Luke 2:40

Luk_2:40

And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit.

Our Lords early years upon earth

Notice a few things which are remarkable in our Lords Childhood, and which are too often wanting in that of others.

1. His obedience to His earthly parents.

2. A childhood of privacy and seclusion. He was kept in the background, not paraded by His parents as an instance of precocious excellence or intellect. He drank in the pure breezes of heaven, and was in secret.

3. A genuine thirst for improvement (Luk_2:46, &c.). How unlike that raging appetite for mere amusement which begins in our days so early, and has turned the very literature of the young into a jest and plaything. What we seek is something to make us laugh, something which may present to us the ludicrous side of everything, and turn away from us the real and the sobering. What Christ sought at the age of twelve years was knowledge, and He sought that knowledge in the courts of His Fathers house.

4. A spirit of docility. He sought knowledge even from men little qualified, indeed, to impart it, but who yet occupied the position to which it belonged to teach.

5. Christs childhood was stamped with a sense of duty, and elevated by a lofty aim. A sense of His relation to God, of the meaning and responsibility of life, of a work to be done on Gods earth in which He was Himself to be a fellow-worker with His Father--these motives had already dawned upon Him at that young age, and gave an unwonted seriousness to a childhood in all else so natural.

6. Notice the testimony which Christs childhood bears to Gods patience in working out His purposes; to what we may call the gradual character of Gods works. In due time is written upon all of them.

7. Our Lords early life was the consecration, for all time, of what are regarded, by way of distinction, as the more secular and the humbler callings. (S. P. C. K. Sermons.)

The holy Child Jesus

Christ might have been made full-grown at once. Adam was, and our Lord is called the last Adam, the second man; that is to say, Adam was a type or figure of Christ. One might have expected, therefore, that our Lord would be what Adam had been, a man sent into the world full-grown. Infancy, childhood, boyhood, are very humbling conditions. Why did Christ submit to them?

1. Our Lords condescension is infinite, and therefore, in coming into the world, He desired to stoop as low as possible, in order to set us the more striking example of lowliness of mind. Therefore tie preferred, for His entrance into the world, the condition of an unconscious babe, and of a child dependent upon its parents, to that of a full-grown and independent man.

2. Our Lord, out of His infinite compassion for us, earnestly desired to sympathize with men in all their trials, and in every condition in which they can be placed, in eider that He might bless and comfort them by His sympathy. So He came in by the usual gate--infancy.

3. One can quite see this, that for a grown-up person never to have known childhood, a home, or a mothers care, would cut them off from all the most beautiful and tender associations of our nature. It makes a man tender, as no other thought can, to look back on his childhood and early home, on the strong interest which his parents used to take in him, and on the sacrifices which they were at all times ready to make for him. Now our Lord was to be infinitely tender, in order that He might attract the miserable and suffering to Himself; and He was to exhibit all the beauties and graces of which human nature is capable; and therefore it was that He willed to have a home of childhood, and to be dependent upon a mothers care, and to lisp His earliest prayers at a mothers knee, which is the way in which all of us first learn to pray. These experiences contributed to make His human soul tender.

Concluding lessons:

1. Take to Him all your little troubles and trials in prayer, and assure yourselves that He is most ready to hear and help you. Why did He become a child, but to assure children of His sympathy with them?

2. Take Him for your example. Observe His love of Gods house, His teachableness, His desire for instruction, His submission to His parents (while all the while He was their God), His growth in wisdom and in favour with God and man; and try to copy Him in these points.

3. Trust with all your heart in the goodness which He as a child exhibited, and which was perfect goodness, such as yours can never be. Only for the sake of that goodness of His will God forgive your faults. (Dean Goulburn.)

The growth of children

The Child grew. Of course the Child grew. Every child grows. There is not a child in the world who is not older to-day than he was yesterday, and who, if he lives, will not be older to-morrow than he is to-day. And whatever needs to be done for a child while he is young as now ought to be done to-day. He will have outgrown the possibility--if not the need--of such doing for him when to-morrow is here. Childhood is quickly lost. It is not to be regained. Unless it is improved as it passes, it is unimproved for ever. A child grows by night and by day, whether he is cared for or neglected. Oh, how soon the child has outgrown the possibilities of training in the nursery, of a mothers training, of a fathers training, of a teachers training! And when he has outgrown all these, who but God can reach him? If you would do your work for your child, you must do it now--or never, Have that in mind with your every breath; for with every breath your child is growing away from his plastic and impressible childhood. (H. C. Trumbull.)

No abasement in growth

There is no abasement in the fact that Jesus grew as any other boy grows. The apple of June is perfect as a June apple, though it has not come to its maturity. The acorn is perfect as an acorn, just as the oak is perfect as an oak. Jesus was a perfect Boy, as He was a perfect Man. If Jesus was content to grow slowly, should not we? The mushroom may spring up in a night; it is many a year before the sturdy oak attains its full growth. (Sunday School Times.)

The source of Christs growth

When one sees a river flowing deep and strong through a parched country, as the Ganges in India, he becomes desirous of knowing something about its source. He follows it up, and finds that it comes from the cold hills of the north, issuing it may be, in full flood from beneath a glacier. So the source of Jesus growth in spirit and wisdom is here told--The grace of God was upon Him. (Sunday School Times.)

Youthful piety of Christ

There are three parts of our nature mentioned in the Bible--the body, the soul, the spirit. The body is what the animals have in common with us; it is the part of us in which we feel hunger, thirst, and weariness--the part which is fed by food cud rested by sleep. The soul means the feelings and affections; it is the part of us which feels pity for distress, fear of danger, anger at an insult, and so forth. The spirit is that higher part of our nature, which makes us reasonable beings; it is by the action of our spirit that we think of God, set Him before us, pray to Him, fear Him, worship Him. It is, then, a great thing to say of any child, and it could only be said of a good and holy child, that he waxes strong in spirit. It means not that he becomes taller, nimbler, cleverer, but that his conscience becomes more and more formed as he grows up, his will more steady in doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong, his prayers to God more earnest, his sense of Gods presence more keen, his dread of sin stronger. Alas! it is the very opposite with children in general. Their conscience, which was once tender, becomes hardened as they get to know more; they soon shake off any dread of sin and the fear of God; their will weakly yields to temptation, until it becomes easy and natural to yield. And it is added, He was filled with wisdom. The words imply that wisdom kept on flowing, like a running stream, into His human soul; there were, in His case, none of those thoughts of levity and folly, by which childhood is commonly marked. And the grace of God (meaning both the favour of God, and the precious influence of His Holy Spirit) was upon Him. When the sun shines out upon the dewdrops that cover the tender grass of spring in the early morning, how beautiful is each spangled bead of dew, glistening with all the colours of the rainbow t Such was the childhood of the Holy Child! The dews of Gods Spirit rested upon Him without measure. And the sunshine of Gods favour beamed out upon Him, as the Child of children, in whom--and in whom alone of all children that had ever been born--God the Father was well pleased. How early can a child love God, yearn towards God, hope in God, trust in God? I cannot say. Probably much earlier than we suppose. Do not the youngest infants stretch their tiny arms, and smile graciously when their mother comes into the room? They are not too young to show that they love and trust their parents; I do not know why it should be impossible for them to love and trust their heavenly Father, especially if He should give His grace to them without measure, as was the case with our Lord. Perhaps you say, It is impossible for a child in arms to understand or know anything about God. How can any one be sure of that? It was foretold of John the Baptist, that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mothers womb; and if this was the case with him, how much more must it have been the case with the Lord Jesus? Have you one single feeling of affection and trust towards your heavenly Father, as He had? Do you even wish to have some such feeling The wish is something, no, it is much; let it lead you to pray for the feeling, and in due time the feeling will come. If your earthly parents would deny you nothing that is good for you, which they had it in their power to give, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? (Dean Goulburn.)

Growth under ordinary events

These words, applied by St. Luke first to John the Baptist and then to our Lord, simply express an everyday occurrence--what we habitually take for granted as the natural course of things. This very fact--that they are so simple, so natural, so completely on the level of our common life--gives them the rich meaning that they possess for us. For they teach us that the Divine method of life is quite different from what we should expect; that each man may find in and about him, in his endowments and in his environments, just what he requires for the accomplishment of his work. We need not go from our proper place in order to discipline ourselves for Gods service; we need not strive after gifts which He has not entrusted to us, or forms of action which are foreign to our position, in order to do our part as members of His Church. It is enough that we grow and wax strong under the action of those forces by which He moves us within and without, if we desire to fulfil, according to the measure of our powers, the charge which He has prepared for us. Thus it was that John the Baptist, the stern, bold preacher, grew up in the desert according to the angels message--a lonely boy, a lonely youth, until the days of his showing unto Israel, communing only with the severest forms of nature and with the most awful thoughts of God. Thus it was that Jesus lived in the calm seclusion of a bright upland valley, in the Jewish fellowship of a holy home, subject to His parents and in favour with God and man, until His hour came. In that silent discipline of thirty years, there was no anxious anticipation of the future, no wistful lingering on the past; the past, used to the utmost, was the foundation of the future. (Canon Westcott.)

Gods mode of training men

We are always inclined to look for some joy or sorrow, as that which shall stir the energies of our souls; for some sharp sickness or bereavement, as that which shall make us trust more faithfully in God; for some blessing or deliverance, as that which shall bring us to love Him with tender devotion. But when these exceptional events happen, they do but reveal to us what we have already become; then, at length, when our eyes are opened, we see ourselves; then we know what we are; then we realize the value of little things, the abiding results of routine; then we marvel, it may be, to know assuredly that we despised Christ when He came to us in strange disguises; or it may be that we welcomed Him in the least of His little ones, or in the most insignificant of His workings. Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake and sleep, we grow and wax strong, or we grow and wax weak; at last some crisis shows us what we have become. (Canon Westcott.)

Great results from secret processes

The facts of the material world help us to feel the reality of this still and secret process which is the universal law of life. The ground on which we stand, the solid rocks which lie beneath it, are nothing but the accumulated results of the action of forces which we observe in action still. A few drops of rain gather on the hillside, and find an outlet down its slope; grain by grain a channel is fashioned, fresh rills add their waters to the flowing stream, and at last the runlet which a stone might have diverted from its course has grown into a river which no human force can stem. The sapling is planted on an open ridge, straight and vigorous; season after season the winds blow through its branches; it bends and bends and rises again, but with ever-lessening power; and when years have gone by, and the sapling has become a tree, its strange distorted shape bears witness to the final power of the force which at each moment it seemed able to overcome. And so it is with all of us. From small beginnings flow the currents of our lives, from constant and unnoticed impulses we take our bias; the stream is ever gathering strength; the bend is ever being confirmed or corrected. At any time of this life, our character is represented by the sum of our past lives. There is not one act, not one purpose, which does not leave its trace, though we may be unable to distinguish and measure its value. There is not one drop which does not add something to the flowing river, not one branch which does not in some way shape the rising tree. The appointed duty, heartily or carelessly gone through, makes us weaker for the next effort. The unkind word spoken, or the kind word not spoken, makes us less tender when our love is next needed; the evil thing done, or the evil thought cherished, makes a vantage-ground for the tempter when he next assails us. The prayer neglected, or said with the lips only, makes it harder for us to seek God when we next desire to find Him. The Communion superstitiously slighted, or superstitiously frequented, makes it more and more difficult for us to see life transfigured by the brightness of a Divine presence. In this way it is that we grow and wax weak, happy only if some day of reckoning startles us by the sense of our loss, and if we are constrained to offer to God in the humblest spirit what remains. And, on the other hand, every faithful answer to the least claim upon our service, every manful contest for the right, every painful struggle with self-indulgence, every sore temptation met in the name and strength of Christ, every striving towards God in prayer and praise, is fruitful for the future--fruitful in self-sacrifice, in courage, in endurance, in the joy of Divine fellowship. (Canon Westcott.)

Childhood disparaged by the ancients

In those brief sketches of Christ which are called the Gospels, eighteen years of experience are wholly wanting. The best explanation of the omission is, that in that epoch, and in almost all past periods, child life was not a matter of importance. It did not enter largely into literature, nor into the category of the great things of the world. In some nations the death-day rather than the birthday was celebrated, because the latter period was associated with fame or learning or some other form of merit, while the birthday enjoyed no association of worth--it was only the period of all shapes of weakness. In the most of the ancient philosophies the reasonable soul did not come to the body until it was about twenty years old. According to one of the old Rabbis a man was free at twelve, might marry at eighteen or twenty, should acquire property until he was thirty, then intellectual strength should come, and at forty the profoundest wisdom should appear. Amid just what opinions of this nature the youth of Jesus was spent is not known, but at least this is true that He lived in an era when early life seemed to possess but small worth, and no scholar or biographer encumbered with such details his record or oration or poem. Not only do we know little about the early life of Jesus, but the early years of Caesar, and Virgil, and Cicero, and Tacitus lie equally withdrawn from the public gaze. Old biographies make their first chapter out of the actual beginnings of the public service. (David Swing.)

An address to children on the Child Jesus

The Child Jesus grew. He did not stand still. Although it was God Himself who was revealed to us in the life of Jesus Christ, yet this did not prevent Him from being made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. And so in all things He is an example for us to imitate. Each one, whether old or young, must remember that progress, improvement, going on, advance, change into something better and better, wiser and wiser, year by year, is the only way of becoming like Christ, and therefore like God. The world moves, and you and all of us must move with it. God calls us all ever to something higher and higher, and that higher stage we must reach by steadily advancing towards it. There are three things especially which the text puts before us as those in which our Lords earthly education, in which the advance and improvement of His earthly character, added to His youthful and childlike powers.

1. Strength of character. Christ waxed strong in spirit. What we all want is a stout heart to resist temptation, a strong hardy conscience which fixes itself on matters of real importance and will not trifle or waste its powers on things of no concern. We must earnestly seek this strength. It comes to those who strive after it.

2. Wisdom. To gain this--to have your mind opened, to take in all that your teachers can pour into it--you are sent to school. You need not be old before your time, but you must even now be making the best use of your time. These are the golden days which never come back to you, which if once lost can never be entirely made up. Seek, therefore, for wisdom, pray for it, determine to have it, and God who gives to those who ask for it, will give it to you. Try to gain it, as our Lord gained it when He was a child, by hearing and by asking questions, i.e.,

(a) by being teachable, humble, modest, and fixing your attention on what you have to learn;

(b) by trying to know the meaning of what you learn, by cross- questioning yourselves, by inquiring right and left to fill up the blanks in your mind.

3. The grace or favour of God, or, as it says in Luk_2:52, the favour of God and man. Our Lord possessed Gods favour always, but even in Him it increased more and more. It increased as He grew older, as He saw more and more of the work which was given Him to do; He felt more and more that God was His Father, and that men were His brothers, and that grace and loving-kindness was the best and dearest gift from God to man, and from man to man, and from man to God. He was subject to His parents. He did what they told Him; and so He became dear to them. He was kind, and gentle, and courteous to those about Him, so that they always liked to see Him when He came in and out amongst them. So may it be with you. Look upon God as your dear Father in heaven, who loves you, and who wishes nothing but your happiness. Look upon your schoolfellows and companions as brothers, to whom you must show whatever kindness and forbearance you can. Just as this beautiful building in which we are assembled is made up of a number of small stones beautifully carved, every one of which helps to make up the grace and beauty of the whole, so is all the state of the world made up of the graces and goodnesses not only of full-grown men and women, but of little children who will be, if they live, full-grown one day. (Dean Stanley.)

The Child Jesus, a pattern for children

1. The Child Jesus was diligent scholar. He did not hate to go to school. He did not neglect His tasks, or slur them over anyhow, or think, as perhaps some of you think, that getting out of school was the best part of the whole business. We might be quite sure that He diligently attended to the wise Rabbis who asked and answered questions, who uttered so many wise and witty proverbs, and told so many pretty stories, if only because He Himself was, in after years, so wise in asking and answering questions, and spoke so many proverbs and parables which the world will never let die. But we can do more and better than merely infer what a good scholar He was. We can see Him while He was yet a lad, going to school of His own accord, and staying in it when He might have been climbing the hills or running through the fields with His friends (Luk_2:41-46).

2. This good scholar was also a good son. The Hebrew boys of our Lords time were very well bred. They were taught good manners as well as good morals. They were enjoined, both by their parents and their masters, to salute every one they met in the street, to say to him Peace be with thee. To break this rule of courtesy, they were told, was as wrong as to steal. And the Boy Jesus was well brought up, and was full of courtesy, kindness, goodwill; for not only did He grow in favour with men in general, but He had a large circle of kinsfolk and friends who loved Him and were glad to have Him with them (Luk_2:44). We know, too, that He had never grieved His parents before, in His eagerness to learn, he let them go on their way home without Him. For when they had found Him in the Temple, they were so astonished that He should have given them the pain of seeking Him sorrowfully, that they cannot blame Him as for a fault, but can only ask Him why He had treated them thus. He must indeed have been a good son to whom His mother could speak as Mary spoke to Jesus.

3. He was also a good child of God. Always about His Fathers business--feeling that He must be about it, wherever He went, whatever He did. The one great thing He had to do, the one thing which above all others He tried to do, was to serve God His Father; not simply to become wise, and still less to please Himself, but to please God by growing wise in the knowledge and obedience of His commandments. (S. Cox, D. D.)

Superstitious reverence of Christs person guarded against

After informing us that Jesus was filled with wisdom, the evangelist adds, that the grace of God was upon Him. Now as the grace of God is not said to have been in but upon Him, it seems intended to express something not internal, but obvious to the senses. Hence it has been supposed that here the grace of God denotes a Divine gracefulness. In confirmation of this opinion it has been said, that in several passages there are allusions to something highly graceful, dignified, and impressive in His manner. Thus, the officers of the chief priest declared that never man spake like this man; and even the inhabitants of Nazareth were delighted at first with the words full of grace which He uttered. It is particularly to be remarked, however, that neither in the four Gospels, nor in any of the other books of the New Testament, has any description been given of the personal appearance of our Saviour. There is not, indeed, to be found the slightest allusion to the subject. Yet, of the founder of every other religion, whether true or false, some description, however concise, has been preserved. Thus, we are told that Moses, when a child, was extremely beautiful. Tim followers of Mahomet have described their pretended prophet in a minute manner; and the persons of most of the eminent sages of antiquity have been delineated by their disciples. But of the external appearance of Jesus no record is left. Why this singular omission? Were not the apostles of Jesus attached to their Master? Yes: their attachment was stronger and more disinterested than the world ever witnessed, for they suffered everything and sacrificed everything for His sake. But the omissions of inspired writers are never to be ascribed to oversight, but to the design of an over-ruling Providence. Nothing, therefore, was to be inserted in the Sacred Records concerning Jesus which might lead to a superstitious veneration of His person, and thus draw away the attention of His followers from His sublime doctrines and precepts, and the perfection of His character. (James Thomson, D. D.)

The development of Christ through the influences of outward nature

The Ebionites thought the natural humanity of our Saviours early life unworthy of a Divine person, and denied His essential divinity. To them, Christ was, till His baptism, a common man. It was at His baptism that He received from God, as an external gift, the consciousness of His Divine mission and special powers for it. We, however, do not hold the necessary unworthiness of human nature as a habitation of the Divine. We hold, with the old writer, that man is the image of God. Hence instead of looking upon Christs youth and childhood and His common life as derogatory to His glory, we see in them the glorification of all human thought and action in every stage of life. The whole of humanity is penetrated by the Divine. This is the foundation-stone of the gospel of Christ. On it rest all the great doctrines of Christianity, on it reposes all the noble practise of Christian men, and we call it the Incarnation. But this re-uniting of the divinity and humanity took place in time, and under the limitations which are now imposed upon humanity. The Divine Word was self-limited on its entrance our into nature, in some such sense as our spirit and thought are limited by union with body. Consequently, we should argue that there was a gradual development of the person of Christ; and this conclusion, which we come to a priori, is supported by the narrative in the Gospels. We are told that Jesus increased in wisdom, that He waxed strong in spirit, that He learned obedience, that He was made perfect through suffering. This is our subject--the development of Christ. And, first, we are met with a difficulty. The idea of development seems to imply imperfections passing into perfection--seems to exclude the idea of original perfection. But there are two conceivable ideas of development; one, development through antagonism, through error, from stage to stage of less and less deficiency. This is our development; but it is such because evil has gained a lodgment in our nature, and we can only attain perfection through contest with it. But there is another kind of development conceivable, the development of a perfect nature limited by time. The plant is perfect as the green shoot above the earth--it is all it can be then; it is more perfect as the creature adorned with leaves and branches, and it is all it can be then; it reaches its full perfection when the blossom breaks into flower. Such was the development of Christ. He was the perfect child, the perfect boy, the perfect youth, the perfect flower of manhood. A second illustration may make the matter clearer. The work of an inferior artist arrives at a certain amount of perfection through a series of failures, which teach him where he is wrong. Such is our development. The work of a man of genius is very different. He has seen, before he touches pencil, the finished picture. His first sketch contains the germ of all. His work is perfect in its several stages. Such was Christs development--an orderly, faultless, unbroken development, in which humanity, freed from its unnatural companion, evil, went forward according to its real nature. It was the restoration of humanity to its original integrity, to itself, as it existed in the idea of God. Think, then, of His development through the influence of outward nature. From the summit of the hill in whose bosom Nazareth lay, there sweeps one of the widest and most varied landscapes to be seen in Palestine. It is impossible to over-estimate the influence which this changing scene of beauty had upon the mind of the Saviour as a child. The Hebrew feeling for nature was deep and extended. By care, then, alone, the Child Jesus was prepared to feel the most delicate shades of change in the aspect of outward nature. But as He was not only Hebrew but the type of pure humanity, we may, without attributing to Him anything unnatural to childhood, impute to Him the nobler feelings which are stirred in the Western and Northern races by the modes of natural beauty. (Stopford A. Brooke, MA.)

The early development of Jesus

I. The Child grew. Two pregnant facts, lie was a child, and a child that grew in heart, in intellect, in size, in grace, in favour with God. Not a man in childs years. No hotbed precocity marked the holiest of infancies. The Son of Man grew up in the quiet valley of existence--in shadow, not in sunshine, not forced.

II. This growth took place in three particulars--

1. In spiritual strength. I instance one single evidence of strength in the early years of Jesus: I find it in that calm, long waiting of thirty years before He began His work.

2. In wisdom. Distinguish wisdom from

(1) information,

(2) talent. Love is required for wisdom--the love which opens the heart and makes it generous. Speaking humanly, the steps by which the wisdom of Jesus was acquired were two--

(a) The habit of inquiry.

(b) The collision of mind with mind. Both these we find in this anecdote: His parents found Him with the doctors in the Temple, both hearing and asking them questions.

3. In grace. And this in three points--

(1) The exchange of an earthly for a heavenly home. My Fathers business, My Fathers house.

(2) Of an earthly for a heavenly parent.

(3) The reconciliation of domestic duties (Luk_2:51). (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Apocryphal stories of the Infancy

The Holy Spirit of God must have touched Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with the spirit of selection, which saved them from such miracle-mongering. For Christ--the Christ that I adore--rises above these pitiful tales. (George Dawson.)

A bishops dream of our Lords childhood

There was once--as Luther tells us--a pious, godly bishop who had often earnestly prayed that God would show him what Jesus was like in His youth. Now once the bishop had a dream, and in his dream he saw a poor carpenter working at his trade, and beside him a little boy gathering up chips. Then came in a maiden clothed in green, who called them both to come to the meal, and set bread and milk before them. All this the bishop seemed to see in his dream, standing behind the door that he might not be seen. Then the little boy began and said, Why does that man stand there? Will he not come in also, and eat with us? And this so frightened the bishop that he woke. But he need not have been frightened, for does not Jesus say, If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me. And whether the dream be true or not, we know that Jesus in His childhood and youth looked and acted like other children, in fashion like a man, yet without sin. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

St. Edmunds vision of the Child Jesus

There was once a boy whose name was Edmund Rich, and who is called St. Edmund of Canterbury; and his brother tells us that once, when, at the age of twelve, he had gone into the fields from the boisterous play of his companions, he thought that the Child Jesus appeared unto him, and said, Hail, beloved one! And he, wondering at the beautiful child, said, Who art Thou, for certainly thou art unknown to me? And the Child Jesus said, How comes it that I am unknown to thee, seeing that I sit by thy side at school, and wherever thou art, there do I go with thee? Look on My forehead, and see what is there written. And Edmund looked, and saw the name Jesus. This is my name, said the child; write it on thy heart and it shall protect thee from evil. Then He disappeared, on whom the angels desire to look, leaving the little boy Edmund with passing sweetness in his heart. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Jeromes love for the Child Jesus

There lived, fifteen hundred years ago, a saint whose name was Jerome, and he loved so much the thought of the Child Christ, that he left Rome, and went and lived for thirty long years in a cave at Bethlehem, close by the cavern-stable in which Christ was born. And when men wished to invite him by earthly honours to work elsewhere, he said, Take me not away from the cradle where my Lord was laid. Nowhere can I be happier than there. There do I often talk with the Child Jesus, and say to Him, Ah, Lord I how can I repay Thee? And the Child answers, I need nothing. Only sing thou Glory to God, and peace on earth. And when I say, Nay I but I must yield Thee something; the Holy Child replies, Thy silver and thy gold I need not. Give them to the poor. Give his only thy sins to be forgiven. And then do I begin to weep and say, Oh, Thou blessed Child Jesus, take what is mine, and give me what is Thine! Now in this way, by the eye of faith, you may all see the Child Jesus, and unseen, yet ever near, you may feel His presence, and He may sit by your side at school, and be with you all day to keep you from harm, and to drive away bad thoughts and naughty tempers, and send His angels to watch over you when you sleep. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Jesus the Friend of children

Once there was carried into a great hospital a poor little ragged miserable boy, who had been run over in the streets and dreadfully hurt. And all night he kept crying and groaning in his great pain? and at last a good youth, who lay in the bed next to him, said, My poor little fellow, wont you pray to Jesus to ease your pain? But the little wretched sufferer had never heard anything at all about Jesus, and asked who Jesus was. And the youth gently told him that Jesus was Lord of all, and that He had come down to die for us. And the boy answered, Oh, I cant pray to Him, Hes so great and grand, and He would never hear a poor street-boy like me; and I dont know how to speak to Him. Then, said the youth, wont you just lift your hand to Him out of bed, and when He passes by He will see it, and will know that you want Him to be kind to you, and to ease your pain? And the poor, crushed, suffering boy lifted out of the bed his little brown hand, and soon afterwards he ceased to groan; and when they came to him in the morning the hand and the poor thin arm were still uplifted, but they were stiff and cold; for Jesus had indeed seen it, and heard that mute prayer of the agony of that strayed lamb of His fold, and He had grasped the little, soiled, trembling hand of the sufferer, and had taken him away to that better, happier home, where He will love also to make room for you and me, if we seek Him with all our hearts, and try to do His will. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Religion in childhood

I can never, said the late Rev. George Burder, forget my birthday, June 5, 1762. It was on a Sabbath; and after tea, and before family worship, my father was accustomed to catechize me, and examine what I remembered of the sermons of the day. That evening he talked to me very affectionately, and reminded me that it was high time I began to seek the Lord, and to become truly religious. He particularly insisted upon the necessity of an interest in Christ Jesus, and showed me that, as a sinner, I must perish without it, and recommended me to begin that night to pray for it. After family worship, when my father and mother used to retire to their closets for private devotion, I also went to my chamber, the same room in which I was born, and then, I trust, sincerely and earnestly, and, as far as I can recollect, for the first time poured out my soul to God, beseeching Him to give me an interest in Christ, and desiring, above all things, to be found in Him. I am now an old man, but reflecting on that evening, I have often been ready to conclude, that surely I was then, though a little child, brought to believe in Christ.

Christ our example in youth

In what respects, then, is the youth of CHRIST AN EXAMPLE TO US

1. First, it is an example to us of personal piety, and that from our earliest years. The grace of God was upon Him, is the evangelists expression in our text; whilst, a few verses lower down, we have him saying, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

2. Again, in the youth of Christ we have an example of diligence in the use of means for our mental progress and improvement. He was filled with wisdom, says our text. And after His Visit to the Temple, it is said again, He increased in wisdom. The youth of Christ, then, we consider, may fairly be cited as furnishing us with an example of the dignity, and value, and importance of intellectual culture.

3. We note next that Christ in His youth was an example of reverent submission to parental authority. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.

4. Further, Christ in His youth is an example to us of the duty of a heartfelt and entire consecration of ourselves to the Divine service. Must ye not that I must be about My Fathers business? was the question of the Holy One to His parents, when they found Him in the Temple.

5. Once more, Christ in His youth is an example to us of patient and contented acquiescence in our providential lot however adverse, however obscure, however disappointing to the expectations which our friends may have formed for us, or which we, in our foolish pride, may be tempted to form for ourselves. (D. Moore, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 14. JESUS GOES TO THE PASSOVER AT TWELVE YEARS OF AGE, Luk_2:40-52.

To the question, What sort of a boy was Jesus? this brief passage forms the whole scripture answer. We learn from it that he had a true human soul as well as body. He was a genuine natural child, infant, and boy. When as an infant the shepherds paid to him their homage, and the Magi presented their gifts, he was, perhaps, unconscious of the nature of the transactions. When, at the age of some two and a half years, his parents brought him from their flight into Egypt to the hills of Nazareth, his body grew: and amid the bold scenes of hill and dale, with the blue Mediterranean in the distance, his mind received its expansion. As the synagogue and the lessons at home unfolded the truths of the Old Testament to his view, telling of the Messiah to come, it is wonderful to think what might have been the first presentiments to his mind that he was himself that Messiah. Perhaps this passage tells us of the first distinct consciousness that God was his Father in the highest sense.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk_2:40. Waxed strong.—The words “in spirit” are added from Luk_1:80; omitted in R.V. Filled with wisdom.—Lit. “becoming full of wisdom.” The grace of God.—The favour of God. The first point noted is healthy physical growth, the second a proportionate increase of knowledge, and the third an enjoyment of God’s favour.

Luk_2:41.—The male Israelites were commanded to attend the three yearly feasts (Exo_23:14-17); but the custom seems to have fallen into abeyance. The attendance of women was not enjoined; but the great Rabbi Hillel had recommended it.

Luk_2:42.—At the age of twelve a Jewish boy became “a son of the law,” and came under the obligation of obeying all its precepts, including attendance at the Passover. It was probable, if not certain, that this was the first time Jesus had been in Jerusalem at this feast.

Luk_2:43. The days.—The seven days of the feast (Exo_12:15). Joseph and His mother.—“His parents” is the reading of the R.V.

Luk_2:44. The company.—The caravan, made up of those of the same district from which the pilgrims came.

Luk_2:46. After three days.—According to the Jewish idiom, this would be equivalent to “on the third day.” The days are easily accounted for: at the close of the first day Jesus was missed; the second day would be occupied with searching for Him on the way back to Jerusalem; on the third they found Him in the Temple. In the Temple.—I.e. in the part of it to which Mary could go (Luk_2:48), probably in one of the porches of the court of the women. The doctors.—Teachers of the law, Jewish Rabbis. Hearing them, and asking them questions.—The order of the words precludes the idea of Jesus sitting among them as a teacher. He was there rather as a learner, and, according to the custom of Jewish scholars, asking questions.

Luk_2:48. Thy father and I.—The use of this phrase is natural enough; but it is really inconsistent with the facts of the case. Jesus by implication draws attention to this fact in His reply. “He knew and felt that there was something in Him and in His previous history, which ought to be known to Mary and Joseph, that justified His being where He was, and forbade their anxiety about Him” (Popular Commentary, Schaff).

Luk_2:49. About My Father’s business.—Rather, “in My Father’s house” (R.V.). The phrase in the original might be translated in either way; but the latter rendering is so vivid and so happily suited to the circumstance of the case as to make it seem the more probable of the two.

Luk_2:51. Subject unto them.—Probably wrought at His reputed father’s trade (Mar_6:3). This is the last notice of Joseph: tradition speaks of him as advanced in age on his marriage with Mary. Probably he died at some time during the eighteen years which elapsed between this time and the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry.

Luk_2:52. Increased.—Rather, “advanced” (R.V.). Stature.—Or, “age.” The word, if taken in the latter sense, would include the former.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_2:40-52

Growth in Strength, Wisdom, and Grace.—The fact that Jesus passed through various stages of development in bodily, mental, and spiritual life is one of great significance and importance, though we may find it impossible to reconcile it with our thoughts of Him as a Divine Being clothed with our nature. The assertion, however, that such was the case is made here, and in other parts of the New Testament we have testimonies of a similar kind. Thus in Heb_2:10 we read of His “being made perfect through sufferings,” and in Luk_5:8, “though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience.” Three stages of growth seem to be indicated in this brief record of His infancy and youth.

I. There is that of childish innocence.—No instances of supernatural knowledge or of miraculous deeds are recorded in connection with His early years. The idea is conveyed to our minds that He lived a simple, blameless life, unconscious of the high calling that lay before Him, subject to His parents in the same way that ordinary children are while they are too young to think and act for themselves, and that neither His parents nor fellow-townsmen saw anything in Him to prepare them for the claims He put forward when He grew to manhood and entered public life.

II. There is that in which He first began to realise and manifest a sense of personal responsibility to God.—This is indicated by His action in leaving His parents on the occasion of His first visit to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, and by His words in reply to their questions, in which He places His duty to God as an obligation superior even to that of ordinary filial obedience. He begins to distinguish between duties, and to give those which have paramount claims their due place. This stage is marked by the awakening of new and strange thoughts, and by His making inquiry concerning spiritual things from those who were qualified to teach them.

III. The third stage is that in which He finds the way in which to reconcile higher and lower obligations, so as to render perfect obedience to the law of God as it touches the duties we owe to Him and to our fellow-men.—He returns to Nazareth, and is subject to His parents; but His obedience to them is of a higher cast than that which He had formerly rendered. It is intelligent, voluntary acceptance and discharge of duty, such as can only come with maturity of age. In all these stages of growth Christ has afforded a perfect example for all to follow.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_2:40-52

Luk_2:40. A Picture of an Ideal Life.—

1. Physical health—“grew and waxed strong.”

2. Intellectual and moral development—“filled with wisdom”; acquiring true ideas

(1) concerning God, and

(2) concerning men and the world.

3. Having intimate relations with God:

(1) the object of His favour, and

(2) serving Him and loving Him perfectly and constantly.

Various Stages of Physical Growth.—St. Luke mentions in order all the stages of life through which Jesus passed—an unborn infant (Luk_1:42), a babe (Luk_2:12), a boy (Luk_2:40), a youth (Luk_2:43), a man (Luk_24:19). He did not, like Adam, first appear of full stature; but sanctified every stage of life from infancy to manhood. Old age became Him not. Bengel

“Filled with wisdom.”—Lit. “becoming full of wisdom.” The peculiar phrase here used implies both growth from less to greater and perfection at every point in the process; just as, if we could imagine it, a vessel increasing in dimensions and always remaining equally full, yet containing far more at the end than at the beginning.

Luk_2:41. “Went to Jerusalem every year.”—A hint is given of the pious atmosphere of the home in which Jesus grew up by the mention of the careful attendance of His parents year by year at the Passover feast in Jerusalem. His mother, like Hannah in earlier times, accompanied her husband, though the law did not prescribe her presence on the occasion. The fact of the corrupt and degenerate condition of religion and of the priestly order did not lead them to the disuse of public worship; and their example is a rebuke to those who become separatists on the ground of being unable to find that ideal purity in the Church which they desire.

Luk_2:42. The First Pilgrim-journey of Jesus.—This was apparently the first time Jesus had attended the Passover feast or been in Jerusalem since He was presented as a babe in the Temple. No doubt He came up regularly to the feast every year after this. “Every one who can remember his own first journey from a village home to the capital of his country will understand the joy and excitement with which Jesus set out. He travelled over eighty miles of a country where nearly every mile teemed with historical and inspiring memories. He mingled with the constantly growing caravan of pilgrims who were filled with the religious enthusiasm of the great ecclesiastical event of the year. His destination was a city which was loved by every Jewish heart with a strength of affection that has never been given to any other capital—a city full of objects and memories fitted to touch the deepest springs of interest and emotion in His breast. He went to take part for the first time in an ancient solemnity, suggestive of countless patriotic and sacred memories. It was no wonder that when the day came to return home He was so excited with the new objects of interest that He failed to join His party at the appointed place and time” (Stalker).

“When He was twelve years old.”—The age of twelve is no doubt specified as marking a new epoch in the life of Jesus, and a new attitude towards the law of God; for now, as having arrived at years of discretion, He, like other Jewish children, took upon Him the moral responsibilities of an adult. This corresponds to the action of joining the Church with us, an occasion when, in many Christian communities, the rite of confirmation is administered.

Luk_2:43. The Child Jesus.—The silence of Scripture is as eloquent as its speech. Here, as so often, the veil is the picture. There is a profound lesson in the fact that only one of the four evangelists has anything to tell us of the still unfolding of that perfect life before Christ’s entrance on His public ministry. The contrast between the one paragraph given to His childhood and youth, and the fulness of the narrative of His works, and still more the minute particulars of His death, ought to teach us that the true centre of His worth to the world lies in His “ministering,” and the vital point of it all in His giving His “life a ransom for many.”—Maclaren.

The Education of Jesus.—That Jesus was a solitary child seems unnatural to suppose. Compulsory education was the law of the land. If the law was in force in Galilee, He must have attended the national synagogue school, and formed one of a circle of children around the minister of the synagogue; joining, too, in childish sports with His school-fellows, as well as in childish lessons.—Vallings.

The Boyhood of Jesus.—This is the one only passage that speaks of the boyhood of Jesus, and I think all lovers of the graphic and picturesque touches of Holy Scripture will rejoice to find in the Revised Version the plain and very human expression “the boy Jesus” (Luk_2:43). What a text that will furnish for the school-chapels of England, what a storehouse of exhortation and doctrine for the struggling and weary and heavy-laden (and there are many) among the young soldiers of Jesus Christ—that large part of the human family which has all life before it, with its boundless capacities of use and abuse, of happiness and misery, of good and evil!—Vaughan.

“Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem.”—His tarrying behind in Jerusalem was an act which was only to be justified by the higher relationship of which He afterwards spoke to His parents (Luk_2:49). His whole course of procedure on this occasion is an illustration of that wisdom which He possessed in ever-increasing measure, under the guidance of which He diverged from the course of conduct towards His parents to which He had hitherto adhered.

Luk_2:44. “Supposing Him to have been in the company.”—It is an indication of the confidence which His parents had in His discretion that they did not immediately seek Him when they discovered that He was absent. He evidently had been allowed a more than usual amount of liberty of action as a child by parents who had never known Him to transgress their commandments or be guilty of a sinful or foolish deed.

Luk_2:45-46. The Lord Jesus a Learner.—The only record of the interval between the Lord’s infancy and ripe manhood. No warrant for the gossiping stories of the early life and miracles of Jesus. An instructive incident, as showing how early the Lord began to display the inquiring and critical spirit which afterwards bore such precious fruits of knowledge and wisdom. The astonishment of the rabbis shows how different a student they found Him from such as were wont to sit at their feet. He asked no stock questions, and was to be put off with no stock answers. Not that He put Himself forward as a teacher under the guise of a learner. He questioned the doctors with a genuine desire to learn. Some of them were, as older men, in one sense wiser than Himself. It was possibly the acuteness with which He chose out and addressed Himself to such that chiefly raised the astonishment of the by standers.—Markby.

“In the midst of the doctors.”—The picture powerfully affects the imagination and stimulates the heart, of the sweet, serious Boy, with His fresh childface, touched with awe and eagerness, sitting at the feet of the grey-bearded rabbis, and bringing their so-called wisdom to the sharp test which so much learned lumber can ill endure—the questioning of a child’s heart. How sharp the contrast between the cumbrous doctrines of the teachers and the way of thinking of such a Child! His purpose was not to put the doctors to confusion; but no doubt these questions of the Boy would be the germ of those later questions of the Man which so often silenced the Pharisee and the Sadducee, and made their elaborate wisdom look like folly by the side of His deep and simple words.—Maclaren.

Luk_2:46. “After three days.”—Just as afterwards His friends and disciples lost Him for three days, and mourned for Him as for one dead, though their knowledge of Him should have prepared them to expect to see Him again. Even now a certain blame in like manner attaches to His parents for not knowing where at once to find Him. When He was left alone in Jerusalem, what other asylum could He seek but His Father’s house?

“Both hearing them.”—He who would teach must himself be a learner—must have the docile spirit. Those who have made it their object to study and expound the word of God are sure, whatever may be their faults and failings, to have something worth imparting. The example of Jesus on this occasion teaches that due honour is to be paid to those who in the name of the Church teach sacred truth.

“Sitting in the midst.”—This seems to imply a place of honour—as though these doctors willingly received Him into their order, though He professed Himself but a learner, because of the wisdom He manifested. It is, as noted (see critical remarks), quite evident that He did not do more than put questions and answer questions; but none the less even the teacher of most authority there must have instinctively felt that this was no common pupil. The idea of a child lecturing or teaching in a formal or authoritative way is a repellent one, and utterly contrary to the Divine order according to which all things are ruled.

Luk_2:47. “Astonished.”—He brought with Him a clear knowledge of God’s word, in which no doubt He had been versed from earliest years, and a mind and spirit undisturbed and unclouded by the errors and fantastical interpretations that prevailed in rabbinical schools. He might say with the psalmist: “I have more understanding than my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my study” (Psa_119:99). “The Rabbins themselves said that the word of God out of the mouth of childhood is to be received as from the mouth of the Sanhedrim, of Moses, yea, of the blessed God Himself” (Stier). Cf. Psa_8:2.

Luk_2:48. “Why hast thou thus dealt with us?”—The first reproof which Jesus had ever received from His mother; yet in it there is quite as much of astonishment at His conduct as of implied blame. The way is still left open for Him to justify His action and approve Himself free from fault.

“Sorrowing.”—No doubt often during those three days the ominous words of Simeon, spoken nearly twelve years before, had recurred to the Virgin’s mind (Luk_2:35): “Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also.”

A Parent’s Complaint.—The Lord’s mother was seriously disappointed with Him. We might indeed say she was vexed. But He defends Himself with warmth, as if injustice has been done Him. The incident is full of interest and importance, displaying Jesus as the type and ideal for opening youth.

I. There are stages, epochs, crises of growth in the spirit to be expected, appreciated, recognised.—The laws of our moral as well as of our physical nature are inexorable and benignant. We must neither lament, resent, ignore, nor resist them; but face, accept, and use them as they manifest themselves in opening years.

II. Occasionally there will be apparent suddenness in their manifestation.—Ripeness will seem to come all at once. The will has been maturing while the parent knew it not. It seems as if a mine had been sprung on him, and a sense of unfairness goes with it. This is natural, but unreasonable. Nature cannot wait for us till we are ready. When the blossom sets the fruit appears. There is no sin in this. It cannot be otherwise.

III. That surprise, disappointment, or pain results is no fault of the child.—Mary probably soon regretted her momentary heat. On the part of sons and daughters there is often abruptness, wilfulness, and audacity towards parents. This is the accident of the case, resulting from human infirmity. That the parent feels pain is inevitable. But love, good sense, and an instinct of justice soon heal the wound.

IV. For with patience and tolerance on the part of parents will come gratitude on the part of youth, and appreciation of our large-heartedness. Youth, with all its disdains, and caprices, and conceits, is still the world’s leverage, and the most lovable thing in it.

V. A real love of knowledge is a noble thing.—We are not to frown at it in the young, or be frightened, but encourage it, and judiciously direct it. The pursuit of knowledge has risks, but these are less dangerous than those which are concerned with the indulgence of the senses. Reason is a Divine gift, and is to be trained and cultivated for God.

VI. In the end our self-restraint and kindness, and faith in God’s holy will shall have their reward.—“Jesus went down to Nazareth, and was subject.” So it will be in the end between us and our children. We shall lose nothing by granting what belongs to them, but we shall gain more. They must be helped, not hindered, at this difficult stage in life’s journey. We, too, have been as they are. Let us not forget our own youth. Let us try to make friends with our children, and encourage them to confide in us.—Thorold.

Luk_2:49. Jesus in the Temple (for boys and girls).—The Boy in the Temple hallows the lessons of youth. The story that Luke tells should be full of interest and help to lads and maidens. Though only twelve, we should think of Him as we should among ourselves think of a youth of sixteen or seventeen. He was no longer a child. Those entering on the untried future of manhood or womanhood are standing just where Jesus stood. Learn then of Him. Follow in His footsteps. Find in His words—

I. His trust.—“Wist ye not?” It is a sad surprise to find that His mother had been in doubt as to where He was or what He was doing. He fully trusted in His mother’s understanding of the thoughts of her child. You who are beginning to live a life of your own must often be misunderstood. Do you show the same trust in the knowledge and sympathy of your parents? You, too, may be feeling, like our Lord, that there is an inner life into which even the nearest and dearest cannot enter. Do not, as He did not, on that account, by suspicion and discontent strain the bond of unity of thought and feeling until it snaps.

II. His task.—Even now He has an overmastering sense of duty. “I must be.” He began life with no thought of self-pleasing, but with the single aim to please His Father in heaven. He knew nothing of a divided heart or of a wavering will. As child, youth, man, there was wholehearted, steadfast surrender to God. Have you the single aim? Or is your desire only to be free—to do as you like? Do you wish to please yourself or God? Own His claim over you.

III. His thought.—“My Father’s house.” “My Father’s business.” He knew and felt God to be near in the place where He was, in the task that He did. He was doing God’s will in learning about the law. In the Temple-worship and teaching God was making Himself known to Him. He lived with and for God. Of Him He thought, Him He served as Father. Have you thus known God as near to you? Have you acknowledged Him in your humblest duty? When you pray to and praise Him you are in His house. In your lowly daily work, if you do it because you know it is God’s will for you, you are about His business.—Garvie.

“My Father’s business.”—The first recorded words of Jesus. His calm repose is in strong contrast to Mary’s not unnatural excitement. In one sentence, like a sudden beam of light shooting into some profound gulf, He shows the depths of His child-heart.

I. The consciousness of sonship.—There is an evident reference to Mary’s words, “Thy father and I.” She had carefully guarded from Him, hitherto, the mystery of His birth. His question is an appeal to her secret. There is no material given for deciding whether this consciousness was now felt or expressed for the first time. The words point to a distinct and unique con sciousness of sonship, apprehended in childish fashion. This is the first note to which the after-life is so true.

II. The consciousness of a Divine vocation.—Here is the first expression of that solemn “must” of which we hear the echoes all through His subsequent life. Sonship implies obedience; the sense of sonship implies filial submission. His childish recognition of this necessity grew in depth and solemnity with His growing years; but here we have it clearly discerned as the guiding star of the Child’s life. The parallel in youthful lines is when the sense of duty and responsibility becomes more active. It is a solemn time when young shoulders first begin to feel the burden of personal responsibility. Happy they who feel not only the pressure of a law, but the hand of a Lawgiver—who say not reluctantly but gladly, “I must”!

III. The subordination of all human ties to this solemn necessity.—The incident itself illustrates this. The call to the Father’s business was more imperative than the call to Mary’s side. It was the first breaking away from the seclusion and peace of Nazareth, the first time that His conduct had shown that anything was to Him more sacred, than a mother’s love or than a mother’s sorrow. The dawning on the soul of that consciousness of supreme duty does not extinguish the light of filial duty to parents, nor darken the brightness of any of the sweet charities of family and kindred. But it decisively puts them second, and opens the possibility, so dreadful to exacting human love, of apparent conflict between two duties, in which the lower may have to give place to the higher. It is a great moment in every life when the young soul discerns a law more imperative, because he has become aware of a love more tender than the commandment of a father or the law of a mother. The recognition of the will of a Father in heaven, to whose “business” all earthly ties must yield, lies at the foundation of every holy and noble life.—Maclaren.

“I must.”—It is interesting to observe that it is the sterner view of duty that seems to influence the child—“I must.” In other parts of Scripture we have indications that this was not His only view—that doing God’s will was a joy to Him. But, strange to say, at the early age of twelve, we find Him rather girding Himself for what is trying and irksome to human nature; bringing His young soul to face it, like one breasting a hill or buffeting the waves. The lesson is obvious. Nothing is more salutary or more promising than this early grappling with labour: no flinching, but the stern, steady “I must.”—Blaikie.

“My Father’s business.”—The “Father’s business” on which He entered at twelve was not preaching, and working miracles, and going about doing good in a public manner, but for the time remaining at home, a dutiful child, a glad, helpful youth, and an industrious, growing man.—Miller.

The First Words of Jesus.—These are the first recorded words of Jesus, and are instinct with the Spirit that guided and animated His whole life—that of devotion to His Father in heaven. The quiet repose, and serenity, and self-possession of this reply are highly characteristic of Him.

Christ’s Testimony to Himself.—It is distinctly noticeable that to the “thy father” of Mary He opposes “My Father,” and that by His artless wonder that they sought for Him anywhere but in the Temple He claimed that special relationship with God which had been announced to Mary and Joseph before His birth (Luk_1:35; Mat_1:20). “Hitherto pious Jews and lowly shepherds, waiting for the salvation of Israel, have borne testimony to the infant Messiah: He now bears testimony to Himself” (Lange).

Jesus Lost and Found.—The loss and recovery of Jesus may be taken to symbolise experiences in our own spiritual life. “Certain it is that we also, if we would find Christ, must seek Him where He is ever to be found, in His holy Temple” (Burgon).

Luk_2:49-50 The Idea of our Life-work.

I. We have to pass through the period of necessary unconsciousness.—There was a period in our Lord’s life of pure sensation. So it is with ourselves, with even the most intellectual and most spiritual—a time when there is scarcely any thought of God or knowledge of duty.

II. Then comes a time when the light of life dawns upon the soul.—Before Jesus was “twelve years old” He had pondered the great thoughts with which the Scriptures deal. The loftiest truths ask early admission to the soul. The little child has ideas immeasurably above the reach of the cleverest and best-trained animal.

III. The hour arrives when the idea of our life-work is recognised by the soul.—In our Lord’s case this life-work was exceptional, unique. Even now He did not understand all that it meant. As He “increased in wisdom” He became more fully conscious of His mission, and the shadow of the cross deepened. Still, in the Temple He had a very definite idea that His Father had chosen Him to do some great work. In our case the life-work of following Christ is binding upon all—the particular career varies, in which this following is to be carried out. It may not be a distinctively religious calling.

IV. At this momentous crisis we have to decide alone.—His parents “understood not the saying.” We might have thought His mother would have been sympathetic and intelligent. So Jesus was alone in all the critical hours of His career. We may be thankful for parental encouragement and human sympathy in every crisis; but with or without these, aided, unaccompanied, or opposed, we must for ourselves be about “the Father’s business” when His summons falls on our ear.—Clarkson.

Luk_2:50. The Idea of Divine Sonship.—It is, therefore, evident that the special relationship with God of which He spoke had not been a fact communicated to Him by His parents; nor was the idea of Messiah’s being Son of God as well as Son of man taught by the doctors amongst whom He had been sitting. It was a truth which had just dawned upon Him and led Him to act as He did.

A Flower from an Enclosed Garden.—This incident is the only one recorded in the life of Jesus between His presentation in the Temple when forty days old, and His appearance on the bank of the Jordan at the age of thirty when He received baptism from John. “It is a solitary floweret out of the wonderful enclosed garden of the thirty years, plucked precisely there where the swollen bud, at a distinctive crisis, bursts into flower” (Stier).

Luk_2:51. “Went down with them.”—The statement as to His obedience to His parents is almost necessary to correct misapprehensions we might have formed from the above incident. He did not henceforth act habitually in a manner they would be forced to consider wayward, on impulses which they could not understand. He did not allow His feelings to prevail over His duties as a son and as a member of a household; if His affections attracted Him to the Temple, the voice of duty called Him back to Galilee, and to that voice He rendered implicit obedience. The veil that concealed His higher nature, after being for a moment lifted, was allowed to fall again, and His normal human life passed back into its former course.

“Subject unto them.”—There is something wonderful beyond measure in the thought of Him unto whom all things are subject submitting to earthly parents. No such honour was ever done to men or to angels as was now done to Joseph and Mary. The calm of home-life, the healthy occupation of manual labour, and the seclusion of Nazareth were a better preparation for Christ’s public ministry than the Temple with its ritualism and the schools of the Rabbis would have been.

The Lesson of Patience.—What a lesson of patient waiting for the wider sphere is here! Young people, conscious of power, or often only stung by restlessness, are apt to think home a very contracted field, and to despise its quiet monotony, and chafe at its imposition of petty obedience. Jesus Christ lived till He was thirty in a poor little village buried among the hills, worked as a carpenter, did what His mother bade Him, and was content till His “hour” came. Vanity, selfish ambition, proud independence, are always in a hurry to get away from the modest shelter of a mother’s house and make a mark in the world. The prodigal, who wants riotous living, is in a hurry too. But the true Son is the more a Son of Mary because He feels Himself the Son of God, and nourishes His pure spirit in sweet seclusion, which yet is not solitude, till the time comes for larger service in a wider sphere. The wider work is quietly postponed for the narrower tasks.

“Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart,

And yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.”

—Maclaren.

Willing Dependence.—You do not read of any ambition in Jesus Christ to be independent; you do not find Him remonstrating or murmuring against the restraints of home, and beginning to remind Himself or others that the time had come for self-management and self-concern. Shall not the son, the daughter, in a Christian home deem that good enough and great enough which a Saviour, who was also the Creator, thought happy enough and honourable enough for Him?—Vaughan.

The Silent Years of Christ’s Life.—In these quiet and simple words years of meek submission are condensed, as a thin film of imperishable stone represents the growth and leafage of a forest that waved green through geological cycles. For eighteen uneventful years the story of His life lies in these few words that we may learn how the spirit of a son makes every place the Father’s house and every meanest task the Father’s business.—Maclaren.

“Kept all these sayings in her heart.”—The Virgin did not merely keep these sayings in her memory; she kept them in her heart. This is the true way in which to store up spiritual knowledge. That which is committed to the tablets of the memory may fade away, and may not, of necessity, be much of an influence upon our feelings, and thoughts, and lives. But the things that are kept in the heart lose none of their freshness with the lapse of time, and are a perpetual stimulus to holy life and action. The things we store up in the heart are things we love; and in them we have a motive to service of God, which yields to none in strength—a ground of assurance that will overcome all our doubts and fears—a means for understanding God’s dealings with us more perfectly, and for recognising things that are hidden from natural vision and from intellectual research.

Luk_2:52. “In favour with God and man.”—Innocence grew into holiness, and did so in such an artless, natural mariner that it won the approval of men as well as the favour of God. The world did not as yet hate Him, for He did not, except by unconscious example, testify against it that its deeds are evil (cf. Joh_7:7).

The Growth in Wisdom of the Divine Boy.

I. His growth was real.—His human nature must have had the inexperience and ignorance of childhood, and must have passed, in a normal manner, to wider knowledge and clearer self-consciousness. There is nothing to startle in this. Growth does not imply imperfection. It only implies finiteness, and therefore development in time. The capacity of His human spirit increased, and therefore His wisdom increased.

II. His growth was uninterrupted, unstained, symmetrical, universal.—He alone fulfilled His own law of growth—“first the blade,” etc. The best of us grow by fits and starts, and in the wrong direction. In His growth there were no pauses, no sinful elements mingled, no powers unduly developed or deformed. His childhood had no failings, and all in it that could be retained abode with Him in His manhood.

III. His growth in wisdom was by the use of means.—Life taught Him. Scripture taught Him. Communion with His Father taught Him. The heavens and the earth taught Him. His own heart taught Him. But the result of all those, and whatsoever other forces shaped His human growth, was a human character which had so perfectly assimilated them all that no trace of any particular influence appears in it. So, in lower fashion, genius uses all the outward means available, but is their master, not their servant, and is not made by them, but only finds in them stimulus and an occasion for development of its, inborn power. Jesus is not the product of any or all of these outward means. He grew by their help, but was not shaped by them. A perfect man must be more than man. A sinless Jesus cannot be the son of Joseph and Mary.—Maclaren.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XVI. Living at Nazareth].

XVI. JESUS LIVING AT NAZARETH AND VISITING JERUSALEM IN HIS TWELFTH YEAR. (Nazareth and Jerusalem, A. D. 7 or 8.) cLUKE II. 40-52.

c40 And the child grew [This verse contains the history of thirty years. It describes the growth of our Lord as a natural, human growth (compare Luk_1:80); for, though Jesus was truly divine, he was also perfectly man. To try to distinguish between the divine and human in Jesus, is to waste time upon an impracticable mystery which is too subtle for our dull and finite minds], and waxed strong [His life expanded like other human lives. He learned as other boys; he obeyed as other children. As he used means and waited patiently for growth, so must each individual Christian, and so must the church. Though the latter is a mystical body, and animated by the Holy Spirit, it must nevertheless make increase of itself before coming to the perfect man-- Eph_4:16], filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him [These words describe briefly the life of Christ during the preparatory period at Nazareth. It was a quiet life, but its sinless purity made the Baptist feel his own unworthiness compared to it ( Mat_3:14), and its sweet reasonableness inspired in Mary, the mother, that confidence which led her to sanction, without reserve, any request or command which Jesus might utter-- Joh_2:5.] 41 And his parents [Males were required to attend the Passover ( Exo_13:7); but women were not. The great rabbi, Hillel (born about B. C. 110; died A. D. 10), recommended that they should do so, and the [56] practice was esteemed an act of admirable piety] went every year to Jerusalem [regular attendance upon worship is likewise enjoined upon us-- Heb_10:25] to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover [The Passover, one of the three great Jewish feasts, commemorated the mercy of God in causing his angel to "pass over" the houses in Israel on the night that he slew all the firstborn of Egypt. It took place at the full moon which occurred next after the vernal equinox. At it the firstfruits of the harvest were offered ( Lev_23:10-15). The second feast, Pentecost, occurred fifty days later, and commemorated the giving of the law. At it the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, in the form of bread ( Lev_23:17), were offered. The third feast, or Tabernacles, occurred near the end of September, or beginning of October, and commemorated the days when Israel dwelt in tents in the wilderness. It was observed as a thanksgiving for the blessings of the year. Every adult male Jews dwelling in Judæa was required to attend these three feasts. Josephus tells us that the members assembled at them in Jerusalem often exceeded two millions.] 42 And when he was twelve years old [The incident which Luke here reports is the only one given in the period between the return from Egypt and Jesus' thirtieth year. It shows that Jesus did not attend the school of the rabbis in Jerusalem ( Mar_6:2, Joh_6:42, Joh_7:15). But we learn that he could write ( Joh_8:6), and there is little doubt but that he spoke both Hebrew and Greek], they went up [the altitude of Jerusalem is higher than that of Nazareth, and the distance between the two places is about seventy miles] after the custom of the feast [the custom was that the feast was celebrated annually in Jerusalem]; 43 and when they had fulfilled the days [eight days in all; one day for killing the passover, and seven for observing the feast of unleavened bread which followed it-- Exo_12:15, Lev_23:5, Lev_23:6], as they were returning, the boy Jesus [Luke narrates something about every stage of Christ's life. He speaks of him as a babe ( Luk_2:16), as a little child ( Luk_2:40), here as a boy, and afterwards as a man] tarried behind in Jerusalem [to take advantage of the opportunity to [57] hear the great teachers in the schools]; and his parents knew it not [As vast crowds attended the Passover, it was easy to lose sight of a boy amid the festal throng. Indeed, the incident is often repeated even to this day during the feast seasons at Jerusalem]; 44 but supposing him to be in the company [We see here the confidence of the parents, and the independence of the child. The sinlessness of Jesus was not due to any exceptional care on the part of his parents. Jews going to and from their festivals traveled in caravans for pleasure and safety. In the daytime the young folks mingled freely among the travelers, and sought out whatever companionship they wished. But in the evening, when the camp was formed, and the tents were pitched, the members of each family came together], they went a day's journey [They probably returned by the way of Jericho to avoid passing through Samaria, because of the hatred existing between Jews and Samaritans. In more moderns times the first day's journey is a short one, and it was probably so then. It was made so in order that the travelers might return to the city whence they had departed, should they discover that they had forgotten anything--should they find that they had forgotten a sack of meal, a blanket, or a child]; and they sought for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance [those with whom he was most likely to have traveled during the day]: 45 and when they found him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for him. [Parents who have temporarily suffered the loss of their children can easily imagine their feelings. Christ, though a divine gift to them, was lost. So may we also lose him, though he be God's gift to us.] 46 And it came to pass, after three days [Each part of a day was reckoned as a day when at the beginning and ending of a series. The parents missed Jesus on the evening of the first day, returned to Jerusalem and sought for him on the second day, and probably found him on the morning of the third day. The disciples of Jesus also lost him in the grave for part of one day, and all of the next, and found him resurrected on the morning of the third day-- Luk_24:21] they found him [58] in the temple [Probably in one of the many chambers which tradition says were built against the walls of the temple and its enclosures, and opened upon the temple courts. The sacred secret which they knew concerning the child should have sent them at once to the temple to seek for him]; sitting [Jewish scholars sat upon the ground at the feet of their teachers] in the midst [the teachers sat on semi-circular benches and thus partially surrounded by their scholars] of the teachers [these teachers had schools in which they taught for the fees of their pupils, and are not to be confounded with the scribes, who were mere copyists], both hearing them, and asking them questions [He was not teaching: the God of order does not expect childhood to teach. He was among them as a modest scholar, and not as a forward child. The rabbinical method of instruction was to state cases, or problems, bearing upon the interpretation or application of the law, which cases or problems were to be solved by the pupils. For typical problems see Mat_22:15-46]: 47 and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. 48 And when they [his parents] saw him, they were astonished [Mary and Joseph stood as much in awe of these renowned national teachers as peasants do of kings, and were therefore astonished that their youthful son presumed to speak to them]; and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? [Her language implies that Jesus had been fully instructed as to the time when his parents and their caravan would depart for Galilee, and that he was expected to depart with them. Obedience to his higher duties constrained him to appear disobedient to his parents] behold, thy father [As legal father of Jesus, this expression would necessarily have to be used when speaking of Joseph. But Jesus does not accept Joseph as his father, as we see by his answer] and I sought thee sorrowing. [Because they thought him lost.] 49 And he said unto them [What follows are the first recorded words of Jesus; he here speaks of the same being--the Father--to whom he commended his spirit in his last words upon the cross ( Luk_23:46). His last [59] recorded words on earth are found at Act_1:7, Act_1:8; his last recorded words in heaven are found in Rev_22:10-20, but these last words are spoken through the medium of an angel], How is it that ye sought me? [Mary, knowing all that had been divinely revealed to her concerning Jesus, should have expected to find him in the temple] knew ye not that I must [In this oft-repeated phrase, "I must," Jesus sets forth that devotion ( Joh_4:34) to the will of the Father by which his whole life was directed] be in my Father's [Literally "the Father of me." Jesus invariably used the article in speaking of himself, and said "the Father of me," and invariably omitted the article, and said, "Father of you," when speaking of his disciples. His relationship to the Father differed from ours, and God, not Joseph, was his father] house? [See Joh_2:16, Joh_2:17, Joh_8:35.] 50 And they understood not [It may seem strange that Mary, knowing all that she did concerning the birth of Jesus, etc., did not grasp the meaning of his words, but we are all slow to grasp great truths; and failure to be understood was therefore a matter of daily occurrence with Jesus. ( Luk_9:45, Luk_18:34, Mar_9:32, Joh_10:6.) Christ spoke plainly, but human ears were slow to comprehend his wonderful sayings. We need to be watchful lest our ears be censured for a like slowness] the saying which he spake unto them. 51 And he went down with them [Jerusalem was among the mountains, Nazareth among the hills], and came to Nazareth [A beautiful and healthful town, but so lacking in piety and learning as to form the "dry ground" out of which it was prophetically predicted that the glorious and fruitful life of Jesus would spring. Here Christ rose above all times and schools and revealed to man that "life more abundant" than all kings, lawgivers or sages ever discovered. His character, like the New Jerusalem, descended from God out of heaven, and no education obtained in Nazareth will explain it. The struggle of self-made men with their early environment is noticeable to the last, but it is not so with him. The discourses of Jesus are the outpourings of divine knowledge, and not the result of study or self-culture]; and he was subject [Our [60] example in all things, he here set before us that pattern of obedience which children should observe toward their parents. In these years Jesus learned the trade of his supposed father ( Mar_6:3). Christ was a laborer, and thereby sanctified labor, and showed that dignity and glory belong to inward and not to outward conditions] unto them [His parents, Joseph and Mary. We find no mention of Joseph after this, and the probability is that he soon died]: and his mother kept all i these sayings in her heart. [She had many treasured sayings of angels, shepherds, wise men, and prophets. She now began to add to these the sayings of Christ himself.] 52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. [He did not literally grow in favor with God. This is a phenomenal expression. The favor of God and man kept company for quite awhile; but the favor of God abode with Jesus when man's good will was utterly withdrawn. Men admire holiness until it becomes aggressive, and then they fell an antagonism against it as great, or intense, as their previous admiration.] [61]

[FFG 56-61]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2:40 filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him (cp. 1:80; 2:52): The twin statements about Jesus’ wisdom (2:40, 52) frame the story about Jesus’ extraordinary wisdom at an early age.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 2:40. Ηὔξανε, grew) in body; i.e. with the growth of an infant: but in Luk 2:52 His progress [increase] as a boy is referred to, προέκοπτεν, He made progress. The former includes the period from His first to His twelfth year: the latter, from His twelfth to His thirtieth year. Even subsequently [a spiritual increase (or rather, full perfection, and fulness) is implied], in ch. Luk 4:1; Luk 4:14. The mention of phases of progress is joined with His Presentation in the temple, with His remaining in the temple on the occasion of the Passover, and with His baptism.—ἐκραταιοῦτο πνεύματι, waxed strong in spirit) as compared with John, [of whom the same thing is said, but] of whom it is not added, as here, that He was filled with wisdom; ch. Luk 1:80. Wisdom is the highest of the endowments of the soul. As to the piety of Jesus whilst still a little child, see Psa 22:10-11; the same inference may be drawn by reasoning from the less to the greater;[31] Luk 1:15; Luk 1:44.—χάρις) the favour [grace] of God was towards Him. Afterwards He became known to men.

[31] If John the Forerunner was “filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb,” a fortiori the Lord Jesus.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_2:40. Similar to Luk_1:80, but more distinctive and more characteristic, in keeping with the human development of the Son of God, who was to grow up to be the organ of truth and grace. Comp. Luk_2:52.

πληρούμ. σοφ.] the internal state of things accompanying the ἐκραταιοῦτο; He became a vigorous child (ἐκρατ.[58]), while at the same time He became filled, etc.

χάρις Θεοῦ] not to be taken of distinguished bodily gracefulness (Raphel, Wolf, Wetstein), but as: the favour of God, which was directed upon Him. Comp. Luk_2:52. On ἐπʼ αὐτό, comp. Act_4:33.

[58] Cyril of Alexandria says: σωματικῶς γὰρ ηὔξανε καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο, τῶν μελῶν συναδρυνομένων τῇ αὐξήσει. Observe that in our passage πνεύματι is not added as at i. 80; the mental development follows in πληρ. σοφ.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 2:40 . ηὔξανε καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο , grew, and waxed strong, both in reference to the physical nature. πνεύματι in T.R. is borrowed from Luk 1:80 ; a healthy, vigorous child, an important thing to note in reference to Jesus. πληρούμενον : present participle, not = plenus , Vulg [35] , full, but in course of being filled with wisdom mind as well as body subject to the law of growth. χάρις : a great word of St. Paul’s, also more used by Lk. than by either of the other two synoptists ( vide Luk 1:30 , Luk 4:22 , Luk 6:32-34 ); here to be taken broadly = favour, good pleasure. The child Jesus dear to God, and the object of His paternal care.

[35] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As Christ grew up in age, so the virtue of his Godhead showed itself more and more.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

His mental development kept pace with His bodily, and "the grace of God," the divine favor, rested manifestly and increasingly upon Him. See Luk 2:52.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 40. The child grew] As to his body - being in perfect health.

Waxed strong in spirit] His rational soul became strong and vigorous.

Filled with wisdom] The divinity continuing to communicate itself more and more, in proportion to the increase of the rational principle. The reader should never forget that Jesus was perfect man, as well as God.

And the grace of God was upon him.] The word χαρις, not only means grace in the common acceptation of the word, (some blessing granted by God's mercy to those who are sinners, or have no merit,) but it means also favour or approbation: and this sense I think most proper for it here, when applied to the human nature of our blessed Lord; and thus our translators render the same word, Lu 2:52. Even Christ himself, who knew no sin, grew in the favour of God; and, as to his human nature, increased in the graces of the Holy Spirit. From this we learn that, if a man were as pure and as perfect as the man Jesus Christ himself was, yet he might nevertheless increase in the image, and consequently in the favour, of God. God loves every thing and person, in proportion to the nearness of the approaches made to his own perfections.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(40) Waxed strong in spirit.—The better MSS. omit the last two words.

Filled with wisdom.—The Greek participle implies the continuous process of “being filled,” and so conveys the thought expressed in Luk_2:52, of an increase of wisdom. The soul of Jesus was human, i.e., subject to the conditions and limitations of human knowledge, and learnt as others learn. The heresy of Apollinarius, who constructed a theory of the Incarnation on the assumption that the Divine Word (the Logos of St. John’s Gospel) took, in our Lord’s humanity, the place of the human mind or intellect, is thus, as it were, anticipated and condemned.

The grace of God was upon him.—The words seem chosen to express a different thought from that used to describe the growth of the Baptist. Here there was more than guidance, more than strength, a manifest outflowing of the divine favour in the moral beauty of a perfectly holy childhood.

On the history of the period between this and the next verses, see Excursus in the Notes on Matthew 2.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

40. filled] Rather, being filled. The growth of our Lord is here described as a natural human growth. The nature of the ‘Hypostatic Union’ of His Divine and Human nature—what is called the Perichoresis or Communicatio idiomatum—is one of the subtlest and least practical of mysteries. The attempt to define and enter into it was only forced upon the Church by the speculations of Oriental heretics who vainly tried “to soar into the secrets of the Deity on the waxen wings of the senses.” This verse (and still more Luk_2:52) is a stronghold against the Apollinarian heresy which held that in Jesus the Divine Logos took the place of the human soul. Against the four conflicting heresies of Anus, Apollinarius, Nestorius and Eutyches, which respectively denied the true Godhead, the perfect manhood, the indivisible union, and the entire distinctness of the Godhead and manhood in Christ, the Church, in the four great Councils of Nice (a. d. 325), Constantinople (a. d. 381), Ephesus (a. d. 431), and Chalcedon (a. d. 451), established the four words which declare her view of the nature of Christ—alethôs, teleôs, adiairetôs, asunchutôs—‘truly’ God; ‘perfectly’ Man; ‘indivisibly’ God-Man, ‘distinctly’ God and Man. See Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. Leviticus 10.

the grace of God was upon him] Isa_11:2-3. “Full of grace and truth,” Joh_1:14. “Take notice here that His doing nothing wonderful was itself a kind of wonder … As there was power in His actions, so is there power in His silence, in His inactivity, in His retirement.” Bonaventura. The worthless legends and inventions of many of the Apocryphal Gospels deal almost exclusively with the details of the Virginity of Mary, and the Infancy of Christ, which are passed over in the Gospels in these few words.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year,.... Joseph was obliged to go three times a year, as were all the males in Israel, at the feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, Deu 16:16. The first of these is expressed here, at the feast of the passover; but the women were not obliged to go up: for so it is said by the Jews (p), , "the passover of women is voluntary", or in their own power; they might go up to the feast, or not, as they pleased. It is indeed said of Hillell, who was now alive, that he obliged the women to the first, but not to a second passover: to which the Karaites object; the account they give is as follows (q),

"truly the women were obliged, by the school of Hillell, to the offering of the passover; but if they were hindered from the first passover, the second was in their power; that is, the thing depended upon their will and pleasure, whether they would offer or not, which may be justly wondered at; for why should they be obliged to the, first, and not the second? for behold, as to the obligation of the passover, there is no difference between the first passover, and the second, The sum of the matter is, our wise men, on whom be peace, have determined and say, that there is no obligation but to males, who are arrived to maturity.

So that this was a voluntary thing in Mary; which discovers her piety and religion, and her great regard to the ordinances and appointments of God,

(p) T. Hieros. Kiddushin, fol. 61. 3. (q) Eliahu Adderet, p. 39. apud Trigland. de Sect. Karaeorum, p. 28.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

Ver. 40. And the grace of God was upon him] Without measure: so that of his overflow we have all received "grace for grace," Joh 1:16. He had a fulness, not repletive only, but diffusive too; not of plenty only, but of bounty also; not only of abundance, but of redundance. He was anointed with the oil of gladness, not only above, but for his fellows.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Strong in spirit - In mind, intellect, understanding. Jesus had a human soul, and that soul was subject to all the proper laws of a human spirit. It therefore increased in knowledge, strength, and character. Nor is it any more inconsistent with his being God to say that his soul expanded, than to say that his body grew.

Filled with wisdom - Eminent for wisdom when a child - that is, exhibiting an extraordinary understanding, and “wise” to flee from everything sinful and evil.

And the grace of God ... - The word “grace” in the New Testament commonly means unmerited favor shown “to sinners.” Here it means no more than favor. God showed him favor, or was pleased with him and blessed him.

It is remarkable that this is all that is recorded of the infancy of Jesus; and this, with the short account that follows of his going to Jerusalem, is all that we know of him for thirty years of his life. The design of the evangelists was to give an account of his “public ministry,” and not his private life. Hence, they say little of him in regard to his first years. What they do say, however, corresponds entirely with what we might expect. He was wise, pure, pleasing God, and deeply skilled in the knowledge of the divine law. He set a lovely example for all children; was subject to his parents, and increased in favor with God and man.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The child grew, and waxed strong, full of wisdom, and (ver. 52) increased in wisdom and age. The Arians from this, pretend to prove that Christ was not truly God, who cannot advance or increase in wisdom. The true meaning is, that Jesus, as he advanced in age as man, gave greater marks of his divine wisdom, and discovered himself full of knowledge, wisdom, &c. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This verse shortly sums up all that we have in the Gospel of the history of the first twelve years of our Saviour’s life. Though there could be no accession to the perfection of the Divine nature in Christ, yet as to his human nature he was (as we are) capable of accession of habits, and wisdom and knowledge; for though the Divine nature was personally united to the human nature, yet there was no communication of properties.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Another of this evangelist"s solemn pauses in his narrative. In this short statement the story of twelve quiet years is told. From these few words St. Luke evidently understands the humanity of Jesus as a reality. The statement that "he waxed strong, filled with wisdom" (the words, "in spirit," do not occur in the older authorities), tells us that, in the teaching of SS. Paul and Luke, the Boy learnt as others learnt, subject to the ordinary growth and development of human knowledge; thus condemning, as it were, by anticipation, the strange heresy of Apollinarius, who taught that the Divine Word (the Logos) took, in our Lord"s humanity, the place of the human mind or intellect. And the grace of God was upon him. The legendary apocryphal Gospels are rich in stories of the Child Jesus" doings during these many years. But the silence of the holy four, whose testimony has been received now since the last years of the first century by the whole Church, is our authority for assuming that no work of power was done, and probably that no word of teaching was spoken, until the public ministry commenced, when the Messiah had reached his thirtieth year. "Take notice here," wrote Bonaventura, quoted by Farrar, "that his doing nothing wonderful was itself a kind of wonder.... As there was power in his actions, so is there power in his silence, in his inactivity, in his retirement."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the child grew - In bodily strength and stature; and waxed strong in spirit - The powers of his human mind daily improved; filled with wisdom - By the light of the indwelling Spirit, which gradually opened itself in his soul; and the grace of God was upon him - That is, the peculiar favour of God rested upon him, even as man.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

40. The child grew. He was a child, and a child that grew in heart, in intellect, in size, in grace, in favor with God. Not a man in child's years. Filled with wisdom. The body advances in stature and the soul in wisdom. The divine nature revealed its own wisdom in proportion to the measure of the bodily growth.—Cyril. In “the mystery of godliness,” “God manifest in the flesh,” one of the inscrutable things that was that the Divine man should become a babe, not only in body, but in mind and wisdom.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

40. ἐκραταιοῦτο. The ἐν πνεύματι of our Received Text is omitted in אBDL.

πληρούμενον. ‘Being or becoming filled.’ The growth of our Lord is here described as a natural human growth. The nature of the ‘Hypostatic Union’ of His Divine and Human nature—what is called the Perichoresis or Communicatio idiomatum—is one of the subtlest and least practical of mysteries. The attempt to define and enter into it was only forced upon the Church by the speculations of Oriental heretics who vainly tried “to soar into the secrets of the Deity on the waxen wings of the senses.” This verse (and still more Luk 2:52) is a stronghold against the Apollinarian heresy which held that in Jesus the Divine Logos took the place of the human soul. Against the four conflicting heresies of Arius, Apollinarius, Nestorius and Eutyches, which respectively denied the true Godhead, the perfect manhood, the indivisible union, and the entire distinctness of the Godhead and manhood in Christ, the Church, in the four great Councils of Nicaea (A.D. 325), Constantinople (A.D. 381), Ephesus (A.D. 431), and Chalcedon (A.D. 451), established the four words which declare her view of the nature of Christ—ἀληθῶς, τελέως, ἀδιαιρέτως, ἀσυγχύτως—‘truly’ God; ‘perfectly’ man; ‘indivisibly’ Godman, ‘distinctly’ God and Man. See Hooker, Eccl. Pol. V. Leviticus 10.

χάρις θεοῦ ἦν ἐπ’ αὐτό. Isa 11:2-3. “Full of grace and truth,” Joh 1:14. “Take notice here that His doing nothing wonderful was itself a kind of wonder.… As there was power in His actions, so is there power in His silence, in His inactivity, in His retirement.” Bonaventura. The worthless legends and inventions of many of the Apocryphal Gospels deal almost exclusively with the details of the Virginity of Mary, and the Infancy of Christ, which are passed over in the Gospels in these few words.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

40.] Return to Nazareth.

40.] ηὔξανεν—in body. ἐκρ., in spirit: πνεύματι is a correct gloss. “The body advances in stature, and the soul in wisdom … the divine nature revealed its own wisdom in proportion to the measure of the bodily growth.” Cyril. Oxf. transl. p. 30.

πληρ., becoming filled: see ver. 52 and note there.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

40. The conclusion of a separate narrative: comp. 1:80. Contrast the reticence of this verse (which is all that we know respecting the next eleven years) with the unworthy inventions of the apocryphal gospels. Hastings, D.C.G. art. “Boyhood of Jesus.”

ηὔξανεν κ. ἐκραταιοῦτο. Of bodily development in size and strength ; for πνεύματι is an insertion from 1:80.—πληρούμενον. Pres. part. “Being filled” day by day. The σοφία is to be regarded as wisdom in the highest and fullest sense. The intellectual, moral, and spiritual growth of the Child, like the physical, was real. His was a perfect humanity developing perfectly, unimpeded by hereditary or acquired defects. It was the first instance of such a growth in history. For the first time a human infant was realizing the ideal of humanity. See Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, §139.

χάρις Θεοῦ ἦν ἐπʼ αὐτό. See on, 4:22 and comp. Act 4:33.

It was near the beginning of this interval that the Jews sent an embassy of fifty to follow Archelaus to Rome, to protest against his accession, and to petition that Judæa might be annexed to Syria (Jos. B. J. ii. 6, 1; Ant. 17:11, 1), of which fact we perhaps have a trace in the parable of the Pounds (19:14). And it was near the end of this interval that another embassy went to complain of Archelaus to Augustus : and he was then deposed, and banished to Vienne in Gaul (Ant. 17:13, 2; B. J. 2:7, 3). Lewin, Fasti Sacri, 877, 944, 1011, 1026.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The child grew, etc. The Jews marked the stages of a child 's development by nine different terms : the new born babe (Isa 9:6); the suckling (Isa 11:8); the suckling beginning to ask for food (Lam 4:4); the weaned child (Isa 28:9); the child clinging to its mother (Jer 40:7); the child becoming firm and strong (Isa 7:14, of the virgin mother); the youth, literally, he that shakes himself free; the ripened one, or warrior (Isa 31:8).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.