Jesus is the Perfect Teenager
An Orderly Account: Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of Luke
Luke 2:41-52
Grab Their Attention
Meet the perfect teenager. This radiant creature glides into the kitchen at precisely at 6 AM fresh from the shower, already dressed, and smelling like a bar of soap. Rather than asking, “What’s there to eat,” he greets you with a cheery, “Good morning, Mom,” before whipping up an avocado toast… for you! Chores? Done before you can blink. Trash? Taken out last night. The dog? Walked and groomed as if they are being shown at Westminster. The perfect teenager loves homework and averages a 5.0 GPA because of all the extra credit work he invented for themselves. Socially, the perfect teenager is a saint. He resolves friend drama with the patience of a counsellor, and he asks you to approve all new friendships. When the WIFI goes out, he gathers the family for board games and bonding. And that one time he made a mistake… how sweet that he apologized with a hand-written note and a batch of fresh baked cookies.
If this perfect teenager walked into your home, you’d likely wonder what alien had body-snatched your child and reprogrammed them. We’re used to giving teenagers examples to follow. We aren’t used to a teenager being the example for us.
Raise the Needs, State the Destination, Signposts
As we open our Bibles to Luke 2:41, we begin our study of the only description we have of Jesus Christ on the verge of his teenage years. We should be aware that legends of Jesus’ childhood crop up, but they all come from documents that date to the centuries after the life of Jesus and those who knew him. Among Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the only four gospels recognized both by Jesus followers and his opponents in the early church, this passage is the only record of Jesus in childhood.
Luke shows us the perfect teenager. Jesus is 12 years old, going to temple with his parents for Passover. It’s his coming of age; his shift into adulthood. And as we look at the perfect teenager Luke doesn’t tell us about Jesus taking out the garbage, or what kind of grades he got in school. Did he get straight As on his report card? Well, we don’t know. We don’t know who his friends were or what kind of camel he rode. There’s so much we wish Luke had told us. What was the perfect teenager really like?
Luke tells us that Jesus Christ, in his early years, loved the law of God, loved his earthly parents, and loved his Father’s House. As we study these three, we’ll also see that we aren’t called simply to act like Jesus acted. He isn’t simply a model for us to imitate. No, even as a teenager, Jesus Christ is the fully divine Son of God who came into the world to save sinners, and it is only by trusting in the perfect teenager—and what he did for us that we can become true children of God who grow in maturity.
Young people in the room, I want you to hear two messages this morning: first, it matters nothing, how obedient you are to your parents, if you have not put your faith in Christ. Second, if you have believed on Christ, then follow his example. Look up to him; his love for God’s law, his parents, and his Father’s House.
The Text
41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Jesus Loved the Law of God
If there’s one thing most teenagers want, it’s freedom. Freedom to make choices for themselves, to pick what they wear, what they eat, where they go, when the come home, what hobbies they enjoy.
When I was in middle school, there was a young man in the church who was particularly rebellious, always bucking authority. His parents had to keep a tight leash on him, and one day he said, “I’m sick and tired of everyone telling me what to do. When I grow up, I’m joining the Army.”
Teenagers typically don’t love rules, but here is Jesus Christ, the God-man teenager, following his parent’s lead. They go to Jerusalem every single year to observe Passover. They love the law of God, and here is Jesus, after they have left. He isn’t running into the marketplace. He isn’t exploring the big city. He’s staying in the Temple and having conversations with the teachers of the law and asking them questions.
Even as a twelve-year-old he loves the law of God. He delights in obedience, and here is what I want you to see—it is because he loves the law that Jesus is the most free teenager who ever lived. We often have this idea that rules and freedom don’t go together. That I either obey my parents or I have freedom. I either obey God, or I’m free.
But freedom and obedience are not exclusive. In fact, it is only through obedience that we become free. Let me explain by an example.
Let’s say you have a sailboat. She’s all rigged out and polished up, and you say, “I want this to be the freest sailboat in the world. It has to be totally free. In fact, I want it to be so free that I’m going to sail it down Tryon Street in uptown Charlotte.” Someone says, “You can’t do that.” But you say, “Absolutely, it has to be free.” So you take your sailboat and you drop it on the asphalt and try sailing it and you rip the hull apart, you damage the gear and tackle and your sailboat is destroyed. Why? Because a sailboat is only free if it’s in the ocean. It’s only free as you honor its design.
Or say you’re a fish. That’s not too hard to imagine. You’re a beta fish in a glass bowl and you decide, “I want to be the freest fish to ever live. No more glass bowl for me.” You jump out and after a few gasps you become sushi. Now, how free are you?
You see, a sailboat isn’t free to drive down the street, and a fish isn’t free to leave the water. And in the same way, human beings do not find freedom by ignoring God’s law. God’s law is good, and God’s law is for our good. Our nature as creatures accords with God’s law as creator, and trying to find freedom through breaking God’s law is like a fish trying to find freedom on dry land.
Jesus Christ loved the law of God. He read the law. He asked questions of the teachers of the law. Of course, his teachers were amazed because this was no ordinary student. He was no mere learner of the law, he was also its author. Amazing.
Young people, learn to love the law of God. Begin by reading the Scriptures. When you find something puzzling, come and talk to your Sunday School teachers, or talk to me. Or ask one of the adults in our church.
Don’t believe the lie of this world that freedom is found within your own desires. True freedom is only found by honoring who God has made you to be: first as his creature, second as the gender reflected by your biology, and ultimately, as a recipient of his grace in Christ.
Jesus Loved His Earthly Parents
The entire passage revolves around a parenting blunder: they left the Son of God alone as a 12-year-old in a strange city. They travel entire day before realizing he isn’t with them, then have to travel another day back to Jerusalem and begin looking. Then, after three days, Mary does not find her son gambling in a seedy part of town. She finds her twelve-year-old praying at church, and, irony of ironies, she says, “Why have you treated us like this?”
Quick side note, one of the reasons I trust the New Testament is because of stories like this. If you were perpetrating a lie in order to gain influence over people, you’d never write a story like this. This story shows that even Jesus parents didn’t fully understand who he was. The gospels never pain the family and followers of Jesus as heroes. They are always deeply flawed characters who misunderstand Jesus at every turn.
At the end of the passage, v. 51, Luke tells us:
“And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.”
The word submissive means he subordinated himself to his parents. It’s the same word the Apostle Paul would later use to describe Jesus when he said that God the Father has put all things in subjection under [Jesus] feet. (1 Cor. 15:27)
According to his divine nature, the Son of God was infinitely transcendent and set apart and set above Mary and Joseph. Friends, according to his divine nature, the Son of God is the creator of Mary. But according to his human nature, he’s subject to his parents.
How do you show someone you love them? Our culture defines love primarily in terms of emotive feelings, or perhaps in gifts. But Biblically speaking, love isn’t primarily expressed in words or gifts. Love is expressed by treating someone lawfully from the heart. Love is giving someone what they are owed with a glad heart. In other words, Jesus demonstrated great love for his parents by submitting to them. As his earthly parents, they were owed his obedience. They were the human authorities God had set over Jesus.
Young people, I want you to have warm feelings toward your parents. I want you to give them gifts as you are able. But if you would truly show your parents love: obey them.
Listen to the words of the Westminster Larger Catechism on honoring your father and mother:
The honor which inferiors owe to their superiors is, all due reverence in heart, word, and behavior; prayer and thanksgiving for them; imitation of their virtues and graces; willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels; due submission to their corrections; fidelity to, defence and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks, and the nature of their places; bearing with their infirmities, and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor to them and to their government.
Young people, hold your parents in high regard. I promise you, they love you more than you realize. They are working harder than you realize to provide for you, and even give you what you want. They are far more tired than you know.
Pray for your parents. This goes for you adults in the room as well. Just because your parents are wiser than you does not mean they are impervious to sin. Even great Christians who have walked with Christ for decades, who have modeled faithfulness to you can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So ,pray for them.
Show them fidelity. Do not forget them. This is one of the reasons the church is called to remember widows, those whose family is no longer living or close by. Friends, we honor the 5th commandment as we care for widows within our own congregation. I wonder, young folks in the room, if you’ve ever introduced yourself to one of the older members of our congregation. Maybe you didn’t have a great childhood with your parents, and it may be that God has brought you here so that you might begin a relationship with an older saint who can be a father or mother to you.
Well, there is so much we could say about love of parents. Jesus teaches us so much. And if the sinless Son of God could submit himself to imperfect parents, then we who are sinful sons and daughters ought to do the same to our parents.
Jesus Loved His Father’s House
In v. 49, after Mary asks why Jesus has treated them like this, Jesus responds:
“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” These are the first ever recorded words of Jesus. Two questions. First, why were you looking for me?
If you’ve been keeping track of all the time indicators in this passage, by the time Mary & Joseph find Jesus, he has been at the Temple for three days. They search Jerusalem for an entire day, and they never thought to look in the Temple. Jesus question here isn’t disrespectful, but it is a challenge to Mary. When he asks why they were looking for him, its as if he’s saying, “Why did it take you so long to think to check the Temple? Do you really not know who I am?”
In other words, Jesus Christ is the Son of God who is with God and was God from the beginning. Where else would he be except the Temple, which was God’s meeting place with man?
Question two: Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Some translations say, “about my Father’s business.” Throughout the gospels, Jesus has a special relationship with the Temple.
In John 2:17, when Jesus cleansed the Temple and overturned the tables, we’re told that zeal for his Father’s house consumed him. Jesus cared that worship in the Temple was conducted in a way that glorified God and humbled men.
But then, when the Jews in the Temple asked why he was doing these things, what gave him the authority to say these things, Jesus responded: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19) It confuses everyone. They can’t understand how Jesus will rebuild in three days what took Herod forty-six years to build.
John tells us that Jesus was, of course, not talking about the brick-and-mortar Temple in Jerusalem. He was speaking of his own body, that when he was crucified and buried, in three days he would do something far greater, far more impressive than build a building a stones.
Friends, this little boy, only twelve-years-old who stayed in the Temple three days explaining the Scriptures to older Rabbis, he is the Temple of God—he himself is the true dwelling place of God & men. This passage ends by telling us that Jesus increased in wisdom. According to his human nature, he matured. And he grew in favor with God. As a man, he lived a holy life, a perfect life.
And nearly 15 years later, the Temple, Jesus would return to the Temple in Jerusalem. Having lived a full life of obedience, having grown into a man who perfectly pleased God and satisfied God’s law, having loved both his earthly parents and his heavenly Father, he substituted himself for sinners. He received the blow of just judgment against sin that we deserved in order that we could receive the favor of God that he deserved.
And all of this was God’s plan. This is how God would accomplish our redemption. And to give us a sure sign and guarantee that God was pleased with the work of Jesus, three days after he was killed, Jesus would raise himself from the dead.
He would, as John Updike put it, reverse the dissolution of the cells in his dead body. He would, by his own power, reknit the molecules in his organs, and rekindle the amino acids in his muscles. The same hinged thumbs that grasped a hammer in Nazareth would now grip an iron scepter to rule the nations. The same valved heart that moved him through Galilee would now beat eternally in heaven.
How can you know that God’s law has been satisfied for you? Because Jesus Christ, who loved and obeyed the law took the curses of your disobedience upon himself, and he was raised from the dead.
Made like him, like him we rise!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies