Postmodern Jesus: Learning and Asking Questions?

No, I am not really talking about a postmodern Jesus who models "epistemic humility" for us. So don't be too quick to call me a heretic. LOL! The title of this post refers to the time when Jesus was twelve years old and in the temple "conversing" with the teachers of the law. Again, I do not mean "conversation" in the emergent sense either.

Luke 2:39-52 is an astonishing account that teases me and leaves me wanting more about the life of Jesus as a Jewish boy. What exactly does a perfect child look like? Well, for whatever reason the Lord did not see fit to chronicle those years for us, but at first glance it can be pretty perplexing to read that Jesus, like every other human being, had to undergo this process of learning in order to increase in wisdom. Didn't he know everything already since he's the eternal Son of God? This touches on hypostatic union. There is obviously a unique and supernatural element to Jesus' learning and increasing in wisdom, but it certainly did not exclude the human experience of engaging others in the exchange of information and the receiving of instruction. God appointed the end as well as the means. So here is what I am getting at.

It has to do with how I have heard preachers, teachers and evangelists etc. say that they, like Jesus, must be about their "Father's business" (Luke 2:49). Of course the reference is to the account of Luke 2. The New King James Version of the Bible has Jesus responding to his mother Mary's distress of looking for him by saying, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" I have almost always heard this phrase to mean that we must be about preaching the gospel. I do not disagree that being about the Father's business certainly includes preaching, but I saw the account afresh when my guard was down the other night. I was reading for the sole purpose of keeping the content of Luke's gospel fresh in my mind. I remember watching the movie Jesus of Nazareth and seeing Jesus as a boy teaching the scriptures while standing, but Luke 2 paints a different picture. Luke tells us Jesus was "sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions" (Luke 2:46). This is amazing to me considering how we often cast the teachers of the law in a negative light. Of course we have reason to do so considering that they were Jesus' chief opponents when he began his public ministry. But it is too easy to dismiss all teachers of the law as legalistic self-righteous blind guides when the truth of the matter is that they were not all wrong in everything. Paul tells us the Jews were advantaged because they were "entrusted with the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2). God did not do this in vain. They did for the most part understand many of the scriptures, but it is in identifying and recognizing Jesus as the Messiah in which they failed. There is no bigger failure than that one, but my point is that they were not completely clueless. So then Jesus as a boy sat among them and asked questions. There is no reason to think that this was an isolated experience, but given that he was a Jewish boy and the law was central to Jewish life Jesus would have been in the synagogue intensely engaged in listening and asking questions. The thought to me is astounding. I would not know the exact nature of his listening and asking questions, but I do know that he did. It just all seems so backward and once you know who Jesus really is then one realizes that one is not alone in this sentiment. John the Baptist, knowing that Jesus was the Christ also thought it backwards when Jesus came to him for baptism. John objected saying "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" (Matthew 3:14)

Furthermore Luke tells that Jesus was "submissive" (Luke 2:51) to his parents. All this was the means by which he "increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). Learning from God appointed elders in the church and submitting to the proper authorities is partly the means by which God makes us holy (sanctification). Amazingly Jesus was no exception.