Luke 2:52

52. Jesus increased Compare this with Luke 2:40, which closes the account of his last being in the temple as this does the present. Also Luke 1:80, which describes John’s growth. Higher attributes are ascribed to Jesus than to John.

Increased in wisdom His, then, was a finite, limited mind, capable of growth and development.

Favour with God For though his entire being was in the favour of God, yet as that being increased in amount, the amount of favour increased proportionately.

And man Even the rude Galilean highlanders of Nazareth, it would seem, felt softened towards his gentle, expanding nature. And that even in spite of his want of a true Galilean’s fierce and fiery spirit, betokening that he would make no figure in the world. So when he came at a subsequent period, once and again, to present his Gospel to Nazareth, Nazareth adhered to her first impression that the boy of Joseph the carpenter, though a child of singular omens, could never come to any thing great.

Thankful should we be that this beautiful fragment gives us a glimpse of that long period between the Saviour’s infancy and the commencement of his ministry. It is embosomed deeply in the natural texture of eastern life; it is perfect in its fitness to the human-divine character of the youthful Jesus; it bears in its clear simplicity the signatures of historic truth.