How Could Jesus Grow in Favor with God?
What a father's astonishment at his son's gifts taught me about Luke 2:52—and why favor with God isn't the same as being loved more.
I have been continuing to mull over Luke 2:52: “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
Obviously Jesus grew in stature. Babies grow up and gain basic life skills (potty-training!).
Similarly with wisdom: he needed to learn to walk, to speak, to work, to discern.
And to grow in favor with man—yes. People celebrate those who demonstrate peace and wisdom.
But favor with God? What does that even mean?
The best I have come up with thus far is how a parent can be astonished by their child’s gifts.
Like my son Abraham—I don’t think the word exists for how he draws. If I were to draw a (very poorly done) person, I would start with the head and the body, then out to the arms. Abraham can start with hand, and go from there. He sees the whole before it exists, and draws, without sketching first. He knows where he wants the lines to go, and lays them down in the order that he chooses.
Every time I see this, I am impressed all over again.
Abraham's worth as a human didn’t increase. It’s not like I love him more because of his artistic gifting. But my awe of his gifts increases.
I could say similar things about Jadon’s heart to serve, Isaiah’s evangelistic bent, Joe’s facility with patterns, and Caleb’s tremendous focus.
So I wonder if part of this idea of growing in favor with God is that the Father was so full of pride at how Jesus was navigating his time on the earth: “That's my boy! He's amazing!”
Of course God would already have known Jesus was amazing in all the ways that they had interacted together throughout eternity.
But here he was in a totally different culture, with a different set of expectations, and different restrictions—and he still was outstanding in all he did.
And all of that makes me very happy.
But I was surprised to find this parallel to an Old Testament character: “And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with people” (1 Samuel 2:26). The verse doesn't say he grew in wisdom, but other than that—same wording.
Luke was giving a hat tip to Samuel, who would have been one of the preeminent prophet-leader-judges of the Old Testament: Jesus is even better than Samuel.
He's the second Adam who didn’t mess up.
He's the prophet greater than Moses.
He's the king greater than David.
Lord Jesus, thank you that you came to earth to show us how to live.
This day, may we reflect you, in all your glory, to the world around us. Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and King Jesus the Lord,
Amy Joy
You are invited! Sign up for the Prayer Refresh, an email series with short prayers to pray as you go about your day. The first five readers all wrote me at different times and said, “This is changing my life.”