesus was alone in all the critical hours of His career. We may be thankful for parental encouragement and human sympathy in every crisis; but with or without these, aided, unaccompanied, or opposed, we must for ourselves be about the Fathers business when His summons falls on our ear.Clarkson.

Luk. 2:50. The Idea of Divine Sonship.It is, therefore, evident that the special relationship with God of which He spoke had not been a fact communicated to Him by His parents; nor was the idea of Messiahs being Son of God as well as Son of man taught by the doctors amongst whom He had been sitting. It was a truth which had just dawned upon Him and led Him to act as He did.

A Flower from an Enclosed Garden.This incident is the only one recorded in the life of Jesus between His presentation in the Temple when forty days old, and His appearance on the bank of the Jordan at the age of thirty when He received baptism from John. It is a solitary floweret out of the wonderful enclosed garden of the thirty years, plucked precisely there where the swollen bud, at a distinctive crisis, bursts into flower (Stier).

Luk. 2:51. Went down with them.The statement as to His obedience to His parents is almost necessary to correct misapprehensions we might have formed from the above incident. He did not henceforth act habitually in a manner they would be forced to consider wayward, on impulses which they could not understand. He did not allow His feelings to prevail over His duties as a son and as a member of a household; if His affections attracted Him to the Temple, the voice of duty called Him back to Galilee, and to that voice He rendered implicit obedience. The veil that concealed His higher nature, after being for a moment lifted, was allowed to fall again, and His normal human life passed back into its former course.

Subject unto them.There is something wonderful beyond measure in the thought of Him unto whom all things are subject submitting to earthly parents. No such honour was ever done to men or to angels as was now done to Joseph and Mary. The calm of home-life, the healthy occupation of manual labour, and the seclusion of Nazareth were a better preparation for Christs public ministry than the Temple with its ritualism and the schools of the Rabbis would have been.

The Lesson of Patience.What a lesson of patient waiting for the wider sphere is here! Young people, conscious of power, or often only stung by restlessness, are apt to think home a very contracted field, and to despise its quiet monotony, and chafe at its imposition of petty obedience. Jesus Christ lived till He was thirty in a poor little village buried among the hills, worked as a carpenter, did what His mother bade Him, and was content till His hour came. Vanity, selfish ambition, proud independence, are always in a hurry to get away from the modest shelter of a mothers house and make a mark in the world. The prodigal, who wants riotous living, is in a hurry too. But the true Son is the more a Son of Mary because He feels Himself the Son of God, and nourishes His pure spirit in sweet seclusion, which yet is not solitude, till the time comes for larger service in a wider sphere. The wider work is quietly postponed for the narrower tasks.

Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart,

And yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Maclaren.

Willing Dependence.You do not read of any ambition in Jesus Christ to be independent; you do not find Him remonstrating or murmuring against the restraints of home, and beginning to remind Himself or others that the time had come for self-management and self-concern. Shall not the son, the daughter, in a Christian home deem that good enough and great enough which a Saviour, who was also the Creator, thought happy enough and honourable enough for Him?Vaughan.

The Silent Years of Christs Life.In these quiet and simple words years of meek submission are condensed, as a thin film of imperishable stone represents the growth and leafage of a forest that waved green through geological cycles. For eighteen uneventful years the story of His life lies in these few words that we may learn how the spirit of a son makes every place the Fathers house and every meanest task the Fathers business.Maclaren.

Kept all these sayings in her heart.The Virgin did not merely keep these sayings in her memory; she kept them in her heart. This is the true way in which to store up spiritual knowledge. That which is committed to the tablets of the memory may fade away, and may not, of necessity, be much of an influence upon our feelings, and thoughts, and lives. But the things that are kept in the heart lose none of their freshness with the lapse of time, and are a perpetual stimulus to holy life and action. The things we store up in the heart are things we love; and in them we have a motive to service of God, which yields to none in strengtha ground of assurance that will overcome all our doubts and fearsa means for understanding Gods dealings with us more perfectly, and for recognising things that are hidden from natural vision and from intellectual research.

Luk. 2:52. In favour with God and man.Innocence grew into holiness, and did so in such an artless, natural mariner that it won the approval of men as well as the favour of God. The world did not as yet hate Him, for He did not, except by unconscious example, testify against it that its deeds are evil (cf. Joh. 7:7).

The Growth in Wisdom of the Divine Boy.

I. His growth was real.His human nature must have had the inexperience and ignorance of childhood, and must have passed, in a normal manner, to wider knowledge and clearer self-consciousness. There is nothing to startle in this. Growth does not imply imperfection. It only implies finiteness, and therefore development in time. The capacity of His human spirit increased, and therefore His wisdom increased.

II. His growth was uninterrupted, unstained, symmetrical, universal.He alone fulfilled His own law of growthfirst the blade, etc. The best of us grow by fits and starts, and in the wrong direction. In His growth there were no pauses, no sinful elements mingled, no powers unduly developed or deformed. His childhood had no failings, and all in it that could be retained abode with Him in His manhood.

III. His growth in wisdom was by the use of means.Life taught Him. Scripture taught Him. Communion with His Father taught Him. The heavens and the earth taught Him. His own heart taught Him. But the result of all those, and whatsoever other forces shaped His human growth, was a human character which had so perfectly assimilated them all that no trace of any particular influence appears in it. So, in lower fashion, genius uses all the outward means available, but is their master, not their servant, and is not made by them, but only finds in them stimulus and an occasion for development of its, inborn power. Jesus is not the product of any or all of these outward means. He grew by their help, but was not shaped by them. A perfect man must be more than man. A sinless Jesus cannot be the son of Joseph and Mary.Maclaren.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(40) Waxed strong in spirit.The better MSS. omit the last two words.

Filled with wisdom.The Greek participle implies the continuous process of being filled, and so conveys the thought expressed in Luk. 2:52, of an increase of wisdom. The soul of Jesus was human, i.e., subject to the conditions and limitations of human knowledge, and learnt as others learn. The heresy of Apollinarius, who constructed a theory of the Incarnation on the assumption that the Divine Word (the Logos of St. Johns Gospel) took, in our Lords humanity, the place of the human mind or intellect, is thus, as it were, anticipated and condemned.

The grace of God was upon him.The words seem chosen to express a different thought from that used to describe the growth of the Baptist. Here there was more than guidance, more than strength, a manifest outflowing of the divine favour in the moral beauty of a perfectly holy childhood.

On the history of the period between this and the next verses, see Excursus in the Notes on Matthew 2.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14. JESUS GOES TO THE PASSOVER AT TWELVE YEARS OF AGE, Luk 2:40-52 .

To the question, What sort of a boy was Jesus? this brief passage forms the whole scripture answer. We learn from it that he had a true human soul as well as body. He was a genuine natural child, infant, and boy. When as an infant the shepherds paid to him their homage, and the Magi presented their gifts, he was, perhaps, unconscious of the nature of the transactions. When, at the age of some two and a half years, his parents brought him from their flight into Egypt to the hills of Nazareth, his body grew: and amid the bold scenes of hill and dale, with the blue Mediterranean in the distance, his mind received its expansion. As the synagogue and the lessons at home unfolded the truths of the Old Testament to his view, telling of the Messiah to come, it is wonderful to think what might have been the first presentiments to his mind that he was himself that Messiah. Perhaps this passage tells us of the first distinct consciousness that God was his Father in the highest sense.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was on him.’

Meanwhile the child Jesus continued to grow. And He grew strong spiritually, and was filled with wisdom (compare Act 6:3; Act 6:10). And the gracious activity of God continued on His life. John grew strong in Spirit (Luk 1:80) but here was One who had the added extra. He was even more exceptional.

We should note what is involved in this. Jesus has not come ‘knowing everything’ and with such heavenly awareness that He cannot be tempted. He has come as a human being, Who has to grow and learn, Who has to think and understand. He has to grow in knowledge and understanding. But the great difference between Him and us is that He has the Spirit without measure and is totally responsive to His guidance. Thus all He does receive and know is truth.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Luk 2:40 Comments – I was raised in church as a child. In fact, my earliest memories are those of being in a church nursery, looking up at all of those big people from the nursery floor. I also remember attending church in the small red-brick sanctuary of Hiland Park Baptist Church, in Panama City, Florida. This was at the age of 4 years old or less.

I clearly remember at the age of seven tugging on my mom’s sleeve one Sunday morning during the altar call, asking her if I could go down and give my life to Jesus. I remember weeping, answering questions from the pastor, and sitting down to fill out a decision card.

Those Sunday school lessons, those memories of church, being around saints of God, have instilled in me the Judeo-Christian values that I have taken with me my entire life.

At the age of 21, weeks after graduating from college, I knew where to go to in order to turn my life around. I rededicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ because my roots were in church.

Jesus was given this same heritage in a righteous home.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Luk 2:40. And the grace of God was upon him See the note on Luk 2:52.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Luk 2:40 . Similar to Luk 1:80 , but more distinctive and more characteristic, in keeping with the human development of the Son of God , who was to grow up to be the organ of truth and grace . Comp. Luk 2:52 .

. .] the internal state of things accompanying the ; He became a vigorous child ( . [58] ), while at the same time He became filled , etc.

] not to be taken of distinguished bodily gracefulness (Raphel, Wolf, Wetstein), but as: the favour of God , which was directed upon Him. Comp. Luk 2:52 . On , comp. Act 4:33 .

[58] Cyril of Alexandria says: , . Observe that in our passage is not added as at i. 80; the mental development follows in . .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

Ver. 40. And the grace of God was upon him ] Without measure: so that of his overflow we have all received “grace for grace,” Joh 1:16 . He had a fulness, not repletive only, but diffusive too; not of plenty only, but of bounty also; not only of abundance, but of redundance. He was anointed with the oil of gladness, not only above, but for his fellows.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

40. ] in body . ., in spirit: is a correct gloss. “The body advances in stature, and the soul in wisdom the divine nature revealed its own wisdom in proportion to the measure of the bodily growth.” Cyril. Oxf. transl. p. 30.

., becoming filled: see Luk 2:52 and note there.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 2:40 . , grew, and waxed strong, both in reference to the physical nature. in T.R. is borrowed from Luk 1:80 ; a healthy, vigorous child, an important thing to note in reference to Jesus. : present participle, not = plenus , Vulg [35] , full, but in course of being filled with wisdom mind as well as body subject to the law of growth. : a great word of St. Paul’s, also more used by Lk. than by either of the other two synoptists ( vide Luk 1:30 , Luk 4:22 , Luk 6:32-34 ); here to be taken broadly = favour, good pleasure. The child Jesus dear to God, and the object of His paternal care.

[35] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

in spirit. All the texts omit this. App-101. Mat 2 comes in here.

the grace, &c. Compare Joh 1:14. Isa 11:2, Isa 11:3.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

40.] -in body. ., in spirit: is a correct gloss. The body advances in stature, and the soul in wisdom the divine nature revealed its own wisdom in proportion to the measure of the bodily growth. Cyril. Oxf. transl. p. 30.

., becoming filled: see Luk 2:52 and note there.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 2:40. , grew) in body; i.e. with the growth of an infant: but in Luk 2:52 His progress [increase] as a boy is referred to, , He made progress. The former includes the period from His first to His twelfth year: the latter, from His twelfth to His thirtieth year. Even subsequently [a spiritual increase (or rather, full perfection, and fulness) is implied], in ch. Luk 4:1; Luk 4:14. The mention of phases of progress is joined with His Presentation in the temple, with His remaining in the temple on the occasion of the Passover, and with His baptism.- , waxed strong in spirit) as compared with John, [of whom the same thing is said, but] of whom it is not added, as here, that He was filled with wisdom; ch. Luk 1:80. Wisdom is the highest of the endowments of the soul. As to the piety of Jesus whilst still a little child, see Psa 22:10-11; the same inference may be drawn by reasoning from the less to the greater;[31] Luk 1:15; Luk 1:44.-) the favour [grace] of God was towards Him. Afterwards He became known to men.

[31] If John the Forerunner was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb, a fortiori the Lord Jesus.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

the Boy Jesus in the Temple

Luk 2:40-52

Solitary floweret, says Stier, referring to this incident, gathered from the wonderful enclosed garden of the thirty years and plucked precisely when the swollen bud, at the age of twelve years, was about to burst into flower.

The incident is specially valuable as indicating so perfect an understanding between our Lord and His mother. He wondered that, knowing Him as she did, she could have lost Him, or should have failed to seek Him in His Fathers house. The stress is on Wist ye not? Here, however, He seemed to pass into a new attitude toward His life-work. May we not say that He caught sight of its absorbing character, to which all else must be subordinated?

Let us never suppose that we are in the company of Jesus, when, in fact, we may have lost Him. Never rest till you and He have found each other!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

The Growth of the Child Jesus

And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.Luk 2:40.

1. There is great significance in the fact, seldom appreciated by common believers or teachers of Christianity, that Jesus was once a child, with a childs thoughts, feelings, joys, griefs, and trials. Not only was He a man, and therefore nothing human was alien to Him but sin, but He was also a child, and no childish experience is unknown to Him or removed from His sympathy. He became a child, as Irenus beautifully observes, that He might be the Saviour of children. He has sanctified childhood, as He has every other age and experience of humanity, by passing through it. And the light and sanctity of this Divine childhood still linger around every human child, as the ideal of the artist hovers over the statue he has wrought, making it beautiful by the reflection of its pure and perfect beauty.

2. The subject of the text is the growth of Jesus. The child grew. Many read this statement without perplexity; but in all ages of the Church reflective minds have felt the difficulty of harmonizing the idea of progress with that of Divinity. The difficulty is undeniably a real one and may not be ignored; yet there would surely have been far more difficulty if Luke had said or implied that the Child did not grow. The Incarnation is a mystery which transcends our powers of explanation; but when once we have been told, and have believed, that Jesus was born and that Jesus died, we have left ourselves no excuse for doubting at the interval between these two events must have been filled up with years of normal human life.

3. First of all, then, we have the fact stated. Apocryphal histories of the infancy are full of marvellous tales; but none of these is trustworthy, and nearly all are glaringly false. There are many blanks in the narratives we possess, but it appears that after the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, Joseph and Mary returned to Bethlehem, where, before long, the Magi found them living, not in the village inn where the Child was born, but in a private house, as Matthew incidentally mentions. When the wise men had departed to their unknown country, Jesus was carried into Egypt, whence, after the death of Herod, He was brought back into Palestine, and placed in one of the most beautiful and retired villages of the northern province. In Nazareth the Child grew up in quietude as a healthy, happy child, strong in body and in mind; and men saw that grace, or rather, the beauty of God, the Divine beauty of holiness, was upon Him. This brief, but most significant, memorial contains in outline the story of twelve years, during which the arm of the Lord dwelt in the lowly home which His heavenly Father had chosen as the most suitable of all the homes then existent on the, earth.

4. Next, we see that His growth was natural. Think for a moment of the difficulty of conceiving a childhood in which Deity and humanity should be united, with no injustice done to either element. It is one of the evidences of the truthfulness of the Gospel narrative that it presents a perfectly natural and harmonious life, neither impossible to man nor unworthy of God.

The moment we look outside our Gospels we see what havoc the imagination was bound to make in attempting to fill up the outline by the invention of details. The Apocryphal Gospels of the infancy endeavour to assert the union of Divine power with human childhood by a series of grotesque miracles. One day the child Jesus cures a serpents bite by blowing on it, and kills the serpent by the same means; another day He tames a whole den of lions, and leads them dry-foot across Jordan; another day He makes birds out of clay and claps His hands and they fly away. St. Luke, on the contrary, while ever ready to record miracle in its proper place, takes pains to describe the holy childhood as a simple and natural growth alike of body and of mind, in due subjection to the restraints of home, free from precocity and yet not without strange intuitions, prophetic intimations of an unusual future, perplexing at the time but full of meaning in the light of later days.

Did angels hover oer His head

What time, as Holy Scriptures saith,

Subject and dutiful He led

His boyhoods life at Nazareth?

Was there an aureole round His hair,

A mystic symbol and a sign,

To prove to every dweller there,

Who saw Him, that He was divine?

Did He in childish joyance sweet,

Join other children in their play,

And with soft salutation greet

All who had passed Him in the way?

Did He within the Rabbis schools

Say Aleph, Beth, and Gimel mid

The Jewish lads, or use the tools

At Josephs bench as Joseph did?

And sometimes would He lay His head,

When tired, on Marys tender breast,

And share the meal her hand had spread,

And in her mother-love find rest?

We marvelbut we only know

That holy, harmless, undefiled,

In wisdom, as in stature, so

He grew as any mortal child.

All power, all glory hid away

In depths of such humility,

That thenceforth none might ever say

They had a lowlier lot than He!

And since the child of Nazareth

Set on it thus His seal and sign,

Whotill mans sin hath marred itsaith

That childhood is not still divine!

The Evangelists record no incidents of the childhood of Jesus which separate it from the childhood of other of the children of men. The flight into Egypt is the flight of parents with a child; the presence of the boy in the Temple is marked by no abnormal sign, for it is a distorted imagination which has given the unbiblical title to the sceneChrist disputing with the Doctors, or Christ teaching in the Temple. But as the narrative of the Saviours ministry proceeds, we are reminded again and again of the presence of children in the multitudes that flocked about Him. The signs and wonders which He wrought were more than once through the lives of the young, and the suffering and disease of humanity which form the background in the Gospels upon which we see sketched in lines of light the outline of the redeeming Son of Man are shown in the persons of children, while the deeper life of humanity is disclosed in the tenderness of parents.1 [Note: H. E. Scudder, Childhood in Literature, 48.]

Luke the Evangelist speaks of the growth of the Son of Mary as he might have done of that of Samuel, the son of Hannah, or as Froude might of Martin Luther, the son of Margaret. It was gradual and natural, in body and mind, in its physical, mental, and spiritual characteristics. Every glimpse we get of the child, the boy, and the man, reveals the same full humanness. Neither boy nor man is abnormal. Nothing is artificial, mechanical, external: all is vital, natural, and inward. The mystery of His Origin and Nature notwithstanding, we must say, with Principal; Fairbairn, the supernatural in Jesus did not exist for Jesus, but! for the world.2 [Note: J. Clifford, The Dawn of Manhood, 35.]

The words recall, and are meant to recall, three others childhoods:

(1) First, the childhood of John the Baptist. Of him too St. Luke has told us that the child grew and waxed strong in spirit; and still earlier he has related that many were led to ask, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him. The parallel between the two children nearly of the same age is purposely worked outthe pious parents, the annunciation by the angel, the naming before birth, the prophecies of greatness, the long period of silent preparation for a unique mission. In each case the childhood was natural, the development slow and gradual, not forced and premature. In each case the child grew and waxed strong in spirit.

(2) And in drawing these pictures St. Luke had his models in the past. Look at Samsons birth and childhood. His birth is announced beforehand by an angel, with the promise that he shall begin to save Israel out of the hands of the Philistineswords with which we may compare the language of the hymn in St. Luke, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us. Samson was to be a Nazirite unto God from the womb, even as the Baptist was to drink neither wine nor strong drink, but was to be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb. And of Samson too it is written, The child grew, and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of the Lord began to move him. Those were wild times, and it was wild work which Samson had before him, and he was not always faithful in his doing of it. But his childhood was a strong and natural childhood, with its occasional intimations of a destiny.

(3) And if Samsons childhood is a forecast of St. Johns no less clearly is Samuels gentler childhood the prefiguration of our Lords. Here, again, we have the child promised beforehand, and dedicated before birth. In each case the handmaid of the Lord utters her Magnificat. Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord; and Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. A difference we find in early training; for the child Samuel is given to the service of the sanctuary as a child. But in similar terms we read of his quiet growth: The child Samuel grew before the Lord; and again, The child Samuel grew on, and was in favour with the Lord and also with men. Then comes the story of the voice of God in the house of God, itself a notable parallel to the Gospel of to-day; and then the words come once again that tell of holy growthfor this crisis did not suddenly bring the fulness of ripe knowledge of God and of lifeSamuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.1 [Note: J. A. Robinson, Unity in Christ, 157.]

5. We have seen that the growth of Jesus was natural. But the question remains, How could that growth take place without sin? There are two conceivable kinds of development; one development through antagonism, through error, from stage to stage of less and less deficiency. This is our development; but it is such because evil has gained a lodgment in our nature, and we can attain perfection only through contest with it. But there is another kind of development conceivable, the development of a perfect nature limited by time. Such a nature will always be potentially that which it will become; i.e. everything which it will be is already there, but the development of it is successive, according to time; perfect at each several stage, but each stage more finished than the last. The plant is perfect as the green shoot above the earth, it is all it can be then; it is more perfect as the creature adorned with leaves and branches, and it is all it can be then; it reaches its full perfection when the bud breaks into flower. But it has been as perfect as it can be at every stage of its existence; it has had no struggle, no retrogression; it has realized in an entirely normal and natural way, at each successive step of its life, exactly and fully that which a plant should be. Such was the development of Christ. He was the perfect child, the perfect boy, the perfect youth, the perfect flower of manhood. Every stage of human life was lived in finished purity, and yet no stage was abnormally developed; there was nothing out of character in His life. He did not think the thoughts of a youth when a child, or feel the feelings of a man when a youth; but He grew freely, nobly, naturally, unfolding all His powers without a struggle, in a completely healthy progress.

The work of an inferior artist arrives at a certain amount of perfection through a series of failures, which teach him where he is wrong. By slow correction of error he is enabled to produce a tolerable picture. Such is our development. The work of a man of genius is very different. He has seen, before he touches pencil, the finished picture. His first sketch contains the germ of all. The picture is there; but the first sketch is inferior in finish to the next stage, and that to the completed picture. But his work is perfect in its several stages; not a line needs erasure, not a thought correction; it develops into its last and noblest form without a single error. Such was Christs developmentan orderly, faultless, unbroken development, in which humanity, freed from its unnatural companion, evil, went forward according, to its real nature. It was the restoration of humanity to its original integrity, to itself, as it existed in the idea of God.

6. St. Luke not only says that as a child Jesus grew, developing as other children do, but he also tells us that He grew in every part of His personality. (1) He grew in body: waxed strong; (2) He grew in mind: filled with wisdom; and (3) He grew in spirit: the grace of God was upon him.

Development ought always to take place in all these three ways. Let us take a little baby as our instance. First of all the baby begins to grow in body; it gets bigger, it gets stronger; it has power over its little actions; it begins to walkit is a great; at time in the house when the baby begins to walkand everybody says how it is growing. And so it goes on, growing in bulk and in strength. Its clothes become too small for it. It grows on to boyhood or to girlhood; on to manhood, to womanhood; to strength and grace and beauty.

Now that is a marvellous thingthat growth of body. But, by and by, people begin to notice another kind of growth; something else is growing. This little one begins to walk; it also begins to talk, to notice things, to remember, to like and to dislike. Not only is the body growing, the mind is growing too. Presently the little mind will be strong enough to learn the alphabet, to begin to write, to begin to cipher, to begin to play on the piano, later on it will be strong enough to go to school, to college, and will, in time, become a learned man or woman.

Now that is a still more wonderful growth, for it will stop growing as a body, but it will never stop growing as a mind. You may find that child at eighty still growing, still growing, still learning, still advancing in wisdom. But, once more, if you notice the little one very closely, you will see that, not only does it grow in two waysin body and mindbut it grows also in another way; it grows out of little faults into little virtues; out of little tricks of temper into patience, into power over itself; out of little selfishnesses into noble love. There are dolls and toys of the mind and there are dolls and toys of the soul; and as the body outgrows its clothes, and the mind outgrows its little mistakes, so there is something which is the best thing in manthe soulwhich also grows; grows out of little faults and little wickednesses, and the unlovely habits of selfishness, till, by and by, men see before them a grand and splendid character.

i. Bodily Growth

The child grew and waxed strong.

The words are used of bodily development in size and strength. The Authorized Version adds in spirit, but that addition does not belong to this verse; it has been taken in by some copyist or commentator from the eightieth verse of the first chapter, where it is used of St. John the Baptist.

I think I am safe in saying that this exactest of writers would never have said about the youth of our Lord what he does say, and says over again, unless he had had before his minds eye the figure of a young man conspicuous among His fellows for His stateliness and His strength. The sacred writer tells us that he had the most perfect understanding of the very beginnings of our Lords life, because he had himself seen, and had interrogated with a view to his gospel, the most trusty eye-witnesses of our Lords childhood and boyhood and youth; till in this text we ourselves become as good as eye-witnesses of the laying of the first foundation stones of our Lords whole subsequent life and character and work. And the very first foundation-stone of them all was laid in that body which the Holy Ghost prepared for our Lord as the instrumentum Deitatisthe organ and the instrument of His Godhead. You may depend upon it that a writer like Luke would never have repeatedly expressed himself, as he has here repeatedly expressed himself, about the growth and the stature of our Lords body, if our Lords bodily presence had been weak, as was the case, to some extent, with the Apostle Paul. In his famous essay on Decision of Character, John Foster has a most striking passage on the matter in hand. Decision of character, the great essayist argues, beyond all doubt, depends very much on the constitution of the body. There is some quality in the bodily organization of some men which increases, if it does not create, both the stability of their resolutions and the energy of their undertakings and endeavours. There is something in some mens very bodies, which, like the ligatures that the Olympic wrestlers bound on their hands and on their arms, braces up the very powers of their mind. Men of a strong moral character will, as a rule, be found to possess something correspondingly strong in their very bodies; just as massive engines demand to have their stand taken on a firm foundation. Accordingly, says Foster, it will be found that those men who have been remarkable among their fellows for the decisiveness of their characters, and for the success of their great endeavours, have, as a rule, been the possessors of great constitutional strength, till the body has become the inseparable companion and the fit co-worker with the mind. It is an ancient proverbMens sana in corpore sanoa sound mind in a sound bodya stately mind and character in a corresponding bodily stature.1 [Note: A. Whyte, The Walk, Conversation, and Character of Jesus Christ our Lord, 40.]

The human form is considered to be the highest expression of beauty and perfection for the following reasons. It is adapted to the greatest number of uses, its powers within the limits of its strength being certainly, as far as the hand is concerned, inexhaustible. The erect form rises upwards, indicative of the aspiring mind, a characteristic not shared by any other animal. The beautiful head is poised on a splendid column, the neck, which is elevated from the base line formed by the spread of the shoulders. The balanced rotundity and flatness of the limbs; the lovely movements of the wrist and marvellous structure of the hand, its powers, as has been already said, apparently almost inexhaustible; the general harmony of proportion, several parts of the body being neither too short nor too long for beautythese compare to advantage with analogous parts of the lower creation.1 [Note: George Frederic Watts, iii. 8.]

It is a pain to think of children living in conditions where they cannot grow in body as they should. Why are their frames so shrunken, and their little faces so pale and old-looking? Because they have no sufficient breathing-space in life, and no proper food to eat. In one of our seaports a church organized free suppers for poor lads one hard winter. At supper one night a superintendent noticed a boy who was not eating anything, and when he asked him why, the boy said, I have been boiler-scaling. The superintendent, though he had lived in the seaport all his life, had never heard of boiler-scaling before. Very small boys are employed to go into the boilers of ships with a hammer to strike down the scales of rust that form there. They come out half-suffocated with rust-dust and with a bronzed appearance. For this work they get a miserable pittance of pay, though it is work that none but very small boys can do. They usually take a candle, but the lad who was ill at supper had been sent into a boiler which was so hot that the candle quickly melted, and he had to have a small oil lamp. The lamp fumes and the boiler-heat and the dust made the supper impossible, as you may well imagine. I daresay it would be true that the other conditions of that boys life were not much more favourable to his growth. Thousands of children in this country, it is tragic to think, are doomed not to grow in body as they should.2 [Note: T. R. Williams, Addresses to Boys, Girls, and Young People, 46.]

ii. Mental Growth

Filled with wisdom.

1. Sometimes the body grows and the mind remains a dwarf. After the mind has reached a certain point it may refuse to grow and want to stay where it is. Big men and women sometimes have very small minds. They may be six feet tall and weigh ever so many pounds, and still have a little bit of a mind. Their aims may be low, and their ambitions small, and their sympathies narrow, and their affections stunted, and their ideas puny. They are mental dwarfs. Everybody who comes near them knows they are small. Their conversation is thin, their dealings are petty. They are cross and crabbed, and unreasonable and ugly, and very hard to get along with. They are hard to live with because they are so small. We sometimes call such people childish, and I have heard them called big babies. A little baby a few months old is the sweetest thing in all the world, but a big baby is one of the most terrible of all living creatures.

2. It is not said that Jesus was filled with knowledge, or with learning, or with great talents, or with great promise of great eloquence, though all that would have been true, in the measure of His years. But wisdom is far better than all these things taken together. Wisdom is the principal thing, says the wise man, therefore get wisdom. Knowledge is good; knowledge is absolutely necessary. Knowledge, however, often puffs up; but never wisdom. Wisdom always edifies. He grew in knowledge, you may be sure, every day. He passed no day without learning something He did not know yesterday. He listened and paid attention when old men spoke. He read every good book He could lay His hands on. He went up as His custom was to the Synagogue every Sabbath day. And then all that was turned on the spot into wisdom to Him, like water turned into wine.

How common a thing is all learning, and all knowledge, and all eloquence; and how rare a thing is a little wisdom to direct them! How few men among our great men are wise men! Really wise men. How few among our own relations and friends are really wise men. If you have one wise man in your family, or in the whole circle of your friendship, grapple that man to your heart with a hook of gold.1 [Note: A. Whyte, The Walk, Conversation, and Character of Jesus Christ our Lord, 47.]

Let us distinguish wisdom from two things. From information first. It is one thing to be well-informed, it is another thing to be wise. Many books read, innumerable facts hived up in a capacious memorythis does not constitute wisdom. Books give it not; sometimes the bitterest experience gives it not. Many a heart-break may have come as the result of life-errors and life-mistakes; and yet men may be no wiser than before Before the same temptations they fall again in the self-same way they fell before. Where they erred in youth they err still in age. A mournful truth! Ever learning, said St. Paul, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Distinguish wisdom again from talent. Brilliancy of powers is not the wisdom for which Solomon prayed. Wisdom is of the heart rather than the intellect: the harvest of moral thoughtfulness, patiently reaped in through years. Two things are requiredearnestness and love. First that rare thing earnestnessthe earnestness which looks on life practically. Some of the wisest of the race have been men who have scarcely stirred beyond home, read little, felt and thought much. Give me, said Solomon, a wise and understanding heart. A heart which ponders upon life, trying to understand its mystery, not in order to talk about it like an orator, nor in order to theorize about it like a philosopher; but in order to know how to live and how to die.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson, Sermons, ii. 182.]

One of the most pleasing of the poems in Christina Rossettis New Poems is that addressed To Lalla, the favourite name of her cousin Henrietta Polydore. The latter was only three years old when the poem was written. The lines incidentally point the moral that wisdom of the heart is better than knowledge of the head. It is a trite moral, but rarely has it been better expressed than here.

Read on: if you knew it

You have cause to boast:

You are much the wiser

Though I know the most.2 [Note: Mackenzie Bell, Christina Rossetti, 21.]

3. There is a distinction to be observed between His intellectual development and ours. We, being defective in nature, are developed through error. By slow correction of mistakes, we arrive at intellectual, by slow correction of faults at moral, excellence. But it is quite possible to conceive the entirely natural development of Christs perfect nature, limited by time; the development, as it were, of a fountain into a river, perfect as the fountain, but not more than the fountain as a child; perfect as the rivulet, but not more than the rivulet as a boy; perfect as the stream, but not more than the stream as a youth; and perfect as the majestic river as a man. At each stage greater than at the last, more developed, but as perfect as possible to nature at each; and as the water of the fountain, rivulet, stream, and river is the same throughout, self-supplied, perennial in its source and flowing, so was it with the nature of Christ, and with His growth.

A simple-hearted Child was He,

And He was nothing more;

In summer days, like you and me,

He played about the door,

Or gathered, where the father toiled,

The shavings from the floor.

Sometimes He lay upon the grass,

The same as you and I,

And saw the hawks above Him pass

Like specks against the sky;

Or, clinging to the gate, He watched

The stranger passing by.

A simple Child, and yet, I think,

The bird folk must have known,

The sparrow and the bobolink,

And claimed Him for their own,

And gathered round Him fearlessly

When He was all alone.

The lark, the linnet, and the dove,

The chaffinch and the wren,

They must have known His watchful love,

And given their worship then;

They must have known and glorified

The Child who died for men.

And when the sun at break of day

Crept in upon His hair,

I think it must have left a ray

Of unseen glory there

A kiss of love on that little brow

For the thorns that it must wear.

4. Can we discover any of the means that were used in the development of His mind? We know not if there were schools for children in those days, but the parent, and especially the mother, was the natural instructor of the child in all necessary knowledge, as she is the nurse and provider for its physical wants. What this Divine child learned from His human mother in those years of sweet and loving dependence, what wise questions He asked, or what wonderful sayings He uttered in that humble home, sayings which Mary, His mother, laid up and pondered in her heart, we may never know, at least in this world; for the lips of inspiration are sealed except in a single instance. But there were two oracles of instruction ever open, in which God spake to His Son, and taught Him, preparatory to His speaking through Him to the world He came to save. The first of these was the Scriptures of the Old Testament, that sincere milk of the word by which all devout and holy minds have been nourished, and have grown thereby. Jesus intimate familiarity with the letter of Scripture, shown by His frequent quotations from it, evince how carefully He had studied the written Wordlike the Psalmist, hiding it in His heart. And His profound and sometimes startling penetration into its spirit shows a deeper and more spiritual knowledge of it, such as no Rabbi or mere human expositor could have imparted.

Besides this, there was that other not less sacred book, or revelation, of nature, where Gods thoughts are written and embodied in the things that are made. And of this book the child Jesus was a constant and diligent student. The vale of Nazareth is described by travellers as one of the most beautiful spots to be found in Palestine, or even in the world. St. Jerome rightly calls it the flower of Galilee, and compares it to a rose opening its corolla. It does not command a landscape like Bethlehem; the girdle of hills which encloses it makes it a calm retreat, the silence of which is, even in our day, broken by the hammer and chisel of the artisan. The child Jesus grew up in the midst of a thoroughly simple life, in which a soul like His might best develop its harmonies. He had only to climb the surrounding heights to contemplate one of the finest landscapes of the Holy Land. At His feet lay the plain of Jezreel, tapestried with myriad flowers, each one more beautiful than Solomon in all his glory. Its boundaries were Tabor and Carmel, whence echoed the voice of Elijah; Lebanon confronted Carmel, and the chain of Hermon joined its snowy summits to the mountains of Moab; while afar off glimmered the Great Sea, which, outlying all national barriers, seemed to open to Jesus that world which He came to save.

Standing at Fuleh, and looking due north, you can see, some six or seven miles away, the green hills that embosom the village of Nazareth. How often from the hidden village, when the sun was sinking westwards over Carmel, must there have come to the top of the green hill overlooking the great plain the lone figure of a Young Man to look out over the great sea of beauty, and watch the slowly darkening plain, while Tabor, Hermon, Gilboa, Ebal, and the hills of Samaria still glowed in the sunset.

Skylarks to-day sing their sweetest over green Galilee; a thousand wild herbs load the evening airs with perfumes; the golden honeysuckles add their scent to that of the myrtle bushes along the pathways; and a sky of surpassing blue domes the whole wondrous scene. This village of the Nazarene is not even mentioned in the Old Testament. Strange fact! Yet from it was to go forth one still small Voice which was to shake the temples, waken the tombs, and bring the pillars of empire to the ground.

It was here, on these grassy hills, that those wonderful Eyes drank in, through three-and-twenty years, all that imagery of fruit and flower, of seed and harvest time, all the secrets of the trees, which afterwards became the theme of similitudes and parables. It was here the Master prepared to manifest all that infinite knowledge of soul and sense, the pale reflection of which, as it is found in the Evangelists, has come as a moonbeam over the troubled river of the lives of men, silvering the turbid stream, lighting the gloomy headlands, and shedding its benign rays far out upon the endless ocean in which the fevered flood is at last to rest.1 [Note: Sir William Butler: An Autobiography, 374.]

These are the flowery fields, where first

The wisdom of the Christ was nursed;

Here first the wonder and surprise

Of Nature lit the sacred eyes:

Waters, and winds, and woodlands, here,

With earliest music charmed His ear,

For all His conscious youth drew breath,

Among these hills of Nazareth.

The quiet hills, the skies above,

The faces round were bright with love;

He lost not, in the tranquil place,

One hint of wisdom or of grace;

Not unobserved, nor vague nor dim,

The secret of the world to Him,

The prayer He heard which Nature saith

In the still glades by Nazareth.

Yet graver, with the growth of years,

The step, the face, the heart appears;

The burden of the world He knows,

The unloved Helpers lonely woes

Till, when the summons bids Him rise

From that still place of placid skies,

Fearless, yet sorrowing unto death,

Jesus goes forth from Nazareth.1 [Note: G. A. Chadwick.]

iii. Spiritual Growth

The grace of God was upon him.

1. This word goes beyond all we have yet considered. It says that in these silent years the boy Jesus lived toward God; that within the life of home and school and play there was another life; that the child looked up to a Father in heaven, and by most simple faith brought Him into the midst of the scenes He saw and the duties He did. That word spoken to earthly parents in the Temple is a mysterious saying, to be laid up with many another in Marys heart, to be read in the light of events long afterwards, and perchance to be mysterious even then. To us the most remarkable and revealing thing about it is the simple, devout familiarity with which He uses the Fathers name, His manner of taking God for granted and of assuming His relation to Him. Wist ye not that I must be in my Fathers house? This is no strange, sudden break from all His past, no discovery of His mission. His life hitherto has been leading Him to this hour. In the hills of Nazareth He had found a house of God where He held communion with Him; the poor synagogue of Nazareth was to Him His Fathers house before He saw the great Temple at Jerusalem. In the home of Nazareth He found Him near. Every duty of that lowly life bound Him to the Father. Those silent years were doubtless rich in experiences which are not written down, which were not told to any, but which were forming and confirming the faith in which He was to live and work and die.

Christs pure quiet life in Nazareth was the greatest fact in His whole great career. It was this life that gave significance to His death.

Nazareth stands for the home life. It contains the greater part of His great career. By far the greater number of years was spent here. Here were more praying for others and over the life plan, more communing with the Father, more battling with temptation and narrow prejudice and ignorance than in the few years of public service.

Nazareth stands for that intensely human life of Jesus lived in dependence upon Gods grace exactly as other men must live. It was lived in a simple home that would seem very narrow and meagre in its appointments and conveniences to most of us. He was one of a large family living in a small house, with the touch of elbows very close, and with all the possible small, half-good-natured frictions that such close, almost crowded, touch is apt to give rise to.

He worked with His hands and bodily strength most of the waking hours, doing carpentering jobs for the small trade of the village, dealing with exacting, whimsical customers, as well as those more easily suited.

He was a son to His mother, an eldest son, too, and may be, rather likely, of a widowed mother, who leaned upon her firstborn in piecing out the small funds, and in the ceaseless care of the younger children. He was brother to His brothers and sisters, a real brother, the big brother of the little group. He was a neighbour to His fellow villagers, and a fellow labourer with the other craftsmen. In the midst of the little but very real and pressing problems of home, the small talk and interests of the village life, He grew up, a perfect bit of His surroundings, and lived during His matured years.

And who can doubt the simplicity and warmth and practicality and unfailingness of His love as it was lived in that great Nazareth life? We will never know the full meaning of Jesus word pure, and of His word love, and of all His teaching, until we know His Nazareth life. The more we can think into what it really was, the better can we grasp the meaning of His public utterances. Nazareth is the double underscoring in red under every sentence He spoke.

Those three years and odd of public life all grew up out of this Nazareth home life. They are the top of the hill; Nazareth is the base and bulk; Calvary the top. Here every victory had already been won. The public life was built upon the home life. Under the ministering to crowds, healing the sick, raising the dead, and patient teaching of the multitudes, lay the great strong home life in its purity. Calvary was built upon Nazareth.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Home Ideals, 112.]

2. He grew in spirit by the exercise of His moral powers in resisting the temptations arising from mere natural desire, which needed to be controlled in Him as well as in all men. While the grace of God was upon Him and in Him, to inspire and aid His good endeavours, it did not supersede His own free moral agency. The discipline of life came to Him, as it does to all, and challenged Him to conflict; and He acquired moral strength and wisdom only through experience and trial, by overcoming whatever foe or hindrance lay in His path of holy obedience. And this was not an easy victory, but involved conflict, self-denial, and suffering. For we read that, Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and that he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin; which He could not be, without a real conflict between desire and will, between flesh and spirit. The difference between Him and other men was not in His exemption from trial and moral discipline, or in His impeccability or inability to do wrong, but in the fact that in Him the spirit, or will, never succumbed to temptation, but remained steadfast and sinless though continually solicited; while in others the will is often overcome, and so weakened in its power of resistance. The conflict in Him was to retain His integrity, in others to recover it. And the indispensable help in this conflict, without which no wisdom and no virtue can be established, was to detect the first approaches and manifold disguises of moral evil, and a reinforcement of spiritual strength from the infinite Source of all strength and wisdom. That charge so often made to His disciples afterwards, Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation, was drawn from His own deep and life-long experience.

You are not to think of grace here in its ordinary evangelical acceptation. But there is no fear, surely, of your making that mistake. You think every day and every hour of Gods grace to you as the chief of sinners. And though our Lord thought without ceasing of the grace of God that had come to Him; it was not the same kind of grace as that is which has come to you. The grace of God has come to you bringing salvation. But the Saviour of men did not for Himself need salvation. More than one kind of grace came to Him, first and last. But not among them all the grace that has come so graciously to you. And it breeds great light on the kind of grace that came to the Holy Child when we turn from the fortieth verse of this chapter to the fifty-second verse, and there read that He increased in favour with God and man. The true sense here is the same as when a voice came from heaven to the Jordan, and elsewhere, and said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The good pleasure of God was upon him, that would be the best way to render the text.1 [Note: A. Whyte, The Walk, Conversation, and Character of Jesus Christ our Lord, 47.]

The highest reaches we can attain here are but broken fragments of the full Divine beauty. At the best we can only become dimly transfigured; only faintly does the beauty of the Lord appear in us. The last design made by the great painter, Albert Drer, was a drawing showing Christ on His Cross. It was all completed, except the face of the Divine Sufferer, when the artist was summoned away by death. At the end of the longest and holiest life we shall have but a part of the picture of Christ wrought upon our soul. Our best striving shall leave but a fragment of the matchless beauty. The glory of that blessed Face we cannot reproduce. But when we go away from our little fragment of transfiguration we shall look a moment afterward upon the Divine features, and, seeing Jesus as He is, shall be like Him.2 [Note: J. R. Miller.]

3. This spiritual life, essentially in Him from His birth, had been naturally developed in His consciousness by means of external circumstances, and through the growth of His intellect. The first gleams of the consciousness of His spiritual life may have arisen through the influence of His home and of outward nature. A kindling influence then came upon His intellect in the religious journey to Jerusalem and the sights He saw at the Feast, and reached its culminating point in the conversation in the Temple.

Accompanying this dawning consciousness of the spiritual light and life which dwelt within Him, there arose also in His mind the consciousness of His redeeming mission. We seem to trace this in the words my Fathers business. It does not appear, however, just to say that this idea was now fully defined and grasped. We should be forced then to attribute more to Him than would agree with perfect childhood; but there is no unnaturalness in holding that it now for the first time became a dim prophecy in His mind. It required for its complete development that the sinfulness of the world should be presented to His growing knowledge as a thing external to Himself. Sin so presented made Him conscious, by the instinctive repulsion which it caused Him, of His own spotless holiness; and, by the infinite pity which He felt for those enslaved by it, of His own infinite love for sinners; and out of these two there rose the consciousness of His mission as the Redeemer of the race from sin. This was the business which His Father had given Him to do. Clearly and more clearly from this day forth, for eighteen years at Nazareth, it grew up into its completed form, till He was ready to carry it out in the action of His ministry.

I instance one single evidence of strength in the early years of Jesus: I find it in that calm long waiting of thirty years before He began His work. And yet all the evils He was to redress were there, provoking indignation, crying for interferencethe hollowness of social life, the misinterpretations of Scripture, the forms of worship and phraseology which had hidden moral truth, the injustice, the priestcraft, the cowardice, the hypocrisies: He had long seen them all. All those years His soul burned within Him with a Divine zeal and heavenly indignation. A mere man, a weak emotional man of spasmodic feeling, a hot enthusiast, would have spoken out at once, and at once been crushed. He bided His own time (Mine hour is not yet come), matured His energies, condensed them by repression, and then went forth to speak, and do, and suffer. This is strength; the power of a Divine silence; the strong will to keep force till it is wanted; the power to wait Gods time.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson, Sermons, ii. 182.]

The Growth of the Child Jesus

Literature

Brooke (S. A.), Sermons, i. 108.

Brooke (S.A.), The Fight of Faith, 273.

Campbell (W. M.), Foot-prints of Christ, 11.

Clifford (J.), The Dawn of Manhood, 34.

Crookall (L.), Topics in the Tropics, 21.

Eyton (R.), The True Life, 93.

Gibbon (J. M.), The Childrens Year, 60.

Goodwin (H. M.), Christ and Humanity, 81.

Gray (W. H.), The Childrens Friend, 82.

Jefferson (C. E.), My Fathers Business, 25.

Laing (F. A.), Simple Bible Lessons, 159.

Leathes (A. S.), The Kingdom Within, 217.

Manning (H. E.), Sermons, ii. 17.

Morrison (G. H.), The Footsteps of the Flock, 19.

Robertson (F. W.), Sermons, ii. 175.

Robinson (J. A.), Unity in Christ, 155.

Rutherford (W. G.), The Key of Knowledge, 191.

Sidey (W. W.), The Silent Christ, 13.

Simpson (W. J. S.), Addresses on St. John Baptist, 58.

Stanley (A. P.), Sermons for Children, 1.

Swing (D.), Sermons, 120.

Talmage (T. de W.), Sermons, iv. 354.

Tymms (T. V.), The Private Relationships of Christ, 36.

Whyte (A.), The Walk, Conversation, and Character of Jesus Christ our Lord, 40.

Williams (T. R.), Addresses to Boys, Girls, and Young People, 41.

Childrens Pulpit: First Sunday after the Epiphany, ii. 355.

Christian World Pulpit, xxxv. 8 (Lyman Abbott); lvi. 259 (T. V. Tymms).

Churchmans Pulpit: Sermons to the Young, xvi. 77 (A. P. Stanley).

Preachers Magazine, viii. 555 (J. Feather).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

the child: Luk 2:52, Jdg 13:24, 1Sa 2:18, 1Sa 2:26, 1Sa 3:19, Psa 22:9, Isa 53:1, Isa 53:2

strong: Luk 1:80, Eph 6:10, 2Ti 2:1

filled: Luk 2:47, Luk 2:52, Isa 11:1-5, Col 2:2, Col 2:3

the grace: Psa 45:2, Joh 1:14, Act 4:33

Reciprocal: Gen 21:20 – God 1Sa 2:21 – grew Psa 22:10 – cast Psa 71:5 – my trust Ecc 12:1 – Remember Isa 7:15 – know Eze 28:12 – full Luk 1:66 – And the 2Ti 3:15 – from

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The Childhood of Christ

Luk 2:40-52

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

We come now into the study of a Holy Child. He was a Child different from any other child ever born of woman. As preparatory to the study proper let us mark some of those things which prove the statement just made-that Christ the Child was distinct from and different to all other sons of men.

1. No one in birth ever was heralded as the Christ Child was heralded. Far back, in the garden of Eden, when the first pair sinned, God came walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. It was there, as He faced the sinful progenitors of the human race, that the first mention of the birth of Christ was made. The Lord said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head.” That seed was Christ In Isa 9:6 it was written: “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” Then it was said, that “His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

In Micah we are told the place of Christ’s birth, “But thou, Bethlehem, * * out of thee shall He come forth.”

In addition to the above an angel came and announced to Mary, the virgin, that Christ was to be born of her. Thus all must grant that no other child ever was heralded, in birth, as Christ was heralded.

2. No one in birth was ever honored as Christ was honored. Some may demur, saying that Christ was born in a stable and laid in a manger; that He came into the world, and the world knew Him not; that He came to His own, and His own received Him not. That is true, and yet, none but the Son of God, as an infant, was ever honored by the moving of a Heavenly body to mark His cradle. Jesus, however, was so honored. We read, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.”

Again, none but the Son of God ever had so great an acclaim by angel hosts. We read of the shepherds feeding their flocks by night, when, suddenly the glory of the Lord shone round about them. Then an angel gave the great annunciation, “Behold * * unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” As the angel spoke, suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

3. No one in birth ever was hated as Christ in birth was hated. This may seem paradoxical to what we have just said, yet it is true. None was so honored; and yet, none was so hated. You remember how the wise men were warned of God to return to their home another way. Likewise Joseph was warned to flee into Egypt, “For,” said the angel, “Herod will seek the young Child’s life to destroy Him.” The result was that in Ramah there was weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, and could not be comforted, because they were not.

We have seen briefly that Jesus Christ in birth was distinct from other children. We will now consider the Lord Jesus in His childhood, and bring out particularly those incidents which cluster around the Holy Child in His twelfth year, when He went up with His parents to the feast of the Passover at Jerusalem.

I. THE HABITS OF A HOLY CHILD (Luk 2:40)

It is a delight to study the child-life of the Lord Jesus. The opening verse of our study tells us that, “The Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the. grace of God was upon Him.” These are remarkable words to be spoken of a child under twelve years of age, but they were spoken of a special Child-the Son of God.

The thing which we desire particularly to present, however, is found in verses forty-one and forty-two. “Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the Feast.”

Boys and girls need the preaching of the Word, and they need to experience the sacred manifestations of the Spirit of God which take place in the regular Lord’s Day worship in the house of God.

Parents who love their children teach their children to enter the house of God early in life.

II. AN EPOCHAL VISIT (Luk 2:41-42)

We wish you to visualize the Feast of the Passover as it was held in Jerusalem from year to year.

1. The passover feast was one of five great typical feasts of the Jews. There was first of all the Feast of the Passover. Then came the Feast of the First Fruits. Following that came the Feast of Pentecost; then, the Feast of the Trumpets; and finally, the Feast of Tabernacles. Each of these feasts anticipated a great coming event in Israel’s history as it related to the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. The Passover looked on to the death of Christ, where Christ, the Paschal Lamb, was to be slain.

2. The First Fruits foretold of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, where He became the Firstfruits from the dead.

3. Pentecost looked forward to the coming of the Spirit as the promise of the Father, and to the verification of Christ’s having been seated at the right hand of God.

4. The Trumpets were a prophecy of that time when the Lord would call His people, Israel, from every nation under Heaven, and restore them to Jerusalem, and to Judea the land of promise.

5. The Tabernacles was in commemoration of that hour when Jesus Christ would reside among His people, being accepted by them and crowned as their King-Priest.

2. The feast of the Passover was in commemoration of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt through the shedding of the blood of the passover Lamb. We all remember how the blood was sprinkled on the side posts and on the upper door post, and how, when God saw the blood, He passed over Israel sparing the. firstborn son in every home.

The Feast of the Passover, moreover, looked forward to the coming of Jesus Christ whom John proclaimed as the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.

III. TARRYING BEHIND (Luk 2:43)

When the Feast of the Passover had been fulfilled and Joseph and Mary were returning to their home in Nazareth Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. Here is a matter of no small significance.

1. The Lord Jesus even in His twelfth year put God first in His life. He tarried behind in Jerusalem, not because of any disrespect to His mother, but because He was “doing business” for His Father. We will discover, a little later, that Jesus, as a Child, was subject unto His mother and unto Joseph. His obligations to the Father, naturally preceded those to which He subjected Himself by reason of home ties.

In all things God should be first. Children are Divinely instructed to obey their fathers and their mothers in the Lord. When it is necessary, in full obedience to God, we must be ready, if need be, to leave even father or mother.

2. The Lord Jesus still tarries behind where He is not wanted and not sought. We remember, in after years, as the disciples were going to Emmaus, the Lord Jesus came and walked along with them. As they came near to the journey’s end, and the two disciples were about to turn into their home, Jesus made as though He would go further. The Lord was willing to tarry with the two disciples and to enter into their home with them, but He would not press Himself upon them.

IV. A STARTLING SUPPOSITION (Luk 2:44)

1. They supposed Him to be in the company with them. In verse forty-four we read of the company returning homeward from the Feast. They had taken a day’s journey, and, missing the Lord Jesus, the child of twelve years, they sought for Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances, but found Him not. Verse forty-four says that they supposed that He was in the company.

It is difficult to imagine Mary and Joseph going on without Christ; merely “supposing” that He was with them, and yet, this is what they did.

They sought for Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance, but He was not there. Perhaps there are some today who want to find Christ, and they are seeking Him among their relatives and close friends, but they find Him not. These friends may be churchmembers, of course, but they know not how to show Christ unto the one who is seeking Him. Many young boys and girls have longed to be saved, but they found no help at home to show them the way.

2. They found Him not. We wonder if the time will ever come when some of you who read these words will vainly seek for Christ and find Him not? Are you building your faith on a hope-so religion? Are you satisfied to merely think you are saved? In our heart of hearts we believe that many are going religiously to hell. The Bible describes some who will at last say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? * * and in Thy Name done many wonderful works?” But the Lord will reply, “I never knew you.”

Before we take another day’s journey let us assure our hearts that Christ is journeying with us. If He is not there, it is better to find it out now while we may still turn back and seek Him, than it is to find it out when it is forever too late.

V. SEEKING THE LOST CHILD (Luk 2:45)

1. Let us note that Mary and Joseph found Him not. It must have been startling indeed, when, after full inquiry and faithful search they woke up to the fact that the Child Christ was not with them in the caravan.

It is sad enough to lose any child, but to lose such a Child was sad indeed! We can better afford to lose anything under Heaven, than to lose Christ, and in losing Him to lose our own souls also.

There is a little passage in the Old Testament which says, “As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” We wonder if that was not the case with Mary and Joseph.

2. Let us note that they sought Him sorrowing. We have often said that a tear is a wonderful telescope through which to see the Lord. We know that a broken and a contrite spirit God does not despise. We know, moreover, that when we search for Him with all our heart we will find Him. Does sorrow of soul encompass you? Do you hunger and thirst after Christ? We believe you, too, will soon find Him.

VI. IN THE MIDST OF THE DOCTORS (Luk 2:46-48)

1. The ignorance of the doctors of the law. We are willing to grant that the doctors with whom the infant Christ spoke were wise men after the flesh, and they were noble. We would not deny that they knew much of the letter of the Law. However, we are just as certain that they utterly failed to grasp the real spiritual message of the Word of God.

We read in another place how Christ said, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.” They knew the Bible, but they knew not its message. They sought the Scriptures, but they saw not the Saviour.

2. The enlightenment of Christ. It is almost astounding to see a twelve-year-old Boy asking questions which challenged the scriptural intelligence of Israel’s great men. No wonder that the doctors were astonished at His understanding, and His answers. No wonder that even Mary was amazed when she beheld Him with the doctors. The doctors, perhaps, afterward discussed Jesus as a Jewish prodigy, as a coming Rabbi. We know that He was God, that He was taught of God, and that He knew God.

Do you remember how the hearts of the disciples burned within them by the way, as Christ opened up unto them the Scriptures?

VII. AN ILLUMINATING QUESTION (Luk 2:49-50)

1. Christ’s question revealed His personal knowledge of His Deity. The parents of Christ turned back seeking Him. It was after three days that they found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. As the mother drew near she said unto Him, “Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.” In answer to this query, the Child Christ, Himself, asked a question: “How is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?”

The question which the twelve-year-old Christ put to His mother, seemed a loving and tender rebuke of her forgetfulness. Joseph, as Mary’s husband, had, for twelve years, showed toward Christ the part of father. Therefore Mary spoke of Joseph as, “Thy father.” Jesus quietly reminded His mother that His Father was God. Mary had sought Christ sorrowing; therefore Christ reminded her of her knowledge as to His birth and Deity; and He said, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” In this Christ called God His Father.

2. Christ’s question revealed the ignorance of both Mary and Joseph to the Deity of Christ. This may seem, and does seem strange. Mary had known all about the annunciation of the angel; all about her own virginity; and about the visit of the Magi, and the star that guided them; all about the visit of the angels, and the angelic magnificat which the shepherds had heard, yet Mary marveled.

Mary knew all about Herod’s attack upon the young Child; all about Joseph’s being warned in a dream; she knew that Jesus Christ was begotten of God, yet Mary marveled.

Mary knew all about Elisabeth, and the birth of John. She knew how Elisabeth had said unto her, “Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come?” She heard Elisabeth’s magnificat, and she also remembered the words of her own exaltation, and yet she, Mary, marveled.

Mary knew all about the prophecies of Zacharias upon the birth of John. She remembered how the aged Simeon took the infant Christ in His arms, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Israel. She remembered the words of the aged Anna and her remarkable prophecy, and yet, Mary marveled.

Why then did Mary marvel? Why was she amazed? Why is it that she understood not the saying which Christ spake unto them? We have but one answer. Her mind could not grasp the mystery that God was manifest in the flesh. Her mind could not comprehend the height and the depth of what she knew was true-that she was the mother of One who was God.

We do not teach that Mary denied these things. We merely teach that at this time her amazement and her failure to understand suggests that she could not grasp the depths of the mystery-“God manifest in flesh.”

We know that in after years the deeper meaning of the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ was her exultant joy. We remember that she was with them in the upper room. She herself was numbered among those who believed in Christ as Son of God, and Saviour of men.

Let us examine our hearts that we may discover if we have any doubts as to the Deity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

AN ILLUSTRATION

We remember how, after preaching a sermon in a Georgia city upon the eternity of our Lord, we were accosted the next day.

In our sermon we had told of how Christ had come forth from the Father and had come into the world. We told that, afterward, when He had completed His earthly task He had gone back to the Father, and to the glory which He had with Him before the world was.

The next day we were en route, abroad train, when a gentleman of marked intelligence sought an interview. This is the substance of what he told us:-“I have been a prominent churchman and member of a church from my boyhood, but I never knew until I heard you preach last night that Jesus Christ ever existed before He was born of the Virgin Mary.”

In a Northern city in a prominent Bible Conference we told of this occurrence. Following our message a prominent Christian woman, who must have been in her seventies, astounded us by saying that she had never heard, and never knew that Jesus Christ was God in the eternities past. She thought of Him as having a beginning when He was laid in the manger at Bethlehem.

We ask the readers that greatest of all questions, What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

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The body of Jesus was human as well as divine, and was subject to the same law of growth or development as that of any other child. His spiritual or inner man, therefore, would have to develop in accordance with his body. However, since the work to be accomplished by him was of such special importance, his Father favored him with wisdom that was “beyond his years.” This will account for the beautiful story we are about to read in some following verses.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Luk 2:40. And the child grew. Comp, the account of Johns youth (chap. Luk 1:80). The next section illustrates what is stated in this verse, and Luk 2:52 repeats and extends the statement. Growth of body is mentioned first, a point not to be overlooked.

And waxed strong. The words in spirit are inserted from chap. Luk 1:80, and refer the statement to mental and spiritual development; but without this interpolation the sense is: Our Lord in His genuine human development, grew strong as he grew in body, had a healthy physical growth.

Being (or becoming) filled with wisdom. In mind and spirit too He grew. This being filled with wisdom was an increase of knowledge in proportion to His physical growth, including as the next incident (especially Luk 2:49) plainly implies, an increasing consciousness of God as His Father, an awakening of His own divine-human consciousness, a recognition of Himself, a revelation of the wisdom belonging to His Divine nature. For this wisdom was in Him and is distinguished from what is stated next: and the grace of God (the favor of God His Father) was upon him. Comp. Luk 2:52.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

XVI.

JESUS LIVING AT NAZARETH AND VISITING

JERUSALEM IN HIS TWELFTH YEAR.

(Nazareth and Jerusalem, A. D. 7 or 8.)

cLUKE II. 40-52.

c40 And the child grew [This verse contains the history of thirty years. It describes the growth of our Lord as a natural, human growth (compare Luk 1:80); for, though Jesus was truly divine, he was also perfectly man. To try to distinguish between the divine and human in Jesus, is to waste time upon an impracticable mystery which is too subtle for our dull and finite minds], and waxed strong [His life expanded like other human lives. He learned as other boys; he obeyed as other children. As he used means and waited patiently for growth, so must each individual Christian, and so must the church. Though the latter is a mystical body, and animated by the Holy Spirit, it must nevertheless make increase of itself before coming to the perfect man– Eph 4:16], filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him [These words describe briefly the life of Christ during the preparatory period at Nazareth. It was a quiet life, but its sinless purity made the Baptist feel his own unworthiness compared to it ( Mat 3:14), and its sweet reasonableness inspired in Mary, the mother, that confidence which led her to sanction, without reserve, any request or command which Jesus might utter– Joh 2:5.] 41 And his parents [Males were required to attend the Passover ( Exo 13:7); but women were not. The great rabbi, Hillel (born about B.C. 110; died A.D. 10), recommended that they should do so, and the [56] practice was esteemed an act of admirable piety] went every year to Jerusalem [regular attendance upon worship is likewise enjoined upon us– Heb 10:25] to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover [The Passover, one of the three great Jewish feasts, commemorated the mercy of God in causing his angel to “pass over” the houses in Israel on the night that he slew all the firstborn of Egypt. It took place at the full moon which occurred next after the vernal equinox. At it the firstfruits of the harvest were offered ( Lev 23:10-15). The second feast, Pentecost, occurred fifty days later, and commemorated the giving of the law. At it the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, in the form of bread ( Lev 23:17), were offered. The third feast, or Tabernacles, occurred near the end of September, or beginning of October, and commemorated the days when Israel dwelt in tents in the wilderness. It was observed as a thanksgiving for the blessings of the year. Every adult male Jews dwelling in Juda was required to attend these three feasts. Josephus tells us that the members assembled at them in Jerusalem often exceeded two millions.] 42 And when he was twelve years old [The incident which Luke here reports is the only one given in the period between the return from Egypt and Jesus’ thirtieth year. It shows that Jesus did not attend the school of the rabbis in Jerusalem ( Mar 6:2, Joh 6:42, Joh 7:15). But we learn that he could write ( Joh 8:6), and there is little doubt but that he spoke both Hebrew and Greek], they went up [the altitude of Jerusalem is higher than that of Nazareth, and the distance between the two places is about seventy miles] after the custom of the feast [the custom was that the feast was celebrated annually in Jerusalem]; 43 and when they had fulfilled the days [eight days in all; one day for killing the passover, and seven for observing the feast of unleavened bread which followed it– Exo 12:15, Lev 23:5, Lev 23:6], as they were returning, the boy Jesus [Luke narrates something about every stage of Christ’s life. He speaks of him as a babe ( Luk 2:16), as a little child ( Luk 2:40), here as a boy, and afterwards as a man] tarried behind in Jerusalem [to take advantage of the opportunity to [57] hear the great teachers in the schools]; and his parents knew it not [As vast crowds attended the Passover, it was easy to lose sight of a boy amid the festal throng. Indeed, the incident is often repeated even to this day during the feast seasons at Jerusalem]; 44 but supposing him to be in the company [We see here the confidence of the parents, and the independence of the child. The sinlessness of Jesus was not due to any exceptional care on the part of his parents. Jews going to and from their festivals traveled in caravans for pleasure and safety. In the daytime the young folks mingled freely among the travelers, and sought out whatever companionship they wished. But in the evening, when the camp was formed, and the tents were pitched, the members of each family came together], they went a day’s journey [They probably returned by the way of Jericho to avoid passing through Samaria, because of the hatred existing between Jews and Samaritans. In more moderns times the first day’s journey is a short one, and it was probably so then. It was made so in order that the travelers might return to the city whence they had departed, should they discover that they had forgotten anything–should they find that they had forgotten a sack of meal, a blanket, or a child]; and they sought for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance [those with whom he was most likely to have traveled during the day]: 45 and when they found him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for him. [Parents who have temporarily suffered the loss of their children can easily imagine their feelings. Christ, though a divine gift to them, was lost. So may we also lose him, though he be God’s gift to us.] 46 And it came to pass, after three days [Each part of a day was reckoned as a day when at the beginning and ending of a series. The parents missed Jesus on the evening of the first day, returned to Jerusalem and sought for him on the second day, and probably found him on the morning of the third day. The disciples of Jesus also lost him in the grave for part of one day, and all of the next, and found him resurrected on the morning of the third day– Luk 24:21] they found him [58] in the temple [Probably in one of the many chambers which tradition says were built against the walls of the temple and its enclosures, and opened upon the temple courts. The sacred secret which they knew concerning the child should have sent them at once to the temple to seek for him]; sitting [Jewish scholars sat upon the ground at the feet of their teachers] in the midst [the teachers sat on semi-circular benches and thus partially surrounded by their scholars] of the teachers [these teachers had schools in which they taught for the fees of their pupils, and are not to be confounded with the scribes, who were mere copyists], both hearing them, and asking them questions [He was not teaching: the God of order does not expect childhood to teach. He was among them as a modest scholar, and not as a forward child. The rabbinical method of instruction was to state cases, or problems, bearing upon the interpretation or application of the law, which cases or problems were to be solved by the pupils. For typical problems see Mat 22:15-46]: 47 and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. 48 And when they [his parents] saw him, they were astonished [Mary and Joseph stood as much in awe of these renowned national teachers as peasants do of kings, and were therefore astonished that their youthful son presumed to speak to them]; and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? [Her language implies that Jesus had been fully instructed as to the time when his parents and their caravan would depart for Galilee, and that he was expected to depart with them. Obedience to his higher duties constrained him to appear disobedient to his parents] behold, thy father [As legal father of Jesus, this expression would necessarily have to be used when speaking of Joseph. But Jesus does not accept Joseph as his father, as we see by his answer] and I sought thee sorrowing. [Because they thought him lost.] 49 And he said unto them [What follows are the first recorded words of Jesus; he here speaks of the same being–the Father–to whom he commended his spirit in his last words upon the cross ( Luk 23:46). His last [59] recorded words on earth are found at Act 1:7, Act 1:8; his last recorded words in heaven are found in Rev 22:10-20, but these last words are spoken through the medium of an angel], How is it that ye sought me? [Mary, knowing all that had been divinely revealed to her concerning Jesus, should have expected to find him in the temple] knew ye not that I must [In this oft-repeated phrase, “I must,” Jesus sets forth that devotion ( Joh 4:34) to the will of the Father by which his whole life was directed] be in my Father’s [Literally “the Father of me.” Jesus invariably used the article in speaking of himself, and said “the Father of me,” and invariably omitted the article, and said, “Father of you,” when speaking of his disciples. His relationship to the Father differed from ours, and God, not Joseph, was his father] house? [See Joh 2:16, Joh 2:17, Joh 8:35.] 50 And they understood not [It may seem strange that Mary, knowing all that she did concerning the birth of Jesus, etc., did not grasp the meaning of his words, but we are all slow to grasp great truths; and failure to be understood was therefore a matter of daily occurrence with Jesus. ( Luk 9:45, Luk 18:34, Mar 9:32, Joh 10:6.) Christ spoke plainly, but human ears were slow to comprehend his wonderful sayings. We need to be watchful lest our ears be censured for a like slowness] the saying which he spake unto them. 51 And he went down with them [Jerusalem was among the mountains, Nazareth among the hills], and came to Nazareth [A beautiful and healthful town, but so lacking in piety and learning as to form the “dry ground” out of which it was prophetically predicted that the glorious and fruitful life of Jesus would spring. Here Christ rose above all times and schools and revealed to man that “life more abundant” than all kings, lawgivers or sages ever discovered. His character, like the New Jerusalem, descended from God out of heaven, and no education obtained in Nazareth will explain it. The struggle of self-made men with their early environment is noticeable to the last, but it is not so with him. The discourses of Jesus are the outpourings of divine knowledge, and not the result of study or self-culture]; and he was subject [Our [60] example in all things, he here set before us that pattern of obedience which children should observe toward their parents. In these years Jesus learned the trade of his supposed father ( Mar 6:3). Christ was a laborer, and thereby sanctified labor, and showed that dignity and glory belong to inward and not to outward conditions] unto them [His parents, Joseph and Mary. We find no mention of Joseph after this, and the probability is that he soon died]: and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. [She had many treasured sayings of angels, shepherds, wise men, and prophets. She now began to add to these the sayings of Christ himself.] 52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. [He did not literally grow in favor with God. This is a phenomenal expression. The favor of God and man kept company for quite awhile; but the favor of God abode with Jesus when man’s good will was utterly withdrawn. Men admire holiness until it becomes aggressive, and then they fell an antagonism against it as great, or intense, as their previous admiration.] [61]

[FFG 56-61]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Luk 2:40-52. An Incident in Jesus Boyhood.The lad grows in body and mind and is blessed by God. When He is twelve years old He accompanies His parents to the Passover at Jerusalem, and when the weeks Feast is over, remains behind unknown to them. They return to seek Him, and after a long search find Him in one of the Temple porticos joining intelligently in the discussions of the scribes. He goes home and Uves obediently with them, and continues His allround development (cf. Luk 2:40, also Luk 1:80, 1Sa 2:26).

Luk 2:42. Like Samuels parents, those of Jesus go to the central shrine once instead of three times (Deu 16:16) a year. There is a close parallel in the story of Buddha.

Luk 2:48; Luk 2:50. The astonishment and obtuseness hardly consort with the earlier narratives of the annunciation and birth. The rebuke to Mary takes the place in Lk. of Mar 3:33.

Luk 2:49. in my Fathers house. RV is preferable to AV. Jesus is now conscious of God as His Father, not as against Joseph, but apparently because He was Messiah.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, {u} filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

(u) As Christ grew up in age, so the virtue of his Godhead showed itself more and more.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Luke also noted Jesus’ normal development as a human being (Luk 2:40; cf. Luk 1:80; Luk 2:52). He was the object of God’s grace (help). Luke mentioned Jesus’ wisdom perhaps in anticipation of the following pericope. Luk 2:40 describes what happened to Jesus between His presentation in the temple and His return there when He was 12 years old (Luk 2:41-51).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)