Luke 2:51 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Chapter two of the gospel of Luke takes us from before the birth of Christ, thru the Christmas story told every year, into childhood and ends in young manhood. That is a long period of time spoken of in just one chapter. It has its lessons along the way. There is much to be learned here. There is also opportunity to overlook a minor point. Or is it so minor? I will allow you to judge that for yourselves. It has to do this last verse as it stands in comparison with an earlier verse which said almost the same thing, almost.

V40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

The thing missing in the ending verse is an increase in grace. We see growth in wisdom, stature and favor, we see no growth in grace. Why is that?

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Because He was the only begotten of the Father, our Father God, He was born grace and truth. He is grace and truth, neither of which are growth issues. Grace and truth are binary conditions, they either exist or they do not. We cannot make them more that what they are in existence.

Growth in wisdom, stature and favor is a result of grace and truth being released. Grace and truth exist in a binary state but released by us only by free will. Being gracious and being truthful is a choice we must make.

I do not call that a minor point.

Luke 2:48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

We are still looking at lessons to be learned from our 2^nd Luke scriptures which began this series. Here Mary and Joseph have returned to Jerusalem after missing Jesus in their caravan. Their first internalized reaction was amazement. Their outward expression was a “me first” reaction. They wanted to know why Jesus had not done what they expected of Him. “Why did you do this to us?” “Don’t you know we were worried about you?”

I have to admit that I have heard those exact words from my mother’s mouth. I can relate. In my case I was guilty of a sin. That doesn’t mean Jesus was guilty of a sin. His answer to His mother spoke directly to His becoming a man after the Jewish tradition.

V49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

I have the feeling that there had been little discussion about following in dad’s footsteps. It is reported later in scriptures that Jesus was a carpenter, following in Joseph’s footsteps. Jesus might have had a eye on the future but His path to that point of entering into His ministry was not to be found in the temple in Jerusalem. Not yet anyway.

I have left out the greater lesson here. Mary is asking Jesus to consider her feelings and make an accounting of His actions. It didn’t matter that she was astonished by His achievements in the moment, she wanted a “me first” answer.

How would the answer have been received by Mary if His answer had been, “You left without me. What was I supposed to do?”

Here is our lesson, have we gone on with our life without Jesus?