Day 10 – Are you smarter than a fifth grade Jesus?

Read: Luke 2:39-52

Have you ever speculated what Jesus’ growing up years were like? We know that he was sinless for his whole life but it’s hard to envision Jesus as the perfect wonder. The Bible gives us a limited picture of Jesus growing up years, only 14 verses. Throughout history many people have speculated on what Jesus was like as a child. In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas we find Jesus doing a number of bizarre and selfish miracles. At five years old Jesus is making clay models of sparrows and then turning them into real birds. He has a number of brave teachers who try to teach him the alphabet only to be driven mad by brilliant little Jesus. In one story a boy falls out the window and Jesus brings him back to life just to prove that he didn’t push him out the window in the first place. These stories are contrary to the character of Jesus in the New Testament and written several hundred years after the fact, so it is incredibly unlikely that they are true but it does show the curiosity that people have surrounding Jesus’ growing up years.

History can tell us some valuable things about a typical Jewish upbringing in the first century. At age 5 Jesus would have begun the study of the written Torah with the kids in the neighborhood. At age 10 the study of the oral law began and age 13 would have been his bar mitzvah, the becoming-a-man ceremony. Since Jesus is referred to as a carpenter, it is likely that he was apprenticed to his father shortly before his bar mitzvah. This means that he didn’t get to go to rabbi school which was only reserved for the brightest kids in Israel. It also was not likely offered in the backwater town of Nazareth or even the whole region of Galilee. This is why the teachers in the temple at Jerusalem were so shocked that Jesus had good questions. Here is this boy who is destined to be a lowly carpenter after going through the lousy schools in Galilee asking insightful questions to the best religions professionals!

Jesus lived a full human experience and he didn’t just have all of the knowledge of the universe pre-downloaded into his brain. Our passage for today ended with, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature,” this meant he had to learn. Learning is hard work! But where did Jesus learn his vast knowledge of scripture - God and himself. There is a messianic prophecy in Isaiah 50: 4-5 that sheds some light on this issue. Here we see that the servant of the Lord (Jesus) is awakened and taught each morning by God himself. Imagine personal tutoring from God himself every day! Maybe it’s time we looked to do the same.

Questions for Reflection

• Do you value learning and learning about God? How is this practically reflected in your life?

• Do you think living in obscurity and having subpar schools is an insurmountable obstacle to being used by God?

• Do you spend time with God every day?

• The one story we have from Jesus growing up is his family essentially going on a road trip to Jerusalem. Do you think trips and holidays are really formative and memorable in the growing up years?