Uncategorized

Growing Up (Luke 2:41-52)

Posted by growinggodlygenerations on

MOTIVATE

On Feb 1, 2026 84-year old mother Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her home in AZ. Local & Federal agencies have been investigating with search teams, forensic analysis, and neighborhood canvassing, along with the world following along through media outlets. The reason for multiple agencies and significant media attention, including the POTUS mention, is that Nancy is the mother to NBC co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. Further, this has become clearly a kidnapping gone wrong with blood stains, ransom notes, and a recent video evidence showing a masked individual disarming a ring camera before the abduction.

Losing someone creates the worst fears and panic of the worst possible outcomes. It’s why the Bible labels individuals w/o faith in Christ as spiritually lost and even having a dead faith. Yet, those who believe are considered found, spiritually alive, and belonging to the family.

Today’s passage will review when the Nativity family loses their son Jesus. The circumstances of this trouble result in key descriptions for how Christians are to develop and grow up spiritually.

EXAMINE      Growing Up            LUKE 2:41-52

  • Passage has no counterpart in canonical Gospels
  • Apocrypha Gospels[1] detail odd & mischievous narratives like the boy Jesus expanding pieces of wood to help carpenter father; transforming toy clay into live birds; chastising teachers; cursing opponents & turning them into goats OR even un-aliving other children who aggravate him – – – possibly even eliminating Joseph for trying to discipline him over these sort of circumstances! All are inconsistent with canonicals, not to mention written with pseudo-attributions to authors, and written in 2nd C and many fragmentary vs only 2 complete manuscripts.  No early church father attested to the truthfulness or credibility of these narratives.
  • Ultimately, Gospels focus on Jesus’ ministry. 30 years of obscurity = significance

Growing up is aided by INTENTIONAL MILESTONES (Luke 2:41-42).

  • Joseph & Mary initiating Jesus Bar Mitzvah (son of commandment/law).
  • 3 pilgrimage feasts for Israel: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles.[2] Joseph & Mary traveled to Jerusalem every year to honor and reflect on God’s Passover rescue.  Jewish law required men to go each year to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover (Ex 23:14-17; 34:23; Dt 16:16). While, not everyone followed through each year, we learn that Joseph and Mary were faithful.
    • Faithfulness is the ability to follow directions, and regardless of how many detours, you end up at the intended destination. We may not follow Jesus perfectly, and likely we will have some winding paths. But God’s grace guides us through the distractions and detours, so we end up where we belong. Faithful in changing seasons: winter (cold & challenging), spring (work), summer (enjoyment), fall (harvest & preparation). 
    • Christianity doesn’t need pace-setters, just plodders.
    • Eugene Peterson calls it “a long obedience in the same direction.”

Faithfulness is the ability to follow directions, and regardless of how many detours, you end up at the intended destination. Christianity isn’t about pace-setting, but plodding. It’s a long obedience in the same direction.

  • Christians may not have pilgrimages but we should have milestones, which facilitate maturity…
    • Life (celebrating birthdays for God’s glory)
    • Community (name meaning & family mission)
    • Faith (baptism)Church (membership)
    • Stewardship (spiritual gift & strengths inventory / GOSPEL assessment)
    • Transitions (wisdom for life seasons / proverbs journal)
    • Culture & Worldview (doctrine study)
    • Marriage (premarital/enrichment, mentor couples)
    • Offspring (family dedication) 
    • Parenthood (catechism & kid bibles) 
    • Finishing (retirement plan & estate planning
    • Death (tombstone, legacy)

“Indeed the safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”  – C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

Growing up is aided by INCIDENTAL MOMENTS (Luke 2:43-50).

  • J&M return home from Jerusalem pilgrimage but forgot Jesus! Can you imagine? The divine appointed couple to raise Jesus, loses the Son of God for 2.5 days. They traveled about 20 miles (a day’s journey), and return back seeking their son. Most parents can identify with the panic and frightened pursuit to find their lost child, but for three days!?! Further, we can speculate on the anxiety and anger between the married couple, as well as between the parents and their “perfect” son.
  • This unplanned moment resulted in Jesus in the temple listening, learning, and asking questions. The boy Jesus wasn’t confined to pizza in the youth room; instead, it was an intergenerational experience of spiritual growth. The closest to a “silver bullet” or guarantee to lasting faith among young people is multiplying meaningful intergenerational relationships.[3] This traveling caravan included more than parents but extended members like aunts/uncles, g-parents, elder cousins, friends, neighbors, etc.  Children need a convoy of advocates, coaches, cheerleaders, and counselors to grow in maturity.  

The closest to a “silver bullet” or guarantee to lasting faith among young people is multiplying meaningful intergenerational relationships. Children need a convoy of advocates, coaches, cheerleaders, and counselors to grow in maturity.  

  • Jesus’ first recorded words: “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know I must be in my Father’s house” (Lk 2:49).  
    • Song: To you other kids all across the land, there’s no need to argue, parents just don’t understand
    • Dt 6:7 formal teaching and informal talking; –  parents, guess which is most remembered?!?
    • Divine necessity in Luke:
      • 2:49 “I must be in my Father’s house”
      • 4:43 “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God”
      • 10:42 one thing you must do – one thing is necessary [spending time with Jesus]
      • 17:4 if a fellow Christian repents, you must forgive them
      • 19:5 Jesus must stay at the house of Zacchaeus
      • 24:7 “the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified and rise on the third day”
      • Jesus’ human relationship with the Heavenly Father matured by each moment of life. He is the protype for the Christian life to become in practice what God has already declared over us in the gospel (Jerry Bridges).

Jesus’ human relationship with the Heavenly Father matured by each moment of life. He is the protype for the Christian life to become in practice what God has already declared over us in the gospel.

  • Learning comes by listening AND asking questions.
    *Parents: create open discussion moments: High/Low/God-sightings  / Sunday leftovers + (not fry)
    *Parents: allow children to explore w/ boundaries; avoid parenting helicopter (hovering) or snowplow (unblocking)
    *Groups are places open our Bibles to learn (and ask questions) and open lives to love others. If you only sit in rows and never in circles, I’m somewhat concerned for your spiritual growth.

Growing up is aided by INCREASING MENTORSHIP (Luke 2:51-52)

  • Jesus returned with parents to Nazareth and was submissive/obedient. He transitioned into manhood but still respected parents. He modeled Proverbs 5:1 “My son, be attentive to wisdom; incline your ear to understanding that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.”
    • Theologians debate Jesus’ maturity. Did childhood Jesus know everything? Make mistakes? Understand identity and calling as Lord and Savior?
    • We know infant Jesus needed swaddled; caretaking, instruction.
    • We know Jesus got tired, hungry, along w/ experiencing disappointment and grief.
    • Heb 2:17-18; 4:15; 5:9 “Jesus was like us in every respect… suffered when tempted… and He learned obedience through what He suffered”
    • *In Jesus’ maturation, He gained profound clarity of purpose. Our world is severely cluttered and clarity of purpose is the need of the day for individuals, teams, organizations, and churches.
  • Jesus increased (προκόπτω = advance aggressively[4]) in four areas:
  • 1) Wisdom. The last time in the Bible someone was full of wisdom was King Solomon. Luke’s noting of Jesus’s wisdom is recognition of His superior kingship.
    > Wisdom comes thru experience, & often failure – but have to pay attention (Ecc 1-12)
    > Wisdom comes by turning critics into coaches (Prov 9:8-9)
    > Wisdom comes by walking with the wise (Ps 1; Prov 13:20; 27:17)
    > Wisdom comes by reverence of Lord and His word (Ps 19:6ff; Prov 1-5, James 1:5)
  • 2) Stature. Stature relates to both physical development and emotional maturity. Jesus’ body was the temple of God, dedicating to service with excellence. Holistic stature is exhibited by not compartmentalizing Christ’s Lordship in every area of your life.
    > Physical is spiritual; treat your body as belonging to God (1 Cor 6:19-20; 1Tim 4:8)
    > Growth requires discipline; rejecting laziness & apathy (1 Cor 9:24-27)

  • 3) Favor with God. Favor (χάρις) is discovery of God’s grace that cannot be earned with good works or purchased with riches, nor inherited from family/friend. It starts with humble and hungry faith in the Lord (cf Isa 66:2).
    > To be available to God starts with emptiness of self.

  • 4) Favor with people. Jesus’ time of learning & discussion in the temple made the religious teachers amazed – they marveled at His insights/teaching, and miraculous deeds.[5]
    > Jesus was full of grace and truth. To Jesus, truth was not a weapon but a tool to win people. Likewise, grace was not a handout but a hand-up to lead people toward wholeness & maturity.

    Truth & Grace Matrix

To Jesus, truth was not a weapon but a tool to win people. Likewise, grace was not a handout but a hand-up to lead people toward wholeness and maturity.

APPLY/TAKEAWAY

Recently I drove my childhood neighborhood… my thoughts:

  • Nostalgia. Every place is special but it’s the people that make the place.
  • Change. New streets with new developments / stores / buildings / etc. It’s part of life.
  • Time is a thief. Enjoy the moments and don’t rush the future.
  • Shed was in disrepair. Life requires maintenance.

Us growing up: inconsistent / relapsing & backsliding
Jesus growing up: constant / forgiving & strengthening

Jude 1:24-25 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

[1] See https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/earliest-record-jesus-childhood/, https://textandcanon.org/what-are-the-apocryphal-gospels/, Bart Ehrman book on The Other Gospels though his take on both apocryphaic & canonical books is academic & mythological vs an authoritative approach to Scripture.

[2] See 7 festivals: https://www.monergism.com/feasts-and-festivals-israel, https://bibleproject.com/podcasts/seven-festivals/

[3] Kara E. Powell, Brad M. Griffin, Cheryl A. Crawford, Sticky Faith: Practical Ideas to Nurture Long-Term Faith in Teenagers (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011): 75.

[4] https://biblehub.com/greek/4298.htm

[5] https://biblehub.com/greek/1839.htm

Leave a comment