Blow by Blow

As a child I learned the following scripture verse from Luke 2:52:

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

It seemed the perfect verse for a child to learn that helped me see that Jesus, like me, grew up, too.

Somehow my idea of Jesus growing up always left me with a vision of Jesus primarily floating through the life stages, sans pimples and temptations of lust, and the whole ordeal for him being a passive experience. I guess my mental images were formed by the emphasis of Christ's incarnation being so heavily focused on his SINLESS humanity.

Don't get me wrong, I believe Jesus lived a sinless life. My difficulty rested in the lack of discussion of His HUMANITY. Christ becoming flesh seemed to be played off as a "Cocoon-like experience" where he was robed in skin but if you tugged on his eyelid beams of light would shoot out.

Humanity and growing was a formality not a hard-pressed reality. Appearing to be human and being human are two different things and it wasn't until I got a closer look at Luke 2:52 that I appreciated Christ's enfleshment.

The word "grew" in verse 52 is not by any stretch a passive endeavor. The Greek word means "to beat forward - to lengthen out by hammering (as a smith forges metals)".

Do you see it?

Blow by blow Jesus forged a life of love and obedience to the Father inside a broken, twisted frame of human existence. With every urge and temptation to say "NO!" He said "Yes!" to His Father and walked in step with the Spirit's leading. All the warped experiences of human angst, at every developmental stage, he took and blow by blow beat forward a faithful response to the Father.

What does that mean?

Jesus has felt what you feel at every level and most likely to a deeper level AND was able to find the Father in it and through it. His SINLESS HUMANITY wasn't a cake walk but a hammering out faithful Sonship within the fallen, buckled heap of flesh. He was (and is) faithful completely and like a blacksmith who plunges his steel into the water, He plunged His (your) hammered out, faithful life into the hissing bucket of death and solidified permanently His stroke of gracious genius - your salvation!

The book of Hebrews says that we have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with us and deal gently with us because he has been through what we are going through. In your struggles, know that Jesus is not far off but has entered into your struggle and has forged a way through in Himself. Trust in this one with all your heart, and don't lean on what you understand, keep focused on His life for you and you will experience his sustaining hand along all paths.