Copyright © 2003 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj
Adolescence is often a turning point for great people. When he was 12, Alexander the Great observed his father’s men trying to tame a wild horse. He saw what they did not, that it was afraid of shadows. So he turned the horse’s face toward the sun, quickly mounted it and managed to ride. His father recognized his genius and by age 13 he was being tutored by Aristotle. At 16 he had become a general on his way to conquering the world.
Stories of great moments in adolescence are recorded about Moses, Buddha and several other famous figures of history. Pascal mastered the works of the Greek mathematician Euclid when he was 12. At that same age, having already learned Latin and Greek and a great deal of history, John Stuart Mill began studying philosophy.
In itself, it is not very remarkable that Jesus’ first appearance to us after His birth, and His first recorded words, are at the age of 12. It’s the year of preparation for a young Jewish boy to enter fully into religious life at age 13, what is called Bar Mitzvah now. In another year the boy Jesus would be expected to obey the Law, to be a “son of the Law,” which is what Bar Mitzvah means. So He would have been studying the Scriptures and learning the proper responses like any other male child in His community.
Luke’s account of Jesus in the temple seems to place Him in that group of famous people who blossomed into brilliance just on the brink of their teens. The glimpse we get of His conversation with the teachers in Jerusalem indicates that Jesus was far beyond what might have been expected of another twelve year-old of His time. As verse 47 tells us, He had a level of understanding which amazed all those who heard Him speak.
Looking at this passage we often focus on the worry and fear of Mary and Joseph. We wonder how they could have traveled so far before they missed their son. We picture them frantically asking for him throughout the caravan of friends and relatives, then hurrying back to scour the city in a desperate search for the missing Jesus.
I invite you today, however, to picture that scene which they witnessed when they finally found Him. He was sitting surrounded by a group of marveling rabbis. They were on the terrace of the Temple where public instruction was given on feast days. The teachers sat on low benches while those who wished to learn sat at their feet on the ground. Pupils did just as Jesus did: they listened, asked questions, and then answered questions. On the face of it, nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
What was not ordinary was the boy who sat there that day. As He asked and answered questions it began to dawn upon the rabbis that this was an extraordinary young man. Both what He asked and what He answered astounded them. His brilliance was so amazing that the group must have reconvened every morning for the three days it took His parents to find Him. What they heard from the mouth of a twelve-year-old boy captivated their minds.
In short, Jesus was what’s known as a prodigy. At an early age, He exhibited an intelligence far beyond his years. Not only was He a genius, as I suggested last week, He was a child genius. Like some other brilliant minds, His understanding and intellect displayed itself when He was still very young. Yet it is part of the neglect of the genius of Jesus that we almost never think of Him that way. We marvel at Mozart writing a minuet when he was 5, or Jean Piaget publishing a scientific paper at age 10, or 13 year-old Picasso exhibiting paintings. They are prodigies. But that’s not how we generally imagine Jesus.
In part, I believe it’s by His own design. Jesus had no desire to be known as a prodigy. One of the most amazing aspects of this passage is that the genius of Jesus is so closely coupled with an equally powerful humility. For over a decade, He had never before made His genius public. Sometimes people wonder how this passage can be consistent with the story of Jesus’ miracle birth. Both Mary and Joseph had ample evidence that this child was remarkable. The virgin birth, the appearances of angels, the visits of the shepherds and the wise men all would have given them cause not to be surprised when they found Him in earnest discussion with the most learned men of their country.
The only answer must be that for all those years, Jesus gave them no cause to regard Him as anything too special. Yes, they remembered the wonders of His birth, but it was a fading memory. They must have begun to wonder if it was even real. Jesus had given them no early indication He was growing up to be anything out of the ordinary.
It’s almost by accident that He became a three-day wonder in Jerusalem. Verse 48 says that His parents were also astonished when they found Him there wowing the teachers with His wisdom. Up until then He hadn’t really given them any sign of His exceptional mind. That circle of teachers was not the first place they looked. They had no reason to expect it, because Jesus had never displayed His genius so clearly before. He was perfectly willing for it to be hidden.
The rest of the passage shows us that His humility was such that Jesus was also willing for His genius to continue to be hidden. Presumably he could have done what a number of prodigies have and embarked on a brilliant career from that moment. He could have stayed to study in the temple like Samuel in our Old Testament text. Like Alexander studying with Aristotle or like Ruth Lawrence of our own time who in 1985 entered Oxford University at 12 years of age, Jesus could have enrolled with the best teachers, then gone off to the finest schools of Greece and Rome. In short time, He might have taken the world by storm, becoming its finest statesman and most powerful ruler.
Instead, we’re told in verse 51 that “he went down to Nazareth,” back to a little rural village on the outskirts of civilization. And He “was obedient to them.” Though this incident was clearly a break with His parents. Though He gently reminded His mother of what she should have known when she said “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you,” His real Father was the almighty God worshipped there in that Temple. Though He clearly could have gotten along fine without them. This prodigy submitted to the authority of the man and woman who cared for Him and He spent the next two decades of life in quiet obscurity.
For about eighteen years it appears that this Man, who from childhood could argue the Torah with the best minds of His time, was content to apprentice to His foster father and work with His hands as a carpenter. Knowing all the time that He was the Son of God, he waited, doing only what we’re told in verse 52, growing “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and others.”
Jesus’ humility as a prodigy is an example for us when we find ourselves possessed of some bit of insight or talent. It was also the means by which God kept His Son a sympathetic participant in real humanity. There are prodigies who become well-integrated human beings, living productive and good lives which serve the world. Very often, however, the story turns out different. A good number of prodigies burn out.
John Stuart Mill narrowly escaped a complete end to his career when he had a nervous breakdown at the age of 20. In part it was because he had developed absolutely no capacity to relate to others. Fortunately he recovered. One of America’s most famous prodigies was not so lucky. William James Sidis at 11 became the youngest person ever to attend Harvard. That year he delivered a stunning 2 hour lecture on the fourth dimension in mathematics. Everyone expected him to become a world-class mathematician. But he broke down in his teens and spent the next twenty years in semi-seclusion performing menial work. He died in 1944 at age 46, “poor, unhappy, unemployed and unfulfilled.”[1]
More recently, Sufia Yusof began Oxford at age 13 and was being compared to Ruth Lawrence. Her parents pushed her to great achievement. But she simply disappeared after her third year exams. Eventually she e-mailed her parents to say they had made her life a “living hell.”[2] Only later did she return to finish her degree. And I went to school with a boy named Guy who appeared to be a prodigy. He did complex math puzzles in his head and had no problem remembering everything he read. But the last I knew of him he had dropped out of high school and was trying to make a fortune developing 3-D movie technology with an older partner. As far as I know, it all came to nothing.
Jesus’ submission to Mary and Joseph saved Him from that kind of burnout. Jesus’ intellect did not lead Him to unhappiness and breakdown. Instead, His mind leads us to the greatest possible joy and peace. And it is a credit to those two ordinary people that the Son of God was willing to live in obedience to them for so many years. They chose the best course for the amazing child who was entrusted to them.
Recognizing Jesus as a prodigy offers us a lesson in how we care for the special talents and abilities entrusted to us and to our own children. The term in vogue for prodigies today is “gifted.” These are “gifted children” who at young ages present amazing abilities. And that word “gifted” is wonderful reminder of what Jesus Himself clearly knew: every talent, ability and swiftness of mind is a gift from the One giver of all good gifts.
Some of the most endearing prodigies today are those who recognize their giftedness for what it truly is, a present bestowed upon them by God. Two years ago Chandra Sekar became the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer by passing the exam at the age of 10. But his take on his accomplishment is this: “It has been God’s will that I must achieve something special.”[3]
Christ our Lord was humble in His humanity because in His great understanding He understood that all He was and possessed was a gift from His Father in heaven. We will look at the genius of His teaching next week, but Jesus plainly said twice in John’s Gospel that His teaching was nothing of His own, but came from the Father. Whatever human genius the Lord possessed, He saw it not as his own achievement but as the free and gracious gift of His Father.
Jesus also acknowledged that what He had was the Father’s gift by being ready, when the time came, at too young an age, to lay it all down. Instead of becoming a great scholar or of being made a powerful king, instead of fine accomplishment in the eyes of the world, He gave up His life and His gifts in an offering on the Cross. All that He was gifted with came from the Father and when the Father asked Him for it, He gave it up.
We come to the Lord’s Table this morning to be reminded of that great sacrifice of Jesus and to give thanks for the greatest gift of all. But as we do let us also remember what Christ Jesus felt about His own brilliance, that it too was a gift. And all that we are and have in terms of intelligence, wit, understanding, skill and practical wisdom is ultimately a gift to us from above. For those who are parents, the same thing can be said about those qualities in our children. God has gifted us and our children in many different ways, but the fundamental truth is that it is all grace, all gratuitous, all gift.
Parents who try to force their bright children to be prodigies produce misery. And in general we cause ourselves misery whenever we demand the gifts of God or try to put them to our own uses. He invites us to receive His gifts with gratitude and to relinquish them with patient acceptance. Let you and I to be more like our Lord and His earthly parents, accepting whatever the Lord gives or asks of us with patience and humility. In the end then, when all is done and we are face to face ourselves with the brilliance of Jesus our Savior, we will be amazed at what He has given.
Amen.
Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2003 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj