Jesus: The Man

Jesus: The Man

            The three short years that Jesus taught the world about a loving Father are well known. Little is known about the thirty years before He became our savior. We can only imagine what Jesus was like as a small boy and how Mary shaped His life. The story starts with Mary.

            Mary’s parents prayed many years for a baby. They were so overjoyed when Mary was born that they dedicated her to God. Mary was raised in a convent where she learned and kept every Jewish law. As was the custom her parents picked Joseph to be her husband. He was a widower with children, but he was a good man. A carpenter by trade, older and well established and most important he was a faithful Jew. Mary was engaged at a young age.  

            Can you, in your wildest imagination, imagine the look on Mary’s face, a virgin, when an angel told her she was pregnant? To see an angel in your room and having him talk to you would be shock enough, but to be told the baby, which you don’t know about, is the child of the Holy Spirit is unbelievable! That is what Joseph thought too. “There is something wrong here.” He was ready to back out of the deal. Can you blame him? Then an angel appeared to Joseph also and explained that Mary’s baby conceived in her is truly of the Holy Ghost.

            Jesus was in the womb for nine months like all babies. He was born like all babies, fed, clothed and cared for like all babies. He was no different from any human-except-Jesus had been chosen by God to develop, know, and understand the Christ, the son of God within all. Jesus was born human. He became the representative of Christ by listening and following the instructions of the Christ within.

            The family came back to their home town while Jesus was still young. Now if Joseph wasn’t sure about the virgin birth until an angel confirmed it, imagine the whispers, the gossip, the nasty remarks and smirks made behind Mary’s back. The women were devious, but their children probably taunted and teased Jesus about his mother, and his so called virgin birth, to his face. Children can be cruel. Perhaps this was his first human experience in ‘loving your neighbor as yourself’ ‘turn the other cheek’ ‘forgive 70 x70’ ‘treat others  as you would like to be treated’ and seeing the bully as a spiritual child of God.

            Joseph taught Jesus the carpentry trade and Mary must have imparted all of her knowledge of Jewish law to her son. Jesus must have made friends as evidenced by the fact that Mary didn’t miss her twelve year old son, assuming that He was with one of the other family groups returning home from the feast of the Passover. Joseph and Mary immediately went back to Jerusalem. It took them three days of anguished searching before they found Him in the temple discussing spiritual doctrine with the wise and knowledgeable men of religious law.

            When Mary scolded her son for the worry He caused them, He answered, “Don’t you know I must be about my Father’s business”? I think this tells a lot about His childhood. In Luke 2:50 “and they understood not the saying which he spoke unto them.”  Even Mary, who was told Jesus was the son of God and Joseph was told, ”He shall save his people from their sins.” If they were confused, how was the rest of the family reacting to this boy who was so strange? Did they resent his intelligence; ignore him; reject him? Did they question and learn or jeer and make fun of his beliefs?

            And Mary?  Knowing the Jewish law so well, what must she think of His strange religious views? She must have spent sleepless nights concerned that He was dishonoring the faith that He was raised in and would come to a bad end. A mother never wants her children to leave the religion that she believes in to worship in, what she sees as, a strange way. His very soul is at stake. Not only is He rejecting the Jewish faith, He is developing His own religion. His ideas and views are ’off the wall.’ He says crazy things like, “I am the light of the world” and “I and the Father are one.” Who is this Father that He speaks about?

            Mark 3:21 is another example of how Jesus was misunderstood by His own family. “and when his friends (some Bibles say family) heard of it, they lay hold on him; for they said, he is beside himself.” That is another way of saying that he was out of his mind, crazy. That is what He had to put up with. Jesus was even accused of being in league with the devil.

            After Jesus spoke in the temple at twelve the Bible is silent about His life until He begins His ministry at thirty. I have read books by people who have researched and claim that Jesus traveled the world. That He studied other religions, learning the folly of men in their thinking. One intelligent priest proudly told, “That man goes through every stage of life; from blade of grass; vegetable; animals, until he becomes man.” Jesus asked, “How do you know.”? The priest answered, “The learned of our religion has taught us.” Jesus patiently rebuked him, “Friend, you are wrong. Man has never been less then man.”

            Other books claim that Jesus married and had children. I don’t know if we will ever know. It doesn’t matter to me. His ministry voided the god of war and vengeance and punishment. He gave us a loving Father-Mother-God that sees to our every need.

            His own family didn’t understand or support Him. Maybe some of His siblings rejected Him as being a crazy fool. Mary loved Jesus regardless of the laws that He broke or the scene He made when He threw the money changers out of the temple. But, did she ever convert to the worship of the Father that Jesus presented? Jesus was leaving religion with the rituals and rules behind to worship in Spirit and Truth. Anyone who understands, then or now, finds peace and joy and health and happiness.

            One important thing to remember: Jesus the human man died on the cross. The Christ of Jesus and the Christ of all God’s children will never die. Christ is the son of God with everlasting life.

            1095 words                                    Loretta Ellen Edwards