14 April
Luke 2:41-51
It is interesting to note that among the four gospels, Luke is the only one that records Jesus as a child. Note that Luke was a Gentile and he was writing specifically to Theophilus and the Gentiles.
The Jews were and are familiar with the concept of the Messiah; and from John chapter one, they were probably also aware of the Incarnation, and how God became man, and the Word took on flesh and dwelt among them. The Gentiles however were not so familiar, and Luke probably took upon himself to show how Jesus was unique – he came as the God-man, fully God and fully man, – something hard to understand, even for believers today.
The primary meaning of the Incarnation: He entered into complete solidarity with us in our sinful existence in order to save us, without becoming himself a sinner. While he, the holy Son of God, became what we are, he became what we are in a different way from us. We become what we are and continue to become what we are as sinners. Jesus, however, who knew no sin became what we are, yet not by sinning himself. Christ the Word did not sin. He did not become flesh of our flesh in a sinful way, by sinning in the flesh. If God the Word became flesh, God the Word is the subject of the incarnation, and how could God sin?
The New Testament teaches us, then, that though Jesus Christ assumed our fallen human existence, our fallen flesh under the dominion of sin and under the judgement of the law of God, he was yet without sin – he was wholly and perfectly obedient to God the Father throughout his whole life on earth (i.e. the whole life and work of Jesus, from his birth at Bethlehem, to the resurrection from the dead).
In other words, the eternal God (in Jesus), without ceasing to be eternal has taken temporal form, as well as creaturely existence. God has assumed our time into union with himself, without abrogating it. He, the eternal, has become temporal for us in the form of our temporal and historical existence, not simply by embracing our time and historical existence and ruling it, but by permitting time and our historical existence to be the form of his eternal deity. Thus he is not only accessible to us in time and history, but we in time and history are free to approach the eternal and to live with him. This essentially is the meaning of the God-man – fully God and fully man. Jesus. as man, with all the characteristics of being human (being tired, hungry, with emotions etc.) has to be sinless, and to remain sinless in order to fulfil his mission on the cross to be our substitute and saviour.
With the above in mind, we can now look at Luke 2:41-51 and appreciate what Luke was communicating in this passage.
Luke was in fact sharing that Jesus was no ordinary boy at 12 years old. As fully human, he grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was on him (Luke 2:40). “And as Jesus grew up, he increased in wisdom and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). This implies that Jesus grew normally as a fully human child, increasing in wisdom, understanding, and in the grace and favour of God – he did not suddenly change from a baby to a boy of 12 – in fact, Jesus did not proceed from the womb to the tomb immediately without growing in the normal way as fully human in his earthly life.
But, having addressed this, Luke also wanted us to know that Jesus was fully God as well. He was fully divine although he was fully human; however, he limited himself in his divine powers, and in the sphere that enabled him to be fully human, thus not compromising his mission to die as the sinless perfect human for the fallen humankind. In the gospel, the devil sought to cause him to compromise by tempting him to use his divine power (eg. to turn stones into bread) but Jesus overcame the enemy time and time again.
So, with the understanding that Jesus was fully God and fully man on earth, we can now appreciate how he acted and behaved towards various situations and various people (including his earthly parents, for his true father is the heavenly Father). For instance, Jesus was not really ‘lost’ – he deliberately stayed back in the temple to interact with the teachers of the law. When he asked and declared to his earthly parents, “Why were you searching for me?” ? “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”, Jesus was not being rude and indifferent to his parents (for that would be tantamount to ‘sin’, and he was perfectly sinless). Jesus was in fact acting and behaving as the divine Son of God.
The Father’s house refers to the temple. The temple was key to God’s dwelling among his people. It was the place of sacrifice, The sacrificial system was the means by which God’s people remained in a right relationship with Him The temple was also the place of revelation; the priests taught the people in the temple. Above all, the temple was the place where God dwelt among His people in all holiness and purity. It was God’s house (the Father’s house), God’s dwelling place on earth. The occasion was the Passover feast – in remembrance and in thanksgivings for God’s deliverance of His people in the Exodus – and in that context, a lamb was slain and the blood was ‘plastered’ over the doors of the homes – it is interesting that the ‘Lamb of God’ (Jesus himself) was at the Passover feast. The Father’s house implies the presence of God the Father in the temple, and Jesus (the Son) displayed such wisdom in the interaction with the religious teachers, not just because of his discipline in the study of Old Testament (but essentially because he was filled with the Holy Spirit of God). Notice the presence of the Trinity – the Triune God (Father, Son, and Spirit) in the context of Jesus’ presence and interaction in the temple, his Father’s house.
Jesus, at this age, might have had some inkling of his Person and Mission – and this explains why he addressed God as his Father, and also refers to the need for him to focus on the matters that concern his Father. He was in fact behaving naturally as the Son of God and later on, when he was asked by his mother Mary to do something about the lack of wine at a wedding, Jesus addressed his mother as “Woman’. Here again, he was addressing Mary as the Son of God and not as an earthly son.
So when it comes to applications from Luke 2:41-51, it is in order to consider implied applications that concern relationship between parents and son, and the meaning of the actions and behaviour of Jesus and his earthly parents, but we should not forget that Jesus at the age of 12 was no ordinary 12 years old boy. He was fully God and fully man; and at every stage of his growth and development as man, he attained his full potential required of him, and he was fully pleasing to his Father – he did not sin. So when it comes to implied application, we have to be careful not to attribute ‘wrongdoing’ or ‘wrong attitude’ to Jesus’ action, words or behaviour, lest we are guilty of concluding that he failed to be sinless at certain points of his life on earth.
In the history of the church. The Chalcedonian settlement gave the church a definitive answer to the christological issues surrounding its question Who is Jesus Christ? It was a crucial turning point in that it adopted a description of Christ that has stood through the centuries as an authoritative expression of the church’s faith.
The Council of Constantinople (553) stated: “In our Lord Jesus Christ, there are two natural wills, and two natural operations, indivisibly, inconvertibly, inseparably, without any fusion, as the holy fathers have taught, and these two natural wills are not contrary,as wicked heretics have said. In taking this position the church sought to express the full reality of the incarnation of Jesus Christ as understood from Holy Scriptures. It gives equal recognition to both the unity and the duality in Jesus Christ. The divine Word is a unity existing in two natures, each of which is complete and retains its own distinctive properties and operation. Thus the incarnate Christ is the one Son of God, who is truly and perfectly divine and human.
In interpreting and applying Luke 2, we have to be careful not to compromise the Christology of the Son of God. This is not a minor issue; the relation of the divine and human in Jesus is a very important issue – every statement about who Jesus is implies a certain understanding of the Trinity. Conversely, every affirmation about the Trinity says something about who Jesus is.
Luke 3:21-38
In verse 21, Luke tells us that ‘all the people’ were baptised by John and in this context of this public ministry and extreme heightened expectation, Jesus himself was baptised. The baptism of Jesus demonstrates not his need for repentance and forgiveness, but his association and identification with the people he has come to save. Jesus’ baptism is accompanied by the visual, physical descent of God the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove. There is also the audible voice that explains what is happening.
One of the marks of the anointing of Old Testament leaders is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit; the descent of the Holy Spirit speaks of the anointing of Jesus for his main and major ministry that would lead to the cross.
A voice from heaven is a great rarity in the Bible – it is only on a very few occasions that God addresses His people directly. Here, in this very public setting, God speaks: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (v. 22). It is a declaration that Jesus is both His anointed KIng and His long promised Saviour – Jesus is being publicly identified as the Son of God by the Father, and is commissioned by Him – God speaks in person!
Notice that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved here. Jesus is identified as the royal Ruler, before whom all kings and nations must bow in worship and also as God’s specifically chosen Servant, who will bring about the salvation of his people (Psalm 2:7; Isaiah 42;1 and 61:1 ).
Hence Jesus assumed his office of the Messianic king who reigns and the servant who suffers. The two themes of reigning and suffering run parallel throughout Jesus’ ministry.
It is important also to realise that the preparatory ministry of John the Baptist and the subsequent inauguration of Jesus’ ministry signals the beginning of the “New or Final Age” – it is the direct intervention of God in Christ into human history. The “First or Former Age or Era” was a time of preparation for something expected in the future. God’s revelation of himself and demonstration of how he dealt with his people was presented primarily in the history and experience of the nation Israel.
The Final age or era results in a radical change in the way God deals with humanity. It brings the culmination of God’s struggle against hostile forces. In this age, God deals directly with the reality, with the fact, results, and consequences of sin. God’s divine and holy justice is satisfied in conjunction with his offering love, mercy and forgiveness. God defeats the power of evil and reasserts his right to rule, his sovereignty over the entire universe.
The beginning of the Final Age took place in the ministry of Jesus, who appeared once for all at the end of the age (Heb.9:26).
Genealogies in the Bible are designed to make theological points. The genealogy of Jesus is far more than simply a list of names. The reason for tracing his lineage is to demonstrate His royal succession from King David (v.31), His descent from Abraham (v. 34) to whom God’s promise of blessing was made (see 1:55), and His human identity as the son of Adam, the son of God (v.38). Luke’s aim is to show that Jesus is properly qualified, in every aspect, as the Son of God.
There are questions raised by some about the difference between this genealogy and the one in Matthew’s gospel.
The genealogy in Luke is in reverse order to the one in Matthew, and the first third of Luke’s genealogy is almost entirely different to Matthew’s. Also, Luke structures his genealogy differently, and there are various omissions and inclusions, These can be explained by the Jewish practice of Levirate marriage, which decreed that when a woman’s husband died, her husband’s brother (or nearest male relative) was duty-bound to marry her and provide an heir. In an age when there was no state social care and when succession was vital for inheritance, this provided significant protection to the otherwise vulnerable. Levirate marriage meant, however, that lines of succession were often recorded as passing through a male relative, if the father of a child had died and the name of a later husband had been entered in a record. This helps to explain the discrepancies. Matthew had Joseph’s father as Jacob; Luke records Joseph’s father as Heli.
Matthew and Luke had different purposes. Luke’s aim is to show that Jesus is a son of Adam, the son of God. Jesus is fully human, and qualified, therefore, to be everything that Adam – and every other human since- had failed to be. He is not only the son of Adam, the son of God. He is als the long-awaited Christ, the Son of God.
This leaves the final key question: ‘Will Jesus stand the test of temptation or will He like all others before him, yield to Satan?” This leads us to chapter 4 of Luke.
Luke 4:1-14
In the first three chapters of his narrative, Luke has introduced Jesus as God’s long-promised Saviour, who has come to rule eternally over King David’s throne, and bring salvation to the nations through the forgiveness of sins.
The narrative described the intense expectation that had built up around the birth of Jesus, and also His anticipated public ministry; the people and readers would rightly be hoping that Jesus would ultimately fulfill all the promises of rescue to be found in the Old Testament.
The key question: Can Jesus meet the hopes that have been raised? He has been shown to be God’s chosen King, anointed by God the Holy Spirit, also He is identified as the Servant foreseen by Isaiah (by the Baptist, by the Father at the baptism; by the anointing of the Spirit) – Jesus is hence confirmed as having come from God as God’s rescuing Ruler.
His links to David, Abraham and Adam (from the Genealogy) qualify Him as a human saviour in fulfillment of God’s heavenly promise. He is in a position to rescue humanity because He is one of us – the son of Adam. And He has the power to rescue humanity because He is God’s KIng – the son of David, the Son of God (Note: He is fully God and fully man).
No other saviour has ever emerged as being genuinely qualified to deal with the root cause of all our problems – human sin and divine judgement. Jesus is identified as the unique Saviour – He is qualified absolutely for the task.
And that brings us to Luke 4:1-14. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the evil one. All before Him have failed through temptation and sin, but Jesus had to face the same ‘test’.
“If you are the Son of God…..(vs. 3 and 9) – this has everything to do with the testing and proving of Jesus.
Jesus shows us to be qualified as the one sinless, perfect human being who submits to God alone (v.4), who worships God alone (v.8), and who trusts in God alone (v.12) as He responded to the temptations by Satan.
Such a victory over Satan is qualified to save humanity.
The forty- day fast in the wilderness is a deliberate mirror of Israel’s forty years in the desert; Israel failed God in the wilderness despite God’s provision and guidance – she yearned to go back to Egypt (bondage and the ‘world’) – she complained unceasingly about the food (leaven; lack of meat, lack of water etc). Jesus triumphed even after fasting forty days and was hungry; He was obedient to God’s word; He rejected something ( which belongs to Him by right) offered to Him by the enemy; He refused to put God to the test by insisting on protection and forcing the issue raised by Satan. Jesus truly shows Himself to be perfectly qualified.
The three temptations pave the way for Jesus’ ultimate victory over Satan at the cross, where Jesus’ obedience, wholeheartedness, and trust will triumph. He is qualified as the Son of God – He was pleasing to the Father and He continued to be sinless throughout His stay on earth. He is indeed the true “Israel” as well.
FURTHER REFLECTIONS
In our last DG Bible study, we covered Luke 3:21-38 and Luke 4:1-14. There are implied applications from the latter which are very significant for us believers to take note of.
The first of this is to note why Israel failed in the forty years of wandering in the wilderness and contrast this with Jesus’ victory as he was allowed to be tested by the temptations of the evil one after forty days of fasting.
Although Israel had been miraculously delivered from bondage in Egypt in the Exodus, their gratitude and ‘positive’ heart’s response to God was temporary and shallow. It was not long after that they started complaining and grumbling: they complained about the lack of water, the lack of meat, and even the miraculous provision of ‘bread from heaven’ was not satisfying. When Moses delayed from coming down from the mountain, they ‘built’ a golden calf and indulged in idol worship and unruly immoral behaviour. They even rebelled against the leadership and talked about stoning Moses and Aaron; finally, at the point of entering the promised land, they refused, in fear of the ‘giants’ among their enemies they were to encounter. Many a time, they considered returning to Egypt, their land of bondage and they were just looking forward to the more ‘exotic’ food they could partake in Egypt. Israel failed the tests in the wilderness.
Many of the Israelites then died in the wilderness without entering the promised land.
In our current context, murmurings and grumblings against God still persist among God’s people: we complain against God for our ‘lack’ in life – we compare our lot with the people of the world who seem to ‘prosper’, and we wish to be like them (to return to Egypt and to bondage to sin and the devil). Lest we think that this does not affect the more ‘mature’ believers, Demas (a co-worker of apostle Paul) departed from Paul and the ministry because of love for the world. When certain groups advocate “prosperity gospel”, we are quickly attracted and even feel to be doing the right thing when we join them or follow their teaching.
The lack of godly contentment and the love of the world are the areas the devil can exploit. The poor quality of “heart religion” is another area the enemy would attack. When there is lack of inner spiritual reality and the hearts are always wandering and longing for the things of the world with her ‘glitters and gold’, the enemy knows that it does not take much to cause such believers to turn back from following God.
The devil offered Jesus the world. Jesus himself said that what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul. The prince of the world, Satan. has the capacity and resources to give the ‘world’ to Jesus – he told Jesus that it was not necessary to gain the world through sufferings – just bow down and worship him and the world is His. But many believers succumbed to the offer of Satan for just a little piece of what the world can offer (not even referring to the whole world as such) – that is the kind of commitment to God that such ones manifest – it does not take much to draw them away.
The devil sought worship from Jesus but Jesus affirmed that we shall only worship God alone. When Jesus was hungry after 40 days of fasting and was at a most vulnerable point, the enemy mocked him and said that if he were the Son of God, just turn the stone into bread – after all, satisfying your hunger is legitimate. Jesus, the perfect sinless human, affirmed that man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word from the mouth of God.
And when Jesus was tempted to test God and to display his divinity, he refused and declared that this should not be done, again quoting the Scripture to counter the devil. Take note that this temptation by the devil took place on top of the then temple – the devil can work even in the vicinity of the temple for the worship of God. Hence the Scripture tells us that there are tares and wheat in the church and when Jesus comes again, the tares would be separated from the wheat and burned. Similarly, the sheep would be separated from the goats – the Shepherd (God) would know His sheep and He also would identify the false brethren and the false believers.
In all these tests, Jesus did not use his divine powers for himself and his needs; later on, he would use the power for others and to affirm his Messiahship. This is very important because we are not saved just by the death of Christ, but we are also saved by his perfect righteous sinless life – we would look into this subsequently in future sharings. But Jesus triumphed over Satan in his capacity as the perfect man and passed the tests with ‘flying colours’, hence preserving his coming role as he later on moved towards Jerusalem and to the cross.
Another issue to take note of carefully is the fact that the devil can quote the Scripture, and even accurately (as in psalm 91 and in Deuteronomy). Satan can dress as an ‘angel of light’. The wolf can come in sheep’s clothing. However, Jesus countered his ‘attacks’ by quoting other parts of Scripture – this means that Jesus knew the Scripture well and he also knew the Scripture comprehensively and thoroughly such that the enemy cannot cause him to stumble by using the Scripture.
We must realise that Satan knows the Scripture, and probably more than many believers today. Notice how he began the temptation in Luke 4, “if you are the Son of God…” then came in the quotation of the Scripture, To Eve in the garden of Eden, he began, “Did God say….”?
The enemy can distort the Scripture or even quote it accurately as in Luke 4, and the one being attacked can be ‘damaged’ if he or she does not know the Scripture well. The text may be quoted accurately, but the context may be wrong and the interpretation and application of the text may be way out; and for those who are ignorant of Scripture (even those who have been Christians for many years and did not exert the effort to study and know God’s word), the enemy can tighten the ‘trap’, causing irreversible damage.
The correct interpretation (exegesis) of the text, in its right context, with accurate cross-reference to other parts of Scripture, and the subsequent proper applications of the teaching or preaching of the text would edify and build up God’s people and the church.
On the other hand, the wrong interpretation (subjective and distorted) of the text based on the wrong context, even with applications which seem positive (when seen in other parts of Scripture), does not truly edify the people – in fact, it would lead to outworking of the Christian life based on the wrong premise and understanding.
Remember, that it only takes a little distortion of the truth to make the final result as an ‘untruth” and this is serious in the eyes of God. It is no wonder that apostle James warned that not many should become teachers as they would encounter a greater judgement for communicating an untruth that hurts God’s people. Just because the Scripture is quoted in the sermon or teaching does not necessarily mean that the preaching and teaching are in line with God’s revelation.