Parenting Lessons From Jesus’ Childhood

Last updated on: January 23, 2018 at 6:00 am by Mark Driscoll

Parenting Lessons From Jesus’ Childhood 2018-01-19T16:08:46-05:00 Mark Driscoll

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people-woman-baby-sunset God became a child. At every age, children can relate to Jesus, because Jesus was their same age at some point. Jesus was a baby who had to learn to walk and talk. Jesus was a young child who had to learn to read and write. Jesus went through puberty where his voice started to deepen and he started to grow a beard. Jesus had to take out the garbage, do the dishes, obey his parents, and get along with his siblings.

What is also curious is that Jesus needed parents. Yes, Jesus is perfect and was the perfect child while on the earth. However, even a perfect child apparently needs a mom and dad. His mother Mary and father Joseph were hard-working, godly, rural, teenage peasants. If Jesus needed parents, your children does too—even more so. And, if Mary and and Joseph could raise Jesus with limited resources, God will help you to do the same.
We know very little of Jesus’ early life as a child. The Scriptures are nearly altogether silent, although there are a few short passages that reference his childhood. We read in Luke 2:39-40, “And when they [Mary and Joseph] had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” Luke 2:51–52 adds, “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. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

Jesus was filled with the Spirit from a young age

How did Jesus grow in every way? By the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what is described as being filled and living in God’s favor. This is a theme throughout Luke’s gospel: “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14) and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18). The power of the Holy Spirit is the key to raising a child. Ideally, a child would be filled with the Holy Spirit from a young age and grow in the grace of God as they age. This was the pattern with Jesus. As parents and caregivers, helping our child understand the ministry of and relationship with the Holy Spirit can help them live by the same power and grow in the same sort of character as Jesus Christ.

Jesus obeyed his parents

Your child needs you to lead them. They are born into a fallen world with a sin nature, know nothing, have to learn everything, and would have a painful life filled with tragedy if left to themselves.
The Bible is emphatically commands both parents and children. We read in The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:12 that children must “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” It is good in God’s sight for parents to lovingly instruct, direct, and correct their child. The motive for parents must be the glory of God and good of the child. This is what God means in saying that the goal of parenting is to raise children to live a long and good life.
In the New Testament, Ephesians 6:2-3 echoes The Ten Commandments saying, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “’Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’” Therefore, as parents we must always seek to lead our children with the long view of the future in mind. In a moment, we can with frustration look down at our child and be short-term in our thinking. In the next moment we must look up at the child’s future and see the fork in the road. On one path, rebellion and folly lead to death and destruction. On the other path, obedience and wisdom lead to a long life. As we constantly look into the future, we must help the child to do the same, walking with them into that future God intends for them.
The child must also submit to their parent and obey both their mother and father. Practically, this means that mom and dad need to be fully unified in the leading of the child. Furthermore, the child is expected by God to follow the parent into a future that is good.
Did you know that Jesus Christ, as a child, did just this? Even though He was perfect and had imperfect parents, He obeyed them. We read in Luke 2:51, “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.” God obeyed his parents. Your child needs to obey you if they are to grow to become more and more like Jesus.

Jesus was mature for his age

Sometimes, parents can think that their immature young children will become mature when they are older. However, when considering maturity, we have to also consider the age of the child. Our hope, prayer, and goal should be to help our child be mature for their age, no matter the age. At two, we help them work toward maturity for two. At twelve, we should help them work toward maturity for twelve. At twenty-two, we should help them work toward maturity for twenty-two.
Jesus Christ matured as he aged. At each age, he was mature for that age. Explaining this trend, Luke 2:40 says, “…the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” Luke 2:52 further says, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” God can work in children’s lives no matter what age they are.
Spiritual maturity and physical maturity do not occur the same way. Physical maturity happens quite naturally in most children. Spiritual maturity, however, is a different matter. Human beings do not automatically become godlier and more mature by simply getting older. Instead, maturity requires walking with God, working together to grow in grace and godliness. Sometimes, parents simply hope that a child outgrows immaturity, but this is usually not the case. A child with serious immaturity can carry that with them into adulthood unless it is addressed and dealt with by the parent. Foolishness doesn’t turn into wisdom without God’s intervention.
Our goal as parents should be to help our child spiritually mature as they age. What is not necessarily childish at age six months (e.g. throwing a fit), is immature at sixteen years. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” At each age, we need to honestly consider if our expectations for our child are too high or too low. We need to consider what maturity looks for our child at each age of their life. Then, we can evaluate their maturity and help them grow in maturity as they age.

Jesus and children

We wanted to take the final blog of this series to honor Jesus Christ for his impact on children. No one in the history of the world has done more good for children than Jesus Christ.
Tragically, the plight of children in the ancient world was horrendous. Both child sacrifice and child abandonment were common. Only half of all children lived beyond the age of eight. It was not uncommon for people to discard healthy babies by simply placing them out with the trash to be taken to the dump. It was not uncommon for such children to be taken home by the worst kind of people who molested them, sold them into prostitution, or forced them into slavery.
The coming of Jesus made an enormous difference in the treatment of children. Because Jesus himself was born to an impoverished single mother, he was seen by many children in tragic circumstances as giving them both dignity and hope. By coming as a child, Jesus honored childhood.
Although he himself did not have any children, Jesus loved and cared for children. Jesus taught that God is a loving Father and that we are his children who should treat our children as our Father treats us (Matt.7:11). In the Gospel of Matthew alone, Jesus healed children (Matt. 9:23-25), said that God imparts wisdom to children(Matt. 11:25), taught children (Matt. 14:21), said heaven was made for children (Matt. 18:3; 19:14), said that God would punish anyone who harmed a child (Matt. 18:5-6), laid his hands on children to pray over them (Matt. 19:13), invited children to himself (Matt. 19:14), cast demons out of tormented children (Matt. 17:14-18), and was worshiped by children (Matt. 21:15).
Furthermore, Jesus himself was technically born of a single mother (she was not yet married when she became pregnant) and was adopted by the godly man Joseph. Building on this same metaphor, the New Testament teaches that in our salvation, God acts in much the same way; he is our Father who adopts us into his family, the church (Rom. 8:12–23, Gal. 4:1–7, Eph. 1:5). As God’s people began seeing themselves as spiritual orphans adopted by God the Father, they not only treated children with great dignity as God’s image bearers like Jesus did, but also began adopting discarded children and telling them about Jesus as a demonstration of the gospel. This practice continues throughout the world today with orphanages, foster care, and adoption, whereby God’s people demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ to children.
God became a child! What an unbelievable truth that we celebrate every year on the world’s biggest holiday of Christmas. God did not merely enter the world as an adult. God entered the world as a baby who chose to go through all of the developmental stages that we do. In so doing, Jesus Christ identified with children, starting in their mothers’ womb. To this day, He gives unequaled dignity, honor, and value to the lives of children.
Thank you Jesus!

This blog series is based upon a five-part sermon series called Parenting on Point that you can listen to for free at markdriscoll.org

Note: parts of this blog were adopted from the book Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

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