Jesus grew up.
However we understand the divine mystery of the Son of God becoming human, Jesus was born a baby and developed into a man, becoming wiser and stronger, more relationally adept and spiritually mature as he grew. And just as Jesus grew up, we should, too. In fact, his growth can act as a model for ours.
This is not an original idea. A few years ago, I listened to a podcast with Dave Ferguson which sparked my imagination. Dave made reference to Jesus as a model of our growth and encouraged a daily "RPMS" evaluation to combat drift. RPMS is an acronym inspired by Luke 2:52, "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." From that, Dave created a grid through which we can evaluate our daily practice in the same four areas Jesus grew: wisdom (Mental), stature (Physical), relationship with God (Spiritual) and relationship with others (Relational). Pull them together and give them a shake, and you've got your RPMS. (You can read more here.)
That was the seed of my idea, which I developed in a slightly different direction, but I want to credit Dave with getting me there. When I started preaching through Luke's Gospel in our Sunday morning services (I still am. It's a long book.), I slowed way down at Luke 2:52 so that we could look at each of the four aspects of Jesus' growth carefully and constructively.
I challenged people to develop a 2:52 Growth Plan, based on the model of Christ's growth.
Jesus as a model for our personal growth.
How can we, like Jesus, be growing up in wisdom, stature, favour with God and favour with people? What might that look like? Over the next four posts, I'll develop each aspect further, but for now, just this basic question: Can Jesus be a model for our growth?
Yes, well, I obviously think he can. We are told, all over the place, to make Jesus our model. The rabbinic culture in which Jesus not only matured but then embraced as people started following him is an earthy, imitational kind of modelled learning. Disciples of a rabbi, in Jesus' day, were not like students at a modern college campus, taking in their favourite professors while going about their regular lives. No, rabbinic disciples left home and work to follow their Rabbi, to walk with him, to talk and learn and observe and imitate, to ingest his very way of being so that they could be more and more like him. The goal of this kind of formation was not to "be yourself" but to "be like him."
And throughout the New Testament, we are encouraged to see Jesus as a model to emulate.
We are told to be imitators of Christ (1 Cor 11:1; Eph 5:1).
We are told to have the same relational attitude Christ Jesus had (Philippians 2:5).
We are told that he is the author and perfector of our faith, the one on whom we should fix our eyes (Hebrews 12:2-3).
We are told to walk like Jesus walked (1 John 2:6) and walk like Jesus walked (Eph 5:1, again).
We are told, explicitly, that Jesus set us an example so that we can "follow in his footsteps" (1 Peter 2:21).
Why wouldn't we use Jesus as a model?
Of course there are massive differences between Jesus and us, so this isn't about perfection or superhuman effort. This is a work the Holy Spirit does with our participation. But who better to act as a model than Jesus, the perfect human being, the perfect image of God, the one man who actually nailed it? Why would we want to model our growth on someone lesser than? If we are attempting to learn any skill or develop any craft, should we strive to learn from the best or should we settle with examples of those just above average? We can learn from those who are struggling along with us, for sure, but when we are trying to find a model to imitate, let's go with someone who's clearly excellent.
As I work to develop as a writer and communicator, I learn from anyone, but I mimic skills from the best. As I have grown as a runner and athlete, I watch what the elites do and mirror their best training practices in my own (with appropriate adjustments for my non-elite, 50 year old body!). But the point is, we want to find models of excellence on which to build a growth plan, and Jesus is the best one we have.
What Would Jesus Do (WWJD) is a famous question, rooted in the old story In His Steps and popularized by 1990s marketing agencies. But however cliched it's become, WWJD still holds weight. If you want to be like Jesus, live like Jesus. If you want to represent Jesus, act like Jesus. If you want to have the prayer life of Jesus, mimic his prayer practices. If you want to follow Jesus, listen carefully to what he says and do what he does. If you want to grow like Jesus, then grow like Jesus.
Taking this basic stance, which Christians have pursued since the first followers dropped their nets to go after Jesus, we can plumb the life of Jesus for clues to how we might grow like him. That's the logic behind my encouragement (and Dave Ferguson's RPMS) that we take Luke 2:52 as not just a description of Jesus' growth but as a prescription for ours. If that's how Jesus grew, might that have something to say for how we might grow?
More on that in following posts, but for now a basic question: Are you willing to consider how Jesus' growth can be a model for yours?
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