Absolutely Brilliant!

Every once in awhile we read about a 5 year old playing Mozart. Every once in awhile we read that a 12 year old has entered university or that a 14 year old has completed graduate school. Prodigies are nothing new but they never cease to astound us. We read of just such an individual in the New Testament.

At twelve years old Jesus disappeared from the group with which His parents had been travelling. His parents thought He was lost. When they found Him, He told them that He was right where He belonged. He was seated in Israel’s centre of learning, His Father’s house.

In Luke 2:46-47 we read this. “Then, after three days they found Him in the temple. Sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.”

Here was a kid wowing the brightest minds the country had to offer. The Greek word that we’ve translated “amazed” meant, “To be terrified out of one’s wits,” or “To go out of one’s mind.” The English word amazed hardly captures the utter astonishment that overcame Israel’s most gifted teachers. Jesus’ insights, His grasp of Old Testament theology was such that the leading teachers in the land were astounded at what they were hearing from this child.

The pattern continues to this very day with the world’s best and brightest learning in amazement from Jesus of Nazareth. The wisdom that Jesus gives to those who belong to Him, regardless of intellectual ability, never grows stagnant. It never runs dry. It protects, it guides and it counsels. Thank you Jesus.