Forming Faith Blog

Wisdom of a Preteen Messiah (Luke 2)

Posted on December 26 2024 by Gregory Rawn

Luke’s Gospel gives us something that no other New Testament writing does: a glimpse of Jesus’ humanity and development as a preteen Messiah.

A preteen boy giving a thumbs up.
Photo by RDNE Stock project
The Son Revealed

This Sunday marks the twelfth day of Christmas, and Epiphany begins tomorrow. Next week, we see the start of Jesus’ ministry as a full adult with his introduction by John and his baptism. The Gospel of Luke gives us two very long chapters of narrative unique to the Gospels—the origin stories, one might say—of the cousins John and Jesus, forerunner and Messiah. Of these stories, today’s reading is among the most unique. The Gospel of Matthew jumps from Jesus’ birth to toddlerhood to adulthood. Mark and John, in their own ways, jump straight into Jesus’ adult ministry. In between his infancy and adulthood, Luke gives us a glimpse of Jesus as a preteen. But it brings up a question: Why? Why did Luke think it was important to include this vignette of the not-quite-adult Messiah?

Why Luke Included This

Okay, the short answer is that I have no idea, and I’m not quite sure anyone does. But the Gospels aren’t some slipshod journal entries of stream-of-consciousness writing. The Gospel writer himself referred to this as a carefully investigated, orderly account. So, this was not an accident. If we can’t get into the author’s head, we can look closely and see what this story might tell us.

Bracketing Verses

The headers found in our Bibles are very helpful, but it’s important to remember that they were added to the text a long, long time later, as were the chapters and verse numbers. And, while the limits of our assigned Scripture readings are necessary and appropriate, it can be enlightening to look beyond them.

This is the case here. There are two verses that sit between the assigned reading for last week (the presentation of the infant Jesus at the temple) and today’s temple visit from that same boy at twelve years old. 

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.

Luke 2:39-40

The verse of particular interest to me is Luke 2:40:

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

After that comes our reading that I will come back to, but this episode ends with:

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

Luke 2:52

Notice the parallels: the child was filled with wisdom and the adolescent increased in wisdom. God’s favor was on the child, and the preteen increased in divine and human favor. This is all while the child grew and became strong and the adolescent matured (increased in stature, years). This story is a rest stop as Jesus developed into the grown-up Messiah we all know and love.

Growth

The period including childhood and adolescence is defined by change, particularly growth. A person grows physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And while I hope that we adults can continue to grow emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, it’s not the same. And you probably know that well, given that you are likely a faith formation leader who encounters children and youth in some way or another.

We do not know a lot about Jesus between infancy and full adulthood, we know that he and his full humanity went through the same stages of development as the rest of us.

Wisdom

Even those of us who confess the traditional doctrine that Jesus was fully human and fully divine don’t really know how it works. The Gospel of John suggests that Jesus retained at least a bit of his divine omniscience. But Luke says quite explicitly that Jesus increased in wisdom. And this, I believe, is one of the central points of the story of Jesus remaining at the temple. 

Jesus was certainly a child prodigy, the best humanity has to offer. 

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.

Luke 2:46-47

And while preteen Jesus could have been quizzing them when he asked the teachers questions, I think it fits more with Luke’s description of Jesus that he understood a lot, but that only led him to ask new, more insightful questions.

Increasing in Wisdom

Jesus probably learned a lot during his visit to the temple and at home in Nazareth. But he learned a life lesson here as well. I imagine that he thought that his Passover visit to Jerusalem was a perfect opportunity to spend time learning in the temple (his Father’s house, as he puts it). But I believe he was naive and unaware of how his actions would affect his parents. He sounds quite confused when his mother scolds him about what he has put them through. 

He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Luke 2:49

He had no clue that he had accidentally failed to honor his parents. Why do I think this? 

Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.

Luke 2:41a

I read that as saying that Jesus realized what he had done and worked to grow from this realization. He increased in wisdom.

Grace and Favor

The third point to these bracketing verses is that grace or favor. This is the same Greek as the Big, Important, Theological Word “grace” (charis), but I understand that it has a wide range of possible meanings. It is also the same word (and closer to the same meaning) as was used earlier in relation to Mary, who found favor with God (Luke 1:28, 30, 48).

What does it mean to find favor with God? In this case, “favor” is to be in someone’s good graces, to have a positive reputation with someone, usually with some benefits. It would seem obvious that the Son of God would automatically have God’s complete favor on him, so how can he increase in it? The human favor can easily be explained as Jesus’ positive reputation increasing among the religious teachers and others they might have spoken to. Perhaps God was proud of Jesus’ growth as a person and his increase in wisdom as shown in this passage.

Growth, Wisdom, and Favor in Our Preteens

God loves our preteens (and teens, children, etc.) more than we ever could. As you probably do already, it’s important that we continuously remind them that they are loved. As we see in this passage, we also should:

  • Honor their growth
  • Listen to their wisdom
  • Show them their favor, both from you and other adults in your congregation and beyond.

Overall, this episode of Jesus as a preteen reinforces the teaching that, in many important ways, Jesus is just like us.

Christmas blessings,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

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