GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:47-48
47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
“Amazed” in Greek is existemi (ἐξίστημι). “Astonished” is ekplesso (ἐκπλήσσω). Our expression for his parents’ astonished state would be that they were “out of their minds” with worry and confusion. Everybody else, however, was blown away and amazed by his questions and answers. His parents didn’t understand this event, but it was perfectly clear that he understood a lot more than anyone expected a 12-year old boy to understand. Their reactions remind us of the kind of reception Jesus would get throughout his ministry. The people of Nazareth were amazed at his first sermon at home (Luke 3:21). The Pharisees and Herodians were amazed when he gave a simple and perfect answer when they tried to trap him with words (Mark 12:17). The crowds were amazed by his teaching more than once (Mark 1:27; 5:20; 6:2; 11:18).
When Mary asked him “Why have you treated us like this?” she was expressing the concern of any parent for a lost child who doesn’t think he was lost at all. He answers her with respect, but his answer will show that he already understood that his relationship with the heavenly Father is different from everybody else’s relationship with the heavenly Father.
This understanding amazed them all. Here was a boy who was living proof of the Psalm: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding” (Ps. 111:10). Jesus did not boast about his knowledge, but simply showed it with how he answered questions: “Let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me, the I am the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:24).
His answers also amazed them. Imagine their shock and surprise when he was able to respond in ways that none of them could to seemingly impossible questions. Again, he did not boast about this or lord it over them, but simply gave the answers as he prepared to make the transition from pupil to teacher. Already he was prepared, but he would respectfully wait for just the right moment, which was still years away. His mind was prepared, but his body was still growing, and he had other maturing to undergo.
It isn’t easy for us to understand how Jesus could at the same time be the Almighty God and also a boy who was still growing up. This involves the ‘self-consciousness’ of Christ. Jesus is certainly both God and Man, but the Bible also clearly teaches that Jesus was fully aware that he was both God and Man. He remembered and understood his pre-incarnate existence (“Before Abraham was, I am,” John 8:58). He understood his role in salvation and embraced it completely: “I came from the Father and entered the world…and (am) going back to the Father” (John 16:28). He called himself “the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:13-17). He acknowledged that he is the Christ, even before Pilate and the Sanhedrin (Luke 23:2,3, and Luke 24:6). And more than this, the very first words we have of Jesus—recorded in the next verse (Luke 2:49)—show that he was already aware of these things now, as a boy, with his feet still under Joseph’s table.
Why didn’t Jesus make bolder claims to being Christ? The answer is simple enough. Which Savior would you rather have: a braggart who insisted that everybody acknowledge him as the Messiah? Or a humble man who proved at every turn that he truly is the Messiah, so that everybody comes to that conclusion without being forced or coaxed in any way? This is our humble Savior, truly the Messiah; truly our saving God.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota