January, 2001

"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Luke 2:52

One of the themes of the gospel according to Luke is to present Jesus, the Son of God, took on a full humanity. It means He had to go through a natural growing process from a baby (2:12) to a child (2:40) and then to a boy (2:43). According to Jewish custom, at thirteen years of age, a Jewish male enters into the full responsibilities of adulthood. During the prior years, the father was required to teach and to acquaint him with the duties and regulations, which adult was to assume when the time came.

Every year, Joseph, Mary, and the family went up to Jerusalem to worship during the Feast of the Passover. But when Jesus was twelve year-old, it was different from the previous years. When Mary looked into the eyes of the twelve-year-old Jesus sitting with the men in the temple, she saw in her son something she hadn’t expected to see. Time had escaped her too quickly; her son was approaching the age of adulthood. Soon he would leave them and became his own individual. Mary voiced her opinion about His irresponsibility. Jesus disagreed, but He continued to be obedient to His parents and returned home.

The final verse of this chapter marked Jesus’ balanced development. Jesus grew. The original language connotes an idea that Jesus continued to grow, which literally means "to cut one’s way forward," that is, to increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. The areas of the four-balanced growth of Jesus are what every person ought to attain. Wisdom is the ability to acquire knowledge. Having said that, Luke wasn’t denying Jesus’ deity; he was upholding Jesus humanity. Jesus is one-hundred percent God and one-hundred percent man. When Jesus became a man, it didn’t mean He diluted His Deity by His humanity. He was fully God and fully man at the same time—a concept impossible for human to fully capture because no one could experience such a phenomena. What Stature stands for is ambiguous. It refers to either physical growth (traditional teaching) or personal development. Personally, I believe the latter is more appropriate. We see Jesus used flexibility and rigidity personality trait exercised whenever it was called for during His ministry. Finally, He enjoyed good reputation with God and with men. To sum it up, we see Jesus’ internal qualities expressed with His external personality; and we see God’s acceptance and men’s praises at the same time. What a model for us to follow!