Posted on 01/30/2016 8:51:32 AM PST by Salvation
Those who wrote the Gospels only knew Jesus for a few years. He was teaching everlasting life. I don’t think he was concerned about the here and now.
I assume He did tell them how He came to be.
The bible answers a lot of questions, actually. But it does need an understanding of the character of God, otherwise people come away with it preoccupied with stories of Doom! Dragons! and Monsters!
My guess... He referred to others’ accounts that were accurate. He didn’t bear witness about Himself, for the most part, except where that was the only source possible. He told by doing.
This isn’t the post of a Pope. This is the post of Monsignor Pope, a priest.
Jesus Christ: One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a home.
He didn't go to college.
He never lived in a big city.
He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born.
He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave, through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned--put together--have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one, solitary life.
Attributed to James Allen Francis.
May we simple say in polite terms; Gone but not forgotten.
Only boys went to school in those days.
I know, I’m referring to the comparison between what Francis seems to be up to, and what this priest has written. This priest does it quite well.
It is my prayer that a greater filling of the Holy Spirit comes to every part of Christendom. Some people point at the empty part of the glass. I say here is something that could stand to be filled, kind of the trans-optimist.
Unfortunately and sadly, even if this time of his life was known, it would not lead to anymore individudals living their daily lives according the principles that are known.
If the God of the Bible thought it would change even a little bit of what he sees as he observes the actions and lives of the inhabitants of the earth, he would have included those years.
For the record II Peter 2 1:3 states God, “hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.”
Dignity includes potential that isn’t realized, as well as potential that is; and the choice that was bestowed to pursue it or abandon it.
There would not be any question about what the Son of God would choose. This life reflects every possibility of goodness chosen as Yes rather than as No.
It might have ended up being the target of idolization, for all we know.
I don’t think it’s wrong to imagine what this might have looked like, with the humility that we don’t really know the details. But all would have been in character of God. I think my characterization of a boy who was exceedingly helpful would not have been off the mark. But if people knew the details, then we would have silly things like Knights of the Picked Up Books and such. A sparing treatment of historical details minimized this risk.
The modern Orthodox Jewish practice might be fairly close to this, except minus the historical messianic anticipation (because of fear that people would conclude that Jesus was it). If so, they would have gender segregated the youth after a certain age, but not denied education to girls.
If it would have been of benefit the Lord would have included it.
If a person reads the Sira, the official Islamic biography of Mohammed’s entire life from cradle to grave. One might get an idea of what elements the life of a young man in the Middle East might contain. With the exception that Jesus was a carpenter. And there was no Roman occupation at that time.
And the difference that here was the Savior, God incarnate, and He would have acted that way. We err to dumb down our ideas of Jesus’ ministry just by living, just because the bible never bothered to spell it out.
And anyhow, in a “general” way it WAS included, in John’s concluding comment. If we lack the “sanctified imagination” to see how the character that God wishes to imbue humanity with (as opposed to the one it chose in Eden) might play out in various scenarios, then we could stand to ask the Lord to let us “dream dreams and see visions.”
Myself I have never given much thought to Jesus’s early life. Except to note that the Gospels make it clear that he had brothers and sisters and was not an only child as Catholicism claims.
Maybe we should in principle, if John at least touched on it. In the sense that here is a boy, or a young man, behaving in a manner that is imbued with the spirit of God.
Jesus didn’t have to get saved, He always WAS there. If we can envision the conduct under such circumstances of the best born again Christian we could think of, it would be a floor, not a ceiling, for the manner of Jesus.
I think looking at the Protestant/Catholic disagreements aren’t very edifying in this wise; the boy Jesus apparently wasn’t spared a social life under any explanation that has been proffered.
And if we did dream dreams or see visions about Jesus early years, how could we be sure those dreams came from God.
IF you were sharing Jesus with someone, how could you include any of this with someone, without Bible passages to back it up it would be. I think the following passages from II Timothy address this. What do you think.
2Ti 2:16
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
2Ti 2:23
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes
Great explanation
These dreams and visions would rightly be about how people in general might act in such circumstances, with the character of Christ at the fore.
I wouldn’t claim, like you seem to claim I am claiming, that anything I imagine could be raised to the level of the bible. It is to speak of possibilities. What does the character of Christ look like under this circumstance.
This is not a profane babbling if kept within its proper scope, so that verse does not apply.
Yes, some people (like you) could take offense and we would not want to do harm by doing so. I would not want to cast pearls where unwelcome.
In general anything we could legitimately wish from what might be colloquially referred to as a “good person” (actually a bad person, but filled with God’s goodness) would be the minimum of what we could expect the Lord to have done under equivalent circumstances. He wasn’t saved. He was the Savior.
Following an exact history, if it were possible, would be less edifying, not more. In Islam there are so many traditions about what Mohammed did here, what Mohammed did there. Even in the bathroom. By sticking to generalities, the bible avoids this treatment of Jesus. “What would Jesus do?” is answered by “How does God do it?” And the whole bible serves as that kind of character witness.
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