Growing Up Like Jesus – Part 1

Scripture — Luke 2:39-52 (NRSV)

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of this. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in divine and human favor.

Devotion

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus Returning to Nazareth by Leonard Gaultier (1576-1580)

Don’t you wonder what it was like to grow up as a member of Jesus’ family? Sitting around the dinner table with Mary and Joseph and Jesus, and his other siblings. We know Jesus had at least six siblings: James, three named brothers, and several unnamed sisters.

What must it have been like to be Jesus’ little brother or sister? Living under the same roof with God incarnate as your elder brother? Must have had its moments. Like when you are fighting with your other brother or sister at the table and you hear your mother say – in her most disappointed voice – “Why can’t you be more like Jesus!” Not sure how I’d feel about Jesus after that…

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Jesus’ early life before he began his ministry at age thirty. Today’s reading is the only story about Jesus and his family in Nazareth, where he spent most of his life. The biblical silence resulted in some fanciful stories about Jesus’ early years. What’s interesting about those extra-biblical stories is that they all paint Jesus as someone superhuman.

Makes you think, doesn’t it? Does Jesus only look and act like a human being, or is he really something else? Is he not human, after all? In other words, is Jesus more like Superman pretending to be Clark Kent?

Perhaps you’ve seen the very first Superman movie. Early in that story, Superman, as a little boy, lifts the end of his father’s truck with his bare hands. With John Williams’ Superman score playing suggestively in the background, his astonished father and mother realize this is no normal little boy. He is (or would become) Superman!

That’s what the apocryphal stories tell about Jesus. Jesus as a little boy turning clay sparrows into live birds, raising a dead playmate back to life, and healing his younger brother James from a snake bite.

In contrast, the biblical portrait of Jesus’ early years is downright ordinary. No spectacular miracles. No angelic choirs (or John Williams music) announcing his coming of age at the Temple. No wise men coming to pay homage or tribute to the young king in Jerusalem. Just a twelve-year-old boy inexplicably staying behind in Jerusalem while his whole hometown caravan left to make their 75-mile, three-day journey back to Nazareth.

The biblical picture of Jesus growing up is that of a regular human being. Not someone about to be revealed as God incarnate. Jesus lived a normal life and worked at an ordinary job until age 30.

That explains why people had such trouble with him at the beginning of his ministry. In the gospel of Mark, people said of Jesus, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:2) In other words, we’ve never seen anything like this from this guy before!

So why does the biblical account paint such an ordinary, such a human account of Jesus’ growing up? That’s what I want to explore with you in this upcoming set of devotionals.

For now, Luke is making the point that Jesus isn’t pretending to be human. Jesus – in a way that no one can fully explain – is God actually becoming truly and fully human. God has “the full experience” of being human, with all the limitations that implies. And that includes not only being born but also growing up as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, into a mature human being.

That is the glimpse we get in today’s story.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Faithfulness at a Snail’s Pace.