Commentary - Luke 2:39-40

Bird's-eye view

In these two brief verses, Luke fast-forwards through a significant period of the Lord's childhood, providing a compressed summary of His early years. Having meticulously detailed the events surrounding Jesus's birth and presentation at the Temple, Luke now transitions from the public and prophetic declarations in Jerusalem back to the quiet, ordinary life in Nazareth. This passage underscores two critical theological truths. First, it highlights the profound covenant faithfulness of Joseph and Mary. They fulfilled every requirement of the Mosaic Law concerning a firstborn son, demonstrating their pious submission to God's revealed will. Second, it affirms the true and normal humanity of the Lord Jesus. He did not spring into the world as a fully-formed adult, but rather submitted Himself to the natural processes of human growth and development. He grew physically, intellectually, and spiritually, all under the umbrella of God's favor. This is the mystery of the incarnation in miniature: the God of the universe, who upholds all things by the word of His power, condescended to grow up in obscurity, in a despised town, in a faithful, blue-collar family.

This passage serves as a crucial bridge. It closes the nativity narrative and sets the stage for the one glimpse we get of Jesus's boyhood in the following verses, when He is twelve. But more than that, it establishes the foundational pattern of Jesus's life: perfect obedience and dependent growth. He was the only human who ever lived who did not need to be redeemed, yet He perfectly fulfilled the law on behalf of those who did. He was wisdom incarnate, yet He grew in wisdom. This is the beautiful paradox of the God-man, living a life of quiet faithfulness before His public ministry began.

Outline

Context In Luke

Luke 2:39-40 follows immediately after the accounts of Jesus's presentation in the Temple, His circumcision, and the prophetic utterances of Simeon and Anna. The focus up to this point has been on the public fulfillment of prophecy and law surrounding Jesus's birth in Bethlehem and His formal introduction into the covenant community in Jerusalem. Luke has established Jesus's identity as the Messiah, the consolation of Israel, and a light to the Gentiles. Now, with this short summary statement, Luke shifts the scene from the religious center of the nation to the quiet backwater of Nazareth in Galilee. He is deliberately contrasting the grand, public significance of who Jesus is with the humble, obscure reality of how He was raised. This passage covers the years between infancy and the age of twelve, a period Matthew fills with the visit of the Magi, the flight to Egypt, and the slaughter of the innocents. Luke, writing to a Gentile audience, omits these events, choosing instead to emphasize the universal pattern of a godly childhood: obedience to God's law followed by growth in wisdom and favor. This sets the pattern for Jesus's entire life of humble obedience, which is a central theme in Luke's Gospel.

Key Issues

Faithful Obedience, Normal Growth

It is easy to read these verses and miss the profound weight of what is being communicated. We live in a culture that idolizes the spectacular and is bored by the ordinary. But the Bible consistently places a premium on simple, day-to-day faithfulness. The first thirty years of the Messiah's life were spent in what the world would call obscurity. But in the economy of God, these were not wasted years; they were years of foundational obedience. Joseph and Mary were not influential people. They were observant, God-fearing Jews who did what the law required. And the Son they were raising was not performing miracles in the schoolyard. He was learning, growing, and maturing just like other boys, yet without sin.

This passage is a rebuke to all forms of Gnosticism, ancient and modern, which deny the true humanity of Christ. The Son of God learned to walk, to talk, to read. He had to grow strong. He had to be filled with wisdom. This was not an act. His humanity was real. And in this, He sanctified the very process of human development. Every stage of life, from infancy to childhood to adulthood, has been touched and redeemed by His perfect participation in it. The quiet, hidden years in Nazareth were just as essential to our salvation as the public, miraculous years of His ministry. It was in Nazareth that He was living the perfect life of dependent obedience that He would one day offer up on our behalf.

Verse by Verse Commentary

39 And when they had finished everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.

Luke's emphasis here is on completion and obedience. Joseph and Mary did not cut any corners. They performed everything that the Law of the Lord required: the circumcision on the eighth day (2:21), Mary's purification rites, and the redemption of the firstborn (2:22-24). Their lives were governed by the Word of God. This is the bedrock of a godly household. Only after their covenantal duties in Judea were complete did they return home. Luke's summary here is concise. He doesn't mention the flight to Egypt that Matthew records, not because he is contradicting Matthew, but because his focus is different. His point is to connect their pious law-keeping directly with their return to a normal life. Their return is not just a geographical move; it is a return to the quiet rhythm of faithful, everyday life. They went to Galilee, and specifically to Nazareth, which Luke calls "their own city." This was their home, the place God had appointed for the Son of God to grow up. And it was a place of no reputation, fulfilling the prophetic undertone that He would be called a Nazarene, a despised branch.

40 Now the Child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

This verse is a magnificent summary of the Lord's childhood, a thirty-year period condensed into one sentence. The description is threefold. First, He continued to grow and become strong. This refers to His normal physical and emotional development. He was not a superhuman child; He was a true human child. He went through the normal stages of maturation, His body developing and His faculties strengthening. This was a real process, not a charade. Second, He was being filled with wisdom. This points to His intellectual and spiritual development. As a man, Jesus had to learn. His human mind was not omniscient. It had to be filled. Of course, because He was without sin, His capacity to learn and apply knowledge was perfect. He learned the Scriptures at His mother's knee. He learned a trade from His father. His wisdom was not simply an accumulation of data, but a perfect understanding of how to live rightly before God and man. This filling was a continuous process. Third, the grace of God was upon Him. This is a staggering statement. Grace is unmerited favor. How could Jesus, who was without sin, be the recipient of grace? It is because as a man, He lived in complete dependence upon His Father. The favor of God rested upon Him, empowering and sustaining Him in His perfect humanity. This was not saving grace, for He needed no salvation. It was the enabling grace of the Holy Spirit, the divine blessing and pleasure of the Father resting on His beloved Son. This grace was the atmosphere in which He lived and grew.

Application

There are at least two major points of application for us here. The first has to do with our families and the raising of our children. The pattern for a godly upbringing is right here: obedience to the Word of God. Joseph and Mary did what the law said. They did not improvise. They did not follow the latest parenting fads from Egypt or Babylon. They ordered their household according to the Scriptures. This is our task as well. We are to bring our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This means faithful teaching, consistent discipline, and a home atmosphere saturated with the grace of God. We cannot make our children grow, but we can, like Joseph and Mary, provide the faithful context in which God is pleased to grant that growth.

The second application has to do with our own spiritual lives. We often despise the day of small things. We want spectacular spiritual experiences, and we get discouraged by the slow, plodding nature of sanctification. But this verse reminds us that the Lord Himself submitted to a process of growth. He "continued to grow." Our growth in Christlikeness is also a process. It involves growing strong in spirit by resisting temptation. It involves being filled with wisdom by marinating our minds in the Scriptures. And it all happens under the umbrella of God's grace. We must learn to embrace the ordinary means of grace, preaching, sacraments, prayer, fellowship, as the God-ordained gymnasium where we grow strong. We should not be discouraged by the fact that we are not yet what we will be. The Savior of the world once had to learn to walk. We should therefore be content to learn, to grow, and to lean entirely on the grace of God that is upon us in Christ.