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Luke 2:39–40
“When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”
Bethlehem was not the hometown of Mary and Joseph but was merely the place they had to go to be counted in the imperial census, since Joseph belonged to the line of David and David’s family came from Bethlehem (Luke 2:1–7; see 1 Sam. 16). Neither was Jerusalem Mary and Joseph’s hometown; they went there after the birth of Jesus only because they had to offer sacrifices to restore their ritual purity, and Jerusalem was the only place where sacrifices could be lawfully offered according to the Mosaic law (Luke 2:22–38; see Lev. 12; Deut. 12:1–27). Joseph and Mary instead were from Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 1:26–27; Luke 2:4). Thus, when the various legal obligations associated with childbirth had been fulfilled and it was time to settle permanently and raise Jesus to adulthood, it is no surprise that the family settled in Nazareth, as we see in today’s passage (Luke 2:39).
We know, of course, that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus spent time in Egypt before returning to their hometown. Matthew gives us this information, which is not recorded in Luke. Each gospel writer is selective with what he includes because he wants to stress particular themes in the life of Jesus. The evangelists had to be selective because, after all, the world could not contain the number of books it would take to record everything that Jesus ever said or did (John 21:25). As Matthew 2 tells us, the return to Nazareth did not happen until after the death of Herod the Great, the client-king of Rome then ruling over the Holy Land who sought to put Jesus to death lest He threaten Herod’s throne.
One of the most remarkable things about the four Gospels is that they tell us very little about the childhood of Jesus. Luke tells us more than the others, but even he relates almost nothing about our Lord’s youth. It is likely that for the most part Jesus had a very ordinary childhood, that He experienced and did the things that most normal children did, albeit without sin (Heb. 4:15). He was not doing miracles as He would after He commenced His earthly ministry, so there was little to take special note of. Yet Jesus did stand out in His youth for His wisdom and for being a special object of God’s favor, and Luke mentions this twice (Luke 2:40, 52). Apparently, Jesus spent much of His youth growing in the wisdom of God’s Word as His Father prepared Him to teach people the true depths of His law and to speak with authority (Matt. 7:28–29).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
If even God incarnate had room to grow in wisdom, according to His human nature, we should certainly expect our own merely human teachers to need to grow in their understanding of Scripture’s wisdom. The church can encourage its pastors, elders, and teachers to become more skilled in the Word of God by providing things such as funds for education and study leave for their church leaders.
for further study
- Ezra 7:10
- 2 Timothy 2:15
The bible in a year
- Exodus 16–18
- Matthew 19:16–30
- Exodus 19–22
- Matthew 20:1–16