WWUTT 2283 Jesus Glorifies the Father (Luke 2:46-52)

Jesus in the Temple and the Search for the Boy Jesus

Jesus was in the temple with a lot of other teachers who were amazed at the questions he asked and the answers that he gave. Jesus, even in his humanity, grew in wisdom when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Reading Luke 2:41-52 and the Boy Jesus in the Temple

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we are finishing up chapter 2 today with the boy Jesus teaching in the temple. Let me read once again, verses 41 -52, hear the word of the Lord. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.

And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey. But then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching 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. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.

And his mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?

And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Can you imagine there was once a time in history when the son of God was missing? Not really. He knew where he was. The father knew where he was, but his earthly mother and father did not know where he was.

They had misplaced the incarnate son of God and went about looking for him and finally found him there in the temple. Let's pick up where we left off yesterday, verse 46, where it says,. After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

Now, often the way this is depicted in a movie or a TV show or some sort of drama is that Mary and Joseph go a little bit outside of Jerusalem. Oh, where's Jesus? We can't find him. They look around, end up going back into Jerusalem.

They stroll around for about an hour and they finally find him there in the temple. But this says to us it was three days. They went a day's journey and then couldn't find him. So they have to journey back to Jerusalem.

Really, if you think about it, this was five days, wasn't it? So they went a day's journey away, couldn't find him. They go back to Jerusalem. That's two days right there. Then they have to search around Jerusalem for three days before they finally find him in the temple.

What in the world was Jesus doing all that time? Where was he sleeping? Likely he was sleeping right there in the temple. Remember that we talked previously about Anna and it seems like Anna may have just stayed.

There.

She didn't have any possessions. She didn't have a home that she went to. She just probably had a cot that she slept on, maybe a small tent or something like that. Slept in Solomon's portico likely because that would have given her shelter overhead and then spent all those years that she was ministering just right there in the temple.

So likely Jesus at this time in Jerusalem still would have been pretty full because this is right at the end of a Passover feast. So there's still probably a lot of people around Jerusalem. The temple is quite busy.

So there are places for Jesus to go to hang out, to lay down and sleep. He's keeping himself active. It's not like he's wandering around going, I want to wear my mom and dad went. Like I had said yesterday, he may have helped Joseph load up the cart or whatever they were traveling with and then turned around and went right back into the temple to be in his father's house to continue hearing the scriptures and answering questions and everything that he said just astonished everybody around them.

That's what we have here in verse 46. It says that he was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. So likely the kind of interaction that was happening here was something catechetical, meaning that it's catechism, you know, asking questions, giving answers.

And some of those questions may have been things like, what is the great commandment in the law? You might remember there was a certain lawyer that came and challenged Jesus with that question. Good teacher.

What's the greatest commandment in the law? And it's it's likely that he's asking a catechism question to Jesus. This is a question we commonly ask of our students. So let me ask Jesus, this rabbi, this teacher, the one that his disciples are calling rabbi anyway, let me ask him and see if he knows the greatest commandment in the law, which is why I think it's according to Luke's gospel.

When Jesus answers that question, the lawyer says, yeah, you've answered right, because that is the answer that is taught to those students, that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and you will love your neighbor as yourself.

The second command that is like it. So this is this is probably the kind of questioning that's going on, the kinds of answers that Jesus is giving. Another one may have been related to the Sabbath. What are the laws of the Sabbath?

What do we do on the Sabbath? What are allowances on the Sabbath, perhaps something to that degree? Here's a note that I have from Charles Ellicott. He was a theologian in the late 19th century, English theologian.

He says the following, a chamber of the temple was set apart as a kind of open free school. The doctors or teachers, famous doctors of the law, sat in what was called Moses seat. The older students sat on a low bench, the younger on the ground, literally at the feet of their instructor.

The relation between master and scholar was often one of affectionate reverence and sympathy and was expressed by one of the famous scribes in a saying worth remembering, quote, I have learned much from the rabbis, my teachers.

I have learned more from the rabbis, my colleagues, but from my scholars, I have learned most of all, unquote. It's interesting to think that among the doctors then present, while a 12 year old Jesus is right there in the temple, may have been the venerable Hillel, who was then verging upon his hundredth year, his son and successor Simeon, his grandson, who was then the youthful Gamaliel.

And if you'll remember, Gamaliel was a teacher of the apostle Paul, Jonathan, the writer of the Calde Targum or paraphrase of the sacred books and Shammai, who was the rival of Hillel, who bound where the ladder loosed.

These were some of the famous teachers in that first century that may have been right there when God incarnate Jesus Christ is among them asking questions and giving answers. And even Jesus in the questions that he asked, they may have been challenging questions.

It may not have been so much on the side of Jesus learning something, although it could have been that because remember it said previously in verse 40 that the child grew and became strong filled with wisdom.

And we have in verse 52, which we'll close with Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. So it could be that he's asking questions and learning something from the answers that he is giving.

But it could also be that he's asking questions in a way that challenge. And that's what amazes those who are listening to him as we have in verse 47. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

As these questions are coming, the answers that he gives, he's answering questions in such a way that go even beyond their own knowledge and their own understanding, the typical answers that they would give to such questions.

Think back to when we were in Matthew chapter seven, at the end of the sermon on the Mount, the people were astonished at what Jesus taught because he did not teach like the scribes and Pharisees. He taught as one having authority.

And very likely, even as a 12 year old, Jesus would have been saying things in exactly that way here where he speaks with authority. And all who heard him, they're amazed at the things that he is saying.

We're not given much in the way of the extent of his knowledge or the breadth of his wisdom. Luke doesn't even try to hint at that. But Jesus surely knows who he is and what he's doing there because he says, don't you know that I must be in my father's house?

And that's not just some casual thing to say. Let me get to that here. I don't want to jump too far ahead. So going back to verse 48, when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.

Now, you might be tempted to say, wasn't Jesus being disobedient here because he left his parents without telling them where he was? Surely he knew what this was going to do to them. And then they come and find him and his mother speaks to him in this way.

He's caused her a great deal of grief. So wasn't Jesus disobedient? Jesus is not being rebellious here. And he's fully submitting to his father who was in heaven. It's obvious that Mary is quite distressed by this.

And then what we have in verse 51 is that Jesus submits to them. He does submit to their authority. So that's coming here in a moment. But in the meantime, nothing is indicated of Jesus being disobedient or rebellious.

If that were the case, then he disrespects his parents and he would be sinning, right? Because that is the fifth commandment. You will honor your father and your mother. And Jesus does that here. He does honor them and says to them that they should have known where he was.

Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? Now, it's interesting that Mary is the one that speaks to him and not Joseph. I'm going to speculate on something here. The text doesn't say this, but I'm just, you know, this is conjecture.

So take it for what it's worth. Joseph is not Jesus' actual father. He's not his biological father. He is an adopted father. So it could be that Joseph is leaving this address to Jesus to his actual mother being Mary.

So Joseph recognizes that he's not really the parent. He is legally, of course, even Matthew 1 states that, that Jesus was legally the son of Joseph. A lot of people were not familiar with all the mystery that was surrounding his birth.

So the people that are there who are listening to Jesus, the teachers that are astonished by him, they're only astonished at the things that he's saying, not any of the background information that they surely don't know about him.

But anyway, Joseph is letting Mary be the one to confront him in this way since she is his actual mother. And like I said, that's just conjecture. But that could be the reason why we hear from Mary here and not Joseph.

There's never a quote from Joseph in the New Testament, but we do have Mary's address to Jesus here. And then, of course, his response to her in verse 49 was, why were you looking for me?

Why?

Again, this question is based on why were you searching? Like, why did it take you so long? Why didn't you know where I was? So Jesus leaving them and going into the temple, it wasn't that he was going to make his parents go a day's journey away, then come a day's journey back.

His question to them seems to indicate, you should have known right away where I was. The things that y 'all were doing, we got done with everything that we were going to do. You just left instead of coming back to get me when you left.

So hence his statement, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? Or as some translations render this, I must be about my father's business. These are the first words from the Son of God in the New Testament, all things considered.

I mean, it's the first words of the incarnate Son of God that we have in the Bible, recorded in the Bible. It's Jesus speaking at the age of 12. Yes, we've seen dialogue from Jesus back in Matthew and in Mark.

But when you're talking about chronologically, the first words that are recorded of Jesus having spoken is here in Luke 2, 49, when he says, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?

And like I said, there's something unique about the way that he says that the other teachers that were there, anyone else that was a worshiper of God in Judah at that time, they did not refer to God as father.

They didn't call him father. You have very few instances of God being addressed as father or spoken about as father, even in the Old Testament. There's a couple of references in the Psalms, but by and large, no one was referring to God as father.

This is a unique thing that Jesus incorporates into his teaching that you can know God as father, as I know God as father. Anyone who would come to him in my name, he is your father in heaven. When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in Matthew 6, we're going to have this come up in Luke as well.

When he teaches them to pray, our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That was brand new. That was like a new teaching to say that when you pray to God, you can call him father. That's not the way that people were praying.

They weren't even saying the name Yahweh at the time that Jesus was here listening and teaching in the temple. At the time of the Sermon on the Mount, they were not referring to God as Yahweh either because they held that name is so sacred.

They didn't want to speak it in such a way that could potentially be in vain or blasphemy, so they weren't even saying the name at all. And here Jesus is telling them, you can know him as your benevolent heavenly father.

You can have that kind of relationship with God. He's not somebody that is so far off. He's standing over there. You can't get to him. He is so powerful and so above you. He certainly is that the holiness of God demonstrated in scripture is being so great that we could never even come near his presence without just being burned up in the presence of his holiness.

So yes, he is beyond us, but you can still have a relationship with God and know him intimately as your heavenly father, which is a relationship that we have through Jesus Christ. By faith in him, we're adopted into the family of God and we become sons and daughters of God that we may know him as father.

As the son of God called him father. So we also can know him as father adopted through faith in Jesus Christ. So that's why this statement is so incredibly unique that Jesus would say this to Joseph and Mary and why their response in verse 50 is, they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

You must be about your father's business. I almost kind of wonder if Joseph and Mary are standing right there going, this is your, this is your father's business. Here's your father right here. You're supposed to be with us and here you are in the temple.

They're confused by what he says. They don't understand it. Although they would understand it later because it says that Mary treasured up all these things in her heart. So that indicates there's an understanding that they come to later that they don't have here.

He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. So even though he is God, he is their God. He is Joseph and Mary's God. Yet he submits to them because he's being obedient to the will of his father.

He is fulfilling every aspect of the law, even the law that says you will honor your father and your mother. And so though Jesus has all the power and the authority in the universe, yet he willingly submits to the will of his earthly mother and father in obedience to his father who is in heaven.

And likewise, we need to be the same as Jesus has done this. So we must also submit to our earthly mothers and fathers. If I have any teenagers listening out there or any kids, you got to be obedient to your mom and dad.

Children, obey your mother and father in the Lord for this is right. And of course, as I said earlier, the fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother. So Jesus does that very thing. Remember that he speaks to Pilate after he's arrested before he is about to be turned over to be crucified.

He's addressing Pilate in John's gospel. And Jesus says to Pilate, you would not have any, any authority at all if not given to you from above. So even in that instance, Jesus is submitting to the command and the order that's given by Pilate to have him crucified because Jesus is submitting to the father.

And that whatever authority Pilate has, it's been given to him from above to accomplish the purpose and the will that God gave him that authority to accomplish. So here as well, Jesus is submitting to Joseph and Mary.

They are authorities to Jesus because they are his parents. So he submits to them and his mother treasures up all of these things in her heart. Verse 52, Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

And this is showing to us how Jesus experienced his own humanity. He surely knows something beyond what everybody else knows. Even at the age of 12, he knows that he is the son of God to the father in heaven.

All indications are that he knows that. Hence why he said, don't you know that I must be in my father's house. I must be about my father's business. And yet experiencing life as a human, there is a wisdom that apparently increases and deepens with his years as he matures.

Thus saying Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, stature being like strength or years. He increased in years could also be the way that that is translated. And he also increased in favor with God and man.

He grew up with a good reputation among the people who were around him. When you're talking about somebody who is as pure as Jesus is, he is meek. He is unselfish that even those who see him and know him and recognize his personality cannot help, but favor the boy.

I mean, his parents certainly favored him. They never had to punish him for anything. He was sinless and probably had rubbed that onto his half siblings as well. Why can't you be as good as Jesus? Of course, we know why they were born of the seed of man.

Whereas Jesus was conceived in the Holy spirit. It could very well be that wisdom is in reference to Jesus soul. So Jesus own soul is human soul. He has a human soul that is maturing. And then stature could be related to his physical body.

There could be that interpretation of it as well, but everything indicating that Jesus experiences life as a human. And as we read about in the book of Hebrews, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Our sins are forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read. And I pray that it drives us to want to be imitators of Christ. We have an earthly example that has been given to us of one who has the favor of God and who had more favor than the son of God himself, God incarnate Jesus Christ.

And so as we have witnessed from him, the way that we should live, may we desire to model that and live in holiness all our days, looking forward to that day when we will be with you forever in your eternal kingdom.

Forgive us our sins, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Ministry Schedule and Sign-off

You've been listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hubes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand The Text.