Matthew 13: 53-57
Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?" So they were offended at Him.
this passage puzzles me. these people weren't saying, "huh, Jesus. Yeah, I always thought there was something funny about that kid." or "I should have known. All those kind things He did for us."
there's something about His life before His ministry that fits in to the ordinary, that does not change other people at all. He was thought to be a simple-minded carpenter's apprentice from an ordinary family, apparently. All that scare with the magi and everything, that stuff turned out to be not that big of a deal. The rabbis at Jerusalem forget about the 12 yr old teaching them, apparently.
thoughts?
did He just keep to Himself all the time?
was He filling out the deeply human part of His ministry?
I don't know.
I'm puzzled.
I'm not questioning Jesus' deity--just wondering out loud.
11 comments:
two thoughts occur to me.
there's that thing where Jesus says "my time has not yet come" alot. I think this must be why he's always warning people not to tell anyone about his mericles. he had a mission, and he had to live until the apropriate time to fulfil it. so in some ways i think he did have to lay low, to be ordinary so they wouldn't notcie him as a threat until the right time.
and my stronger inclination is to think that we're seeing him through human eyes here, unbeleiving human eyes no less, so that this was more just a picture of their own unbeleif and blindness than of Jesus' character. my guess is that he was different as a kid in some ways (like that no sinning thing, for example), and that he probubly did change lives and make an impact, but the world is blind and sees him as ordinary because of their sin.
i didn't really think about that for very long, but there it is for what it's worth.
Well, I was just thinking about the verse "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Obviously Jesus had matured a lot as He grew up.
And yes, I agree with what Em said.
It has to do with the fact that the Magi had probably heard of Jesus' works but very few of them actually believed. Seeing it before their very eyes was what it took to prove it to them.
hmmmmmmmmm, yes.
i guess that's true.
this is how people saw Him.
i guess it still gives a lot of change to my image of Jesus before His ministry. how ambiguous and subtle and unnoticeable can you be and not sin, i wonder? how much can you just fit in and go under the radar.
He worked without laziness, but He still never got insanely good at carpentry, apparently.
He was probably the weirdo who never got married.
He seems to just be hanging out with His rather ordinary dad (i wonder if the townspeople laughed at Joseph because He bought the whole "virgin birth" thing, "what a moron," you can just hear them say)
in the middle of the woodchips with His brothers, joking around and doing ordinary things that no one notices.
*shrug*
good thoughts, though.
i wonder if it was intentionally shielded from human eyes. is that possible? not by Jesus but by God?
What I wonder is how much Jesus already knew as a child. In heaven He has infinate knowlege - how much of that did he retain when he came to earth? Did He have to learn his ABCs just like us? Or what was the relationship like with Joseph and Mary? I mean, it DEFINATELY wasn't like the relationship we have with our parents, just because Jesus is God's son, and he didn't sin. So what DID Mary and Joseph do as "parents"?
I think that is a vallid point Sam. Jesus "shielded" the eyes of the deciples after His resurrection utill it was the right time. And we have to remember that Jesus was both God and man, he was human in the the sense that if he stubed His toe, it would hurt - if He got the hiccups, He would deal with them just like we do. I am amazed even more at Jesus' crusefiction - He wasn't "out-of-body" or any thing like that. He felt every drop of blood leave His body as any one of US would if we were nailed to a cross. Love is what held Him there.
Not sure how clear that was, let me know, eh?
no, that's solid stuff, lindy.
i don't think jesus as man knew everything.
we're told that, i believe, on more than one occasion.
might be able to dig up a few references if it matters.
but, think how strange that must have been for mary and especially joseph.
virgin birth, angels and magi visiting and going to egypt to save the child, and doing this and that and all this wonder.
mary keeping all these things in her heart.
and then your child is this rather quiet rather ugly rather ordinary kind of boy who likes carpentry.
and we'd had such high hopes for him.
he could have been messiah.
then WHAM.
the teaching hits.
the boy leaves home, and his brothers want to hang out with him. that's in the gospels too, i read that the other day.
Thanks. I've always wondered about what Mary and Joseph felt, and the extent of their parenting because really the bulk of parenting is guiding, and often rebuking. But since Jesus was perfect, what DID the parents do?
That also is an interesting point. Jesus as a man didn't know every thing. Have you thought about how HE felt about that? I mean, He still knew He was God's son, but apart from that what other knowledge was He born with?
I don't what all Jesus knew when He was human. But it does say in the bible that He gave up or set aside some of His knowledge and power when He took human form. He did keep most of His knowledge because, remember those times when He knew what somebody was going to say or He knew their hearts or He knew what was going to happen.
I don't know if He had all of that knowledge when He was a child, the bible just doesn't say. I guess we will have to wait and ask Him when we meet Him in Heaven.
Yes, I think he did have to learn a lot of human things, like reading and writing, how to walk, etc. But Lucy has a good point, a lot of his WISDOM he retained, not just the "things" that he knew how to do, but the things he also knew ABOUT. I heard him referred to once as the 200% man, 100% God, 100% human. wow. just like us, but just like God.
One thing I was thinking about at Camp Hope but just didn't think about enough to ask questions is this: Pastor McFaul said we start actually sinning the moment we're born, that when we start crying for no reason, just because we're selfish and want attention, we're sinning. So...did Jesus cry as an infant? Is that really a sin?
YES jesus cried as an infant, unlike away in the manger says.
of course it's not a sin.
not in rebellion, but in the same way that He cried to His heavenly Father later in His life.
He was still in an earthly tempted kind of body even though He was God.
yes...that's what I thought too. just very easily confuzzled, haha. ty Sam!
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