I recently wrote about how Christ learned in His humanity. Today, I’d like to make some suggestions about what he learned.
His Past: Where did I come from?
One of the most fundamental human questions is, “Where did I come from?” It explains the deep interest human beings have in their ancestors. They want to know who led up to them. They value those who had a role in their past. They admire those whose wise or brave decisions contributed to what they themselves are. They are humbled by the “skeletons in their cupboard,” by the discovery of the less virtuous characters and their role in their own story.
Jesus was no different. In fact, as the most important figure in all of human history, Christ would have had a special interest in the history that led up to Him. With what interest would He have listened to His mother’s Bible stories? Would He not have had a special interest in, and love for, those whose wise and brave decisions contributed to His own arrival and His own identity? How He valued Israel, His “kinsmen according to the flesh.” But Gentiles also had a special place in His past. As the only four mothers included in His genealogy were Gentiles, Gentile blood ran through Jesus’ Jewish veins.
And what about all the “skeletons in His cupboard,” the sinners in His family tree? And they were not just “ordinary sinners” either. Among them was a pagan moon-worshipper (Abraham), prostitutes (Tamar and Rahab), adulterers (David and Bathsheba), a child-murderer and a persecutor (Manasseh), etc. What lowly roots! What humble sympathy would this family tree would give Him with lowly sinners!
His Person: Who am I?
When Christ asked that very basic human question,“Who am I?” the Old Testament supplied a large part of the answer. As Christopher Wright says:
How thrilled Christ must have been as He saw that He was the seed of Abraham through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed. How awed He must have been as a young child to gradually learn that He was the son of David whose kingdom and name would endure forever.
Above all, imagine what He learned about himself from the nation of Israel. The New Testament presents Christ as the perfect fulfillment and embodiment of all that Israel was meant to be and yet failed to be. Israel was put in the world as a uniquely privileged nation in order to reveal God and His redemption to the world. And though Israel so dismally failed at this, Christ dramatically succeeded. God completed through Christ what had been left undone by Israel.
His Purpose: Why am I here?
Having answered, “Where did I come from?” and “Who am I?” the next major existential question is, “What am I here for?” And, the Old Testament again provided the primary source of Christ’s answer to this question. It provided Him with the models, pictures, and patterns that taught Him what He was here to do.
For example, think how much Christ would have learned as He read about the Old Testament sacrifices. With what anxiety and apprehension He would have read about the transference of guilt, the flaying, the bleeding, and the burning! However much greatness He saw in the temple, He knew one greater than the Temple was here (Matt. 12:5-6). How He must have wept when He read in Isaiah of the hardness He predicted would characterize Israel’s reaction to His sermons (Mark 4:12). How much Jeremiah’s tearful experience revealed to Him the painful response to be expected in Jerusalem, as He labored night and day, against the power of the religious establishment, to save Jerusalem from certain destruction – only to be mocked and then branded a traitor. How much he learned of His suffering, “entombment,” and resurrection as He studied Jonah (Matt. 12:39-41). What hope of Gentile converts did the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon give to Him (Matt. 12:42). With what confidence He looked forward to the day of coronation when He read of David’s enthronement (Luke 20:41-44)!
In his unique article on Jesus’ emotions, B B Warfield talks about the sincerity of Jesus’ questions:
Warfield warns that errors are committed when we grasp and emphasize one nature but openly discard the other. Worship along with him in this rich paragraph!
[1] Christopher Wright, Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament (Downer’s Grove: IVP, 1992), 108.
[2] B B Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, Vol. I (New Jersey: P&R, 1972), 161.
[3] Warfield, 166.
Good stuff!