GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:39-40
39 When they had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Luke doesn’t explain everything that the Old Testament Law required, but he assures Theophilus and the other Gentiles reading this—such as you and me—that Jesus’ family “had done everything required by the Law of the Lord.”
Before the family returned to Nazareth, several other things took place which Luke does not mention:
1. The Magi arrived, looking for the baby Jesus in Jerusalem (Matthew 2:1-6)
2. The Magi unintentionally tipped off King Herod that the Savior was born, whom Herod considered a rival (Matthew 2:7-8)
3. The Magi found Jesus and his family in Bethlehem. “Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (EHV, Matthew 2:11). After this, they returned home.
4. Herod ordered all the boys in Bethlehem “from two years old and under” to be killed (Matthew 2:13-18).
5. Warned by an angel, Jesus’ family took him to Egypt to avoid the persecution of Herod (Matthew 2:19-21)
6. King Herod the Great died, replaced by his son Archelaus (reigned over Judea from 4 BC to 6 AD, Matthew 2:22)
7. Warned in another dream about Archelaus, Joseph took the family to Galilee, outside the jurisdiction of Archelaus, to the city of Nazareth (Matthew 2:23).
For the first five of these events, perhaps a year or two passed. For the last two, we don’t know how many more years went by for the holy family in Egypt. But they arrived later in Nazareth, and Joseph set up shop as a carpenter (Matthew 13:55). Luke tells us that the boy Jesus grew in two ways. First, he grew physically, “the child grew and became strong.” This is a reminder of his humanity and his state of humiliation, needing to be under the nurture of his parents. Second, he grew spiritually, becoming “filled with wisdom.” This, too, is a reminder of his true humanity, since God would not need to grow in wisdom, spiritual or otherwise. Yet Jesus submitted himself to this.
The wisdom was godly wisdom, the correct knowledge of salvation, and the means of applying God’s plan of salvation to human life. Jesus was becoming prepared, humanly speaking, for his preaching ministry. He paid attention to the ordinary details of life—farming (Luke 8:5), cooking (Luke 12:1; 13:21), carpentry (Luke 6:41-42), travel (Luke 10:30), weddings (Luke 12:36; 14:8), family troubles (Luke 15:12),the seasons (John 4:35) and perhaps even the journey made by Archelaus to petition Caesar to be recognized as king (Luke 19:12,27). Jesus turned every part of human life into a way of looking at our relationship with God. This is a great lesson which few of us learn. But whether we master every one of our Master’s lessons, or just remember that he died for our sins and rose again, he is our Master, our Lord, and we have a place with him forever in heaven.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Note:
In the second and third centuries, an Egyptian sect of Christianity known as the Copts let their imaginations run wild with additional stories about Jesus, especially regarding his childhood and infancy. Some of these documents record supposed miracles of Christ, but all of which are contrary to the text of the Bible, which clearly says that the first miracle Jesus ever performed was changing water into wine at Cana. “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee” (John 2:11). And the second was also in Cana, healing the son of a nobleman (John 4:54).
One of the more well-known Coptic texts is “The First Infancy Gospel of Jesus Christ,” which was one of the books adapted by Mohammed when he composed the Koran. Some of its claims include:
A, Jesus spoke to Mary while still in the cradle, saying, “Mary, I am Jesus the Son of God, the Word which you brought forth in accord with what the angel Gabriel told you. My Father sent me for the salvation of the world” (1:3).
B, That the midwife whom Joseph went to find to help with the delivery arrived too late, and instead when she touched the baby “she became whole” (he healed her, 1:17).
C, Mary thanked the wise men by giving them one of Jesus’ swaddling blankets, which later they threw into their campfire (as a part of worshiping God), but the fire did not burn it, so they treasured it very much (3:6-10).
D, An Egyptian idol spoke to them through an oracle as they approached. The demon said, “The unknown God has come here, who is truly God. There is no other God besides him. He is worthy of divine worship, for he is truly the Son of God” (4:11) after which the idol fell down and the people were very afraid (4:13).
E, When Mary washed some of Jesus swaddling clothes and hung them on a tree to dry, a boy possessed by a demon stole one of the blankets, but when he put it on his head, his demons “began to leave through his mouth, and flew away in the shape of crows and snakes” (4:16).
And there are many other tales like this. They are unimportant historically, except that the Coptic (Egyptian) Christians were clearly delighted that the Savior had lived there in Egypt for a while, and they obviously wanted to connect as many later stories in the true Gospels with their own country. It was a fraud, but a pious fraud. We don’t need to wonder whether they thought these stories were worthy to be held up as part of Scripture—there was no effort at all to spread these stories anyplace else, unlike the canonical Gospels, which were carried everywhere and shared with everyone. No, these “infancy miracles” and related stories are just stories told in one small corner of the world. We are no better off for knowing them, and no one is any worse off for not knowing them. They are not true, and we might even say that they are mostly harmless.
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota