The Three Rooms of Wisdom: Lessons from Jesus’ Childhood

What would a “wisdom” factory look like?

Would it be a paneled library containing works of Plato, Shakespeare, and Churchill? Would it be a beaker-laden lab with the pungent odor of chemicals?

What a “wisdom school” looks like shocks many.

In Luke 2, Luke gives us a fleeting glimpse of a single childhood snapshot of Jesus.

The snippet ends with two observations:

“And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:40, ESV)

Then, a few verses later…

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52, ESV)

We dismiss verses like this by saying, “Jesus was the son of God. He was born wise?” Not according to Luke!

But first, we need to clarify a single term…wisdom

What is Wisdom?

We confuse wisdom and education. We assume smart people are wise, but they are not.

In 2006, the French convicted geneticist William Frances Anderson, who has an IQ of 176 of child molestation. At the post-trial news conference, his attorney observed, “Nothing about having a 176 I.Q. means you have good judgment.”

Dictionaries list many definitions, but one will serve for this article.  Wisdom is learning to conduct your life as God intended.

The Scene

Let’s get our feet dusty on a journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. It was Passover time, and the clan was gathering at this most holy of required feasts. Jesus traveled with his mother and father as part of a large caravan.

Once the feast ended, the caravan surged north, back to home.

But Jesus was missing. Did he mingle with another family? A quick search of the caravan revealed Jesus was not there. They had left him in Jerusalem.

Pounding hearts propelled Mary and Joseph to run back to the holy city. As they searched, they heard Jesus’ voice echoing from the temple courts. They found him discussing the depths of the Torah with the confused and confounded sages.

Jesus was nonplussed. “Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?”

Embedded in this scene is what would comprise a school for wisdom.

If you walk through the halls of the story, you will turn into three different rooms that instruct you in wisdom.

The Community

For Jesus, the synagogue was his community. In Matthew 13, his parents took him to that collection of people of like-minded faith.

Here, he learned what God said, which he recalled amid temptation. Jesus was never independent of the assembly, for it shaped him in his soul.

No one can measure the value of the church. In it, children (and adults) come into contact with teachers, friends, and people we admire from afar.

In my formative years, I remember an older woman with white hair in a bun. She anchored the back row with a huge Bible in her lap. She was there every time. Her sons, who were Christians, had neglected the faith, but she made them bring her. I learned faithfulness.

I remember a piano tuner, who took four boys at 11 and taught us to read music from the hymnal and to sing parts, something that is a part of me.

I remember a man whose wife refused to come and badgered him about coming. But he dressed three little girls, and they were all there every time we met. I learned perseverance.

No one learns wisdom from sitting in their room alone reading their Bible. We need each other to challenge and sharpen each other. No one is complete without community.

Parents

We get a peek into Jesus’ home in Luke 2.

“Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.” (Luke 2:41, ESV)

That’s not a throwaway verse. Every year, they made a hard journey, as God instructed. They did things in which their son took part, and Jesus took notice. When God says to do something, we do it.

In Luke 4:16, it says that synagogue was his custom. Why? It is what his parents did each Sabbath.

I was fortunate to have parents who shaped me that way. I was born on a Tuesday and my mother had me in church the next Sunday.

Parents get a sober task from God. You shape a future and it happens by word and example. If a boy sees his father in a church pew, he assumes it is important. Kids care because parents do.

But turn into one more door with a sign over the top that reads, “Submission.”

Submission

In the temple, Jesus was doing his “Father’s business.” He could have refused to go with his parents. That’s not what happened.

“And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:51, ESV)

Jesus obeyed his parents. In this passing mention rests a treasure of wisdom.

A person cannot obey in large things if they cannot obey in small things. A leader who cannot follow cannot lead.

Jesus would find himself in dilemmas. He would face the cross, the apex of God’s plan. Does he obey? He learned it early.

These experiences do not tumble into life. The Hebrew writer says Jesus “learned” obedience (Heb 5:8).

Jesus experienced restriction. Complying with the parental authority of Joseph and Mary allowed him to obey the Father’s wishes on earth.

Teens need to learn to stop rolling their eyes at parents. You may not understand, but wisdom comes from compliance.

Do you want to be wise? It won’t happen in an ivory-clad university.

It comes in congregation, small group, and in families. In those cocoons, we spur each other to a higher plane. In it, we find obedience and isn’t that the essence of wisdom?

Together is important. Ask Brandon Wright. In 2011, Wright, a student at Utah State University, drove his motorcycle to the school’s computer lab. A BMW pulled out of a parking lot in front of him. The resulting collision ignited a fire that engulfed both the car and the motorcycle.

The driver of the car escaped, but 4000 pounds of burning debris trapped Brandon. He lay motionless.

One man tried to move the car through brute strength but couldn’t. Soon, others joined, but the car did not budge. A woman saw that Brandon was still alive.

Finally, a dozen members of the crowd came shoulder-to-shoulder and lifted it enough to pull Brandon to safety.

What one could not do alone, together they could.

One great truth exists is that no one goes to heaven alone. We all go together.