“And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
I will state the obvious and say that people by nature need to know what radio personality, Paul Harvey, used to label ‘the rest of the story’. He would cite some commonly known event of history, then relate some obscure facts that either led up to that event or resulted from it, and end by saying ‘and now you know the rest of the story’.
In the case of Jesus of Nazareth the rest of the story is really the beginning of the story. The almost complete silence of the Bible concerning His youth and early adult years so tantalizes the curious that every once in a while someone writes an article or a book speculating about what the Bible does not say.
US News and World Report recently issued what they labeled a collector’s edition of their periodical, the theme of which was titled, “Secrets of the Bible”. If you’ve seen publications like this on the news stands and the racks next to the checkout counters at supermarkets, you will have an idea what type of articles are advertised on the cover for the purpose of piquing the shopper’s interest so they will purchase the magazine.
This one offered the titles, “How to Read the Bible”, “Searching for Eden”, “Legends of the Lost Ark”, “Why Angels Matter”, and “Jesus’ Early Years”.
Someone gave this magazine to my neighbor and when he had perused through its pages he passed it on to me.
I read the titles of the articles and looked at the many Renaissance paintings that were copied and sprinkled throughout, of chubby women and foppish men; sad-faced angels and naked grieving or suffering people [apparently the artists of the Renaissance thought that in ancient times if you were grieving or suffering you had to be naked]; but the only article I actually read was the one that presented the implied promise to answer the mysteries of the boyhood years of Jesus.
And yes, this article included what appeared to be a detail of some anonymous Renaissance painter’s depiction of Jesus as the painter imagined Him to be at around age 12-14. You might be interested to know that Jesus as a boy had shoulder length hair that He meticulously curled at the ends, (not just flipped up but spiraled), apparently plucked His eyebrows to make them thin and straight, had rosy red cheeks, and, well, if the picture wasn’t in an article about Jesus I would have thought I was looking at a painting of a young girl getting ready for her first prom.
Ok. Enough time wasted there. But in fact, my time reading the article was wasted also. The article was actually an excerpt from a book wherein the word ‘speculation’ or some form of it was used profusely, and the farther I read the clearer it became to me that the author neither believed in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, nor the veracity of the Gospel writers. He had Jesus being taught by the Pharisees who had taken him under their wings after His father, Joseph, died in a construction accident, and they never harassed or turned against Him. According to this article, the debates the Jews had with Jesus during His ministry were actually a compliment, as their questions indicated they respected Him as a well-educated Rabbi, and it was the Gospel writers who later on twisted these discussions into confrontations with evil intent.
So I stopped reading. Back to my point though; people would love to have those blanks filled in, but in reality it just isn’t going to happen. We are believers in the Bible and we believe that if God had wanted us to know this information He would have included it in the pages of Scripture. He did not, therefore, we do not need it.
On the other hand, the very few mentions of the early years of Jesus of Nazareth that we are given, and one or two prophetic statements that were made in the Old Testament about the coming One, tell us quite a bit about what kind of Man Jesus was and how He was perceived by the people all around Him. That’s what we’ll focus on today, staying with the Bible and ignoring all speculations, especially from unbelievers with their own agenda.
HE WAS LOOKED FOR
First, let’s go back in time prior to the birth of Jesus and see that He was looked for. This is not new information of course, we know that ever since God promised in the Garden of Eden to send a Redeemer to crush the serpent’s head, believers in the one true God have eagerly awaited His coming.
Then the nation of Israel was born when God promised and delivered a son to Abraham, through whom God said all the nations would be blessed, and from Abraham on down through the corridors of time and the generations he fathered, God’s people have known that the Messiah would come from the Jews.
The prophets wrote of Him, David prophesied the coming and reign of the Messiah in his Psalms, the prophet Malachi closed out the Old Testament with the encouraging prediction of the ‘sun of righteousness’ rising with healing in its wings, and after 400 years of silence from Heaven, the people were still looking for the coming of the One who would redeem God’s people and save their nation.
When the parents of the month old Jesus took Him to the Temple in Jerusalem to complete the cleansing and dedicating ritual commanded in the Law of Moses, Luke records the following:
“And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation, 31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.” Lk 2:25-32
I want to point out here that in calling the baby ‘the glory of Your people Israel’, Simeon was in his pronouncement declaring this infant to be God incarnate.
In 1 Samuel 15:29 the prophet in confronting Saul after his disobedience, said,
“Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.”
So under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as we can see in verse 27 of Luke 2, this faithful old man of God employs this same term, and the One who has been so long looked for, is now looked upon.
HE WAS LOOKED UPON
The text verse I chose for this sermon, Luke 2:52, ends the account of Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem after the Passover to listen to the teachers there. Luke says He astounded them with His questions and His answers.
When His parents found Jesus and chided Him for scaring them, His response revealed something to them and to us; that zeal for His Father’s house already consumed Him, even at the tender age of 12.
Now look for a moment back at verses 39 and 40 of Luke 2. This follows the encounter with Simeon in the Temple, who prophesied over Jesus as an infant, and Luke finishes with this statement:
“When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”
Then immediately Luke goes into the telling of this trip to Jerusalem. So from verse 40 to verse 41 Luke has skipped 12 years of the life of Jesus, yet at the end of this second story we once again have this testimony, “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.”
What need do we have of the mundane details, when we have this information about Jesus; that He, apparently from the time He was an infant and passing into adulthood, continued to increase in wisdom and stature, going about in the grace and favor not only of God, but of men.
Oh, how He must have been looked upon with smiles and warm greetings from the neighbors in Nazareth and the storekeepers and tradesmen and all the other people He came in contact with on a daily or at least frequent basis.
At the town limits of Del Norte, Colorado, population of a little over 1,600, there is a sign – at least there was one the last time I went through there – and this sign proudly declares Del Norte’s favorite son, Captain, USN Retired, Kent V. Rominger, former NASA Astronaut and recipient of so many honors and medals I don’t have time to list them for you here.
To name just a handful of them, Rominger holds the Defense Superior Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. In 2000 he was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame.
Just one more tidbit of information about Rominger’s accomplishments: In completing his first space flight, Rominger orbited the earth 256 times, traveled over 6 million miles, and logged a total of 15 days, 21 hours and 52 minutes in space.
We don’t need to struggle hard to imagine the pride in a very small town, for one of the kids that used to ride his bike in the streets, come to the door Trick or Treating every year, maybe had a newspaper route or involved himself in church functions – I don’t know what Capt. Rominger did as a child and young man, but I’m sure people knew of him to be a respectful and forthright youngster in the community, who graduated and went off into the Navy and ended up putting Del Norte on the map with his astounding successes.
Now I’ll repeat here that we don’t know the details of Jesus’ childhood and young adulthood. But we have the testimony of Luke that He was increasingly wise and full of grace and looked upon with favor by God and men.
But was He Nazareth’s favorite son? Well it would seem so, if we correctly understand Luke’s report, when in chapter 4 verses 14 and 15 he says:
“And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.”
Verse 16 of that chapter begins to tell another tale altogether, but we’ll come back to that.
So here we have a picture of a young man who is liked very much by all who know Him.
And since we know exactly who He is, we can all agree that even in the absence of recorded information we can be very certain that Jesus never went through a rebellious period, or a destructive period – such as when my friends and I used to throw rocks and break out what was left of the windows of that old deserted house at the end of our street – and since He was Nazareth’s favorite son, how proud they must have been when they were hearing that He was going about Galilee teaching and that people were amazed at His words. And that in Capernaum and the surrounding region He was doing miracles and healing people.
And since Nazareth had a long-standing reputation for being a community of poor moral and religious behavior, it must have made the inhabitants of the village very pleased to have one of their sons out doing well and making a name for Himself in the entire region of Galilee.
But it wasn’t only the population of Nazareth that looked upon Jesus with favor, was it? You know, we tend to focus hard and often on the increasing conflict Jesus had with the Scribes and the Pharisees who dogged His footsteps all over the countryside and in Jerusalem itself.
The fact is, Jesus was very popular with the people and He was looked upon with great favor wherever He went.
When one man can draw a crowd of over 5000 men, not to mention the women and children that came with the men, which probably put the numbers above 10 thousand, to a hillside in the country to hear Him preach for hours on end, you can rest assured that this is a very popular fellow.
Wherever Jesus went, multitudes were following close behind. He was going about doing good and healing those who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
He was looked upon with favor by all.
Isn’t it interesting, that it wasn’t until it began to become apparent that He was the One the nation had looked for since Abraham, that they began to reject Him?
HE WAS LOOKED FROM
Again, it began in Nazareth. Let’s go back now and look at those verses from chapter 4, beginning at verse 16.
“And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, 19 TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” 20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” 24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.”
So the first rejection of Jesus as the Messiah comes from those who have known Him from childhood. They are the ones who had all the information that people now speculate about and wish they had recorded. They watched Him grow physically, they witnessed as He made His first efforts in His father’s business, they observed His coming and going year by year and they knew Him well; or so they thought.
Now, Jesus has been baptized in the Jordan river by His cousin John. We remember that there was a voice from Heaven which was heard by the people standing there, affirming Jesus as God’s beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descending and lighting upon Him in the form of a dove. I’m sure reports of that must have spread around the countryside.
After that Jesus went to the wilderness where for 40 days He was tempted by Satan and triumphed over the evil one with the Word of God. Then after the 40 days, if we read Luke 4:14-15 we see that He then began going about Galilee, teaching and receiving the praises of the people.
Then He comes back to Nazareth, enters the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stands up to read.
Now at first glance it might appear that Jesus deliberately baited this crowd to get this negative reaction from them. But if we read verse 22 I think we’ll see where the transition took place.
Up until now they are giving Him their rapt attention. Nazareth’s favorite son has returned from being away for probably about 2 months or so, and the tales of His exploits in Capernaum have preceded Him.
Then He stands and reads these prophetic words from Isaiah, and we get the impression from verse 22 that He has actually begun to teach more than is recorded for us here, because where Luke reports that Jesus said “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”, verse 22 begins, “And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips…” but the very next phrase is , “and they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son’?
They knew full-well this was Joseph’s son! So what has happened here? I think the scene was much like one of those you’ll see in a movie or a television program, where someone is saying good and pleasing things and everyone in the room is smiling, then the speaker drops the verbal bomb that he was actually getting at the whole time. For a few seconds heads are still bobbing in the affirmative and there are smiles all around, then the gravity of what has been said sinks in and as one the crowd turns to shock and says, ‘WHAT?’
What did He just say? He read from the prophet words that we all know pertain to the Messiah and the things He will do and bring with Him when He comes, and the carpenter has just said that in reading those words He was speaking of Himself?
And it was at that very moment that Jesus stopped being Nazareth’s favorite son.
I said something earlier that I will repeat now. The more obvious it becomes to people who Jesus really is, the nearer they will come to rejecting Him.
Everyone is drawn to a man who displays wisdom and is gracious in his speech and a pleasure to be around. If, in addition to his charm he is able to do things for them; provide things for them, all the better and all the more pleased they will be with him.
But Jesus did two things that always drive people away from Him until He calls them to Himself and grants them repentance and life. First, He told them the truth about Himself, which was beyond their understanding, then He told them the truth about themselves, which was most certainly beyond their willingness to hear.
That is the way of the sin nature and it never changes. People will be gracious and friendly and willing to engage in conversation on almost any topic you can think of to bring up and they will maintain a sunny disposition throughout.
But when you begin to tell them who Jesus really is and who they are in light of who He is, that is when you will see the side of them that merits Hell.
Jesus Christ is not and never has been unpopular with a fallen world for any reason other than that He is God, and that they cannot escape the ultimate reality that they are accountable to God and will be held to account in the end. They deny it with their lips, but in their hardened, sin-blackened hearts they know it and they hate and reject Him for it.
That is why Jesus remained popular with the people whom He healed and fed and brought back from death and explained the Kingdom of Heaven, until he began to say things like what is recorded for us in John 6:48 and following. And I want to read this whole portion to you, from verse 48 through 66. This is near the end of Jesus’ ministry. The Nazareth incident was at the beginning, this is at the end. His hometown rejected Him first, now as a nation they will reject their Messiah.
Listen:
“I am the bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” 52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. 60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” 66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”
Why? Because they were compelled to hear the truth about who He was, and His light brightly illumined who they were. So they looked from Him, turned from Him, and knowing who He was, crucified Him, fulfilling the words of the prophet:
“He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” Isa 53:3-6
HE WAS LOOKED AT
Well Mary’s son fell out of favor with the citizens of Nazareth and finally with the Children of Israel.
But the Father has allotted Him “…a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.” Isa 53:12
And because He had favor with God He was raised with power and glory and then they looked at Him. Not the children of the world, but the children of God; true believers.
The world and those who are of the world have never seen the risen Christ. They will, and we will talk about that in a minute. But to His own He showed Himself risen and glorified, God the Father’s favored Son.
Listen to Paul, to the Corinthian church:
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.”
1 Cor 15:3-8
So He was first looked at in Jerusalem and later in Galilee by many faithful believing witnesses and finally He was looked at when He ascended into the Heavens from Mt Olivet before His Apostles who watched Him go.
But He will be seen again, and this time every eye will see Him. His own who rejected Him will see and finally believe:
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” Zech 12:10
And the whole world will also see Him when He returns with the clouds of glory to rule and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords:
“BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” Rev 1:7
He came to His own, virgin born, manger laid, humble and lowly, bringing light to the world, only to be scorned and rejected of men, but perfectly fulfilling the will of the Father and taking on Himself the burden of us all.
When He is looked at once more, every eye will witness His glory and His majesty and His power and authority. And believers, we will cast our crowns at His feet – God’s favorite Son – and worship Him and glorify Him forever and ever without end.
This is according to the Divine plan that cannot fail; Christ-followers. Once men rejected Him because they began to see Him as He is and His light exposed who they were.
But as surely as they looked for Him, and looked upon Him and finally looked from Him, we will soon look at Him face to face, and we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is – and the glory that is in Him will change us instantly into His image.
Instead of contrast, there will be perfect likeness, and we will glorify and enjoy Him forever.
Amen
