 | The Reverend Doctor Cathy Northrup was born in Ft. Meade, MD, and was raised in a variety of places in the United State and Germany, as her father was in Counter Intelligence with the Army. She graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, with a double major in English and Religion. She graduated from Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC, and practiced law with the Federal Reserve Board for a number of years before attending Union Theological Seminaryin Richmond, VA. She graduated from Union, and served several churches in North and South Carolina, at the same time obtaining her Doctor of Ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Northrup is currently the Pastor/Head of Staff of First Presbyterian Church, Wichita, KS. She is married and has two black Labrador dogs who were rescued from abusive situations. You can contact Dr. Northrup at cnorthrup@firstpresbywichita.org or by phone at (316) 263-0248, ext. 26. |
Religion
2009-05-01 11:45:00
How could Jesus become more “all-wise”
Question: In Luke 2:52, it states, “And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.” I can understand how He would advance in age from his human nature, but how could He advance in wisdom? If God is all-knowing and all-wise, how could He be more all-knowing and more all-wise?
Answer: As I am sure you know, Christians believe that Jesus was both fully human and fully God. As God, he did not need to grow in wisdom. But as a human, he grew up and faced the same issues of life all human beings face. He also developed as human beings develop, growing and learning.
Also, it is important to read Luke 2:52 not simply in isolation but in its larger context. In the larger context, Jesus went to the temple with his parents for the festival of Passover. He stayed behind with the teachers there after his parents left, and they found him upon their return.
Biblical commentator and preacher Fred Craddock puts it this way, “…clarity on the story comes, not by reading Jesus’ future back into this scene, but by reading again Luke’s model for this unit, I Samuel 2. The boy Samuel was given to God by his mother Hannah, and in time he was taken to live in the temple. It was in the temple that Samuel came to an awareness of his special mission. And of the boy Samuel it was said that he ’continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men..”” (See Craddock, Luke, in the Interpretation series, pp.41-43)
In this story of the temple in Luke, Jesus begins to be aware of his identity and vocation. “Even so,” Craddock concludes, “Jesus returned home with Mary and Joseph and was subject to them. It was with them that he “increased in wisdom and in years.”
