The Jesus I Am Getting To Know
His parents didn’t know what to think. "Son," his mother said to him, "why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere." "But why did you need to search?" he asked. "Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?" But they didn’t understand what he meant. Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. [Luke 2:48 - 52 NLT]
Author Phil Yancey wrote an award winning book some years ago entitled, "The Jesus I Never Knew". An Amazon review of the book describes it this way, "In The Jesus I Never Knew, Yancey explores the life of Jesus, as he explains, "'from below,' to grasp as best I can what it must have been like to observe in person the extraordinary events unfolding in Galilee and Judea" as Jesus traveled and taught."
I have used Yancey's book, which is very good, but I have learned much more about Jesus from years of consistently reading the 4 gospels. Christianity, I believe, is best defined as a personal relationship with the living Savior. It is this fact that separates it from all other religions. Like any personal relationship however, it requires spending time together - a lot of time - getting to know one another. That is the foundational premise of the AGPM reading challenge - spending quality time with Jesus reading about Him in the gospels. And the Jesus of the gospels is very different from what the world in general thinks about Him. How? We’ll explore this over the next few blog entries.
Let's start with Jesus as a boy. You know the story. His parents were devout Jews. They traveled to Jerusalem each year to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. One year, when Jesus was 12, after the festival was over they headed home to Nazareth with a caravan of friends and family. It is hard for us to imagine today how secure such a group could be that parents would start on a journey without ensuring one of their children was with them and not miss Him until evening. My, how times have changed. They go back to Jerusalem and search for Jesus for 3 days! Like parents today would be, they were frantic with worry. They finally find Him in the Temple sitting among the religious teachers discussing deep questions about the scriptures and Luke says that all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. It was not easy to impress religious teachers who spent all their time studying and debating the Text but Jesus did for 3 days. Most likely one of the religious teachers took him home each evening to spend the night. Jesus, however, didn't understand His parents concern and wondered why they wouldn't have known to seek Him in the Temple in the first place since that is where His Father lived. Luke 2 tells us Jesus grew up healthy and strong. In verse 52 above we learn that He also grew in wisdom, grew in height, and had favor with God and all the people. Jesus was strong, tall, healthy, and full of wisdom and loved by God and all the people - not a ‘Caspar Milquetoast’ like some would portray Him today.
More next week on this topic. Stay 'dusty' as you follow closely behind the Rabbi this week.
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