Being Like The Boy Jesus

Sep 10, 2020Written Devotionals

46” Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.”    Luke 2:46-47    NKJV

In this story, we see Jesus as a 12-year-old boy.  After the Feast of Passover Jesus gets left behind in Jerusalem which causes His parents return to the city, seeking to find Him.  When they finally do find the boy Jesus, He is in the Temple sitting with the teachers.  What a picture this is! Here is Jesus as a boy both listening to the teachers and asking them questions.  His conversations with the teachers left them astonished at His knowledge. 

As a boy Jesus was hungry for the Word of His Father, He was hungry to learn the things of His Father.  He was asking questions of the teachers of the law and responding to them with insight that was beyond the natural.  While this is amazing to us we simply write it off by saying, “Well, He was God, so of course He had this understanding and knowledge.”  And it is true that He was God in the flesh but that is the key that should intrigue us and challenge us to expect more in the area of spiritual knowledge and understanding.  When we see the 12-year-old boy Jesus asking, listening and understanding we should see that as a picture of us.

We should be hungry to know Him better. We should constantly be seeking more of Him in our lives, passionately seeking after a deeper knowledge and understanding and above all else focused on Jesus and His Word.  We need to remember that Jesus was all God but at the same time He was a man, subject to the flesh as we are. 

If we read a little further in this chapter we see in verse 52, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”  Jesus was in this same flesh you and I are in.  He did not just know all spiritual things because He was God.  He was in this flesh and the flesh blinds us to the things of the spiritual realm.  He had to grow and increase in His wisdom of the things of His Father.  He had to grow in His knowledge and as He did so he increased in stature and favor with God and men.  It is the same truth for you and me today.  The flesh blinds us to the things of the spiritual realm, but we need to hunger for Jesus and His Word in our lives. 

Jesus grew even while He was God in this flesh setting the example for you and me to follow as humans subject to this same flesh.  Jesus grew and then we see that at His baptism the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove.  From that point on we see the power and miracles in Jesus’ life.  This begins His ministry.  We have the same Holy Spirit dwelling within us and we can learn the deeper things of the Lord through Him, but it all starts with continually being like that 12-year-old boy Jesus.  We have to hunger for Him with a passion. 

J Todd Hostetler

www.cityonahillTC.org

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