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Growing Like Jesus
Luke 2:41-52
Milford Baptist, 10 am, 24 May 2003
The goal of life
One of my most painful and humiliating memories as a kid occurred when I
was seventeen years old in my final year at Auckland Grammar. I was a
prefect, which gave me considerable status and respect in the eyes of my
peers - or so I thought. One day after school a couple of thugs - friends
of mine actually - decided to play a joke and hang me by my belt upside
down on a bag rack in the corridor. I still remember hanging there upside
down, with little third formers - kids who I had put on detention -
standing there taunting me. There are other, more painful, stories that I
won't tell you. I can trace them mostly to the fact that as a kid, growing
up, I was always small.
At home we had a time-honoured ritual involving a ruler, a pencil, and a
tape measure. Mum would get us three boys to each stand with our backs up
straight against the wall and she would mark off our height. I was the
youngest, and one of my brothers is six foot four, so even when I stood on
tippy toes and cheated a little, it was always a disappointing exercise.
It always seemed that I had so far to grow. And sometimes it looked like I
hadn't grown at all - or even shrunk - since the last measurement.
This desire to grow lies deep at the core of every human heart. Who
doesn't want to grow? Students are at university because they want their
minds to grow. Body-builders are at the gym because they want their bodies
to grow. The goal of life is growth.
The goal of the Christian life is growth - not just getting a ticket to
heaven or filing away lots of knowledge. It's growth - growing up to
becoming more and more like Jesus. Paul says that God's goal for us is
that we, the body of Christ, might be built up "until we come to such
unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and
full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ" (Eph
4:12-13).
But, you know, when I stand up against the wall and measure myself against
the mark that Jesus has set for each one of us, I often feel like l did as
a twelve year old - disappointed. Because the truth is, as an adult, I am
still capable of dismaying levels of jealousy. I am still appallingly
dependant on the affirmation and opinion of others. I still don't love God
or love others like I should. Sometimes it seems like I haven't grown much
at all. Ever feel like that? You want to grow: you want to think and feel
and act and look like Jesus, but how does it happen? How can we grow to
become more like Jesus?
Well how did Jesus grow? He wasn't born perfectly mature. He was born a
human. And like any human he had to grow. Luke says at the very end of the
passage we read that, "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour
with God and with people" (v 52). And this story, the only glimpse we have
of Jesus as a child, shows how Jesus grew.
Discipline: growing upwards (vv 41-47)
In the story Jesus was twelve years old - the age when a Jewish boy
typically entered a programme of formal religious training in order to
take his place as an adult under the Jewish law. Luke says that Jesus went
with his parents to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When it was all
over, Mary and Joseph loaded the donkey and left for home, thinking that
Jesus was with them. But he'd stayed behind in Jerusalem, without his
parents' knowledge. When they discovered that they'd lost their little
twelve-year-old boy, they frantically retraced their steps all the way
back to Jerusalem where they eventually found him, three days later. Where
did they find him? Kicking a soccer ball in the back streets of Jerusalem?
Playing computer games in a video parlour? He was in the temple - a place
where God was said to be especially present - "sitting among the
[religious] teachers, listening to them and asking them questions" (v 46).
Jesus had entered his training. He had taken the initiative. He was where
he needed to be, doing what he needed to be doing, in order to learn all
he could.
You may have seen the television documentary on Vain Men the other week.
My wife, Lorraine, saw the ad - an image of a heavily muscled hunk jogging
slow-motion down the beach. She glanced at me shrivelled up in the lazy
boy, looked back at the TV, and then said: "You know, I just don't think
I'm attracted to well-built men." I'm sure there was a compliment in there
somewhere; I couldn't quite uncover it. The truth is most of us don't look
like body-builders, because we have never decided to order our life around
that goal. If you want to look like that, if you want to grow physically,
you'd need to commit yourself to a serious training programme of weight
lifting, cardio-work, dieting. You've got to train. And if you want to
grow spiritually, you've got to train - ordering your life around certain
practices. That's why Paul says, "train yourself in godliness" (1 Timothy
4:7). And that's what we see Jesus doing here, as a child. This is
important for young people to hear: if you want to know God better and
become the person that he wants you to be, take responsibility for your
spiritual growth. Set a short time each day to read your Bible and to
pray. And stick to it. There's a message for "grown ups" here too. When he
was grown up, Jesus didn't stop this sort of training. Luke says that as
an adult Jesus regularly went into the synagogue or church - "as was his
custom" and read the word of God (Luke 4:16). And Luke says that Jesus
"often" withdrew from people to pray (Luke 5:16). Are you still growing?
Still training? If you want to catch the wind, you've got to keep hoisting
the sail. Spiritual growth requires discipline.
Obedience: growing inwards (vv 47-49)
But discipline alone is not enough. When Mary and Joseph find Jesus, his
mum says, "Young man, why did you do this to us? Your father and I have
been half out of our minds with worry looking for you!" What does Jesus
say in response? "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to
be in my Father's house?" (v 49). That little expression "had to be" is
one of Luke's favourite phrases. He uses it frequently in this book: we
hear Jesus saying, "The Son of Man has to suffer many things." He "has to
be killed and on the third day raised to life" (Luke 9:22). "What is
written about me has to be fulfilled" (Luke 22:37). Jesus knew, even as a
twelve year old, that God - his Father - had a purpose and agenda for his
life. There were certain things that he had to do, if he was to be
obedient to his Father's will. And as he obediently did those things, like
going to the temple, he grew in wisdom and in favour with God.
There's been a lot made in the media over the last couple of weeks about
Laurie Mains and his resignation as coach of the Otago Super Twelve
franchise. Apparently most of the players - Anton Oliver, Taine Randall Co
- revolted against him because of his authoritarian coaching style. The
result of it all was that the team crashed out of the competition. They
never reached their potential. However imperfect the coach, you can't
rebel against his instructions and expect to keep growing as a team and
win the big games. How much more should we, as members of God's team, if
we want to keep growing, if we want to receive further instructions, obey
the instructions that our perfect Coach has already given us. Whether it's
owning up to something in your life that you know is wrong, or tithing -
giving a portion of your income back to God, obeying Jesus' command to be
baptised, if we want to keep growing up to become more like Jesus, we have
to do what we already know now to be God's will.
Endurance: growing outwards (vv 50-51)
Discipline. Obedience. But spiritual growth requires something else, too.
Endurance. At the end of this scene at the temple, Luke says "Then [Jesus]
went down to Nazareth with [his mum and dad] and was obedient to them" (v
51). Think about it. Jesus, the Son of God, Creator and Judge of the
universe, humbly submits to two of his creatures - Mary and Joseph. They
have just rebuked him unfairly. Who knows, Joseph may have even given him
a good spanking. And being fallen human beings, not able to understand
everything, Mary and Joseph would surely continue to treat Jesus unjustly
time and time again. But Jesus chooses to bear with them, to endure it.
And, in the process, he learned to be gracious, which impressed everyone
who knew him: he grew in favour with God and with people.
As humans, we naturally try to avoid pain and difficulty don't we? But
think about it, for an eagle the only obstacle to overcome for flying with
greater speed and ease is the air, but take away the air and the proud
bird would plummet to the ground. The very element that offers resistance
to flying is at the same time the condition for flight. The main obstacle
that Noel's speed boat has to overcome is the water against the propeller.
But without that resistance the boat wouldn't move at all. Painful
difficulties, painful relationships, difficult people are the conditions
for spiritual growth. Someone once said to me that the great mistake we
Christians make in the West is that we "look for God in the momentous and
overlook him in the moment." Prayer and Bible study and worship are not
the only tools for spiritual growth. Every moment - every relationship,
every difficult person - is an opportunity to learn from God how to live
and love like Jesus. If we'll just let him.
Sure, our growth is often stunted and uneven and disappointing. Sometimes
it feels like we've got so far to go. But the wonderful thing about this
story - about Jesus becoming a human being and growing into adulthood - is
that he has experienced all of the growing pains and difficulties that we
face. And so, when we struggle, he understands us, he feels for us, and he
is able to help us . if we really want to become more and more like him
through discipline, obedience and faithful endurance, (Heb 2:14-18; 4:15).
Just a fairy tale?
The much anticipated film Matrix Reloaded has just been released. It's a
modern fairy tale. Every generation has its fairy tales. The common
feature of every fairy tale is that there is another world, an enchanted
world. You step into a wardrobe and you're in Narnia. You walk through a
forest and stumble on a cottage with seven dwarfs. This other world turns
out to be a lot closer than we thought. But fairy tales are not just
stories about the transformation of the world around us. They are usually
stories about the transformation of the central characters: frogs become
princes; ugly ducklings become swans, wooden marionettes become real boys.
The gospel is just the same, except for one great difference: the gospel
is true. It really is possible to enter the kingdom of God. It really is
possible to grow more and more like Jesus every day of our life. It was
possible for the apostle Peter. It was possible for mother Teresa. It's
been possible for Eric Hartnell. And it's possible for you and me. It is.
If we'll choose it.
I can't think of anything better. To think and feel and act and love like
Jesus. To become the person God designed me to be. That's the great goal
of life. That was Soren Kierkegaard's great prayer: "And now Lord, with
your help I shall become myself." Let's make that our goal and prayer
today, and every day, for the rest of our lives.
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