030. Chapter 9 - The Youth of Jesus

Chapter 9 - The Youth of Jesus Matthew 2:13-23;Luke 2:21-52

Sources The amazing brevity and simplicity of the records of Jesus’ youth bear convincing testimony to the unique inspiration of the Scriptures. The records reveal a divine restraint. How could the Gospel writers refrain from writing at length of the thirty years that lie between Bethlehem and the Jordan? Many critics who talk learnedly of the “sources” of these early chapters of Matthew and Luke suppose that these authors told all they knew! Even forgetting the inspiration of these writers, can we suppose that the apostles, by campfire or festive board through three and one-half years, had never heard Jesus tell a single anecdote of His youth? Did Mary or James the brother of the Lord forget completely the thirty years at Nazareth? Moreover, the accounts that are given by Matthew and Luke are so simply told: Matthew brings Jesus to Nazareth, but offers not a word concerning His life there; Luke gives two flashlight photographs of Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, but he tarries only an instant and turns, as Matthew, to the public ministry of Jesus. Finally, what Matthew and Luke do record is so different from what the Apocryphal Gospels tell of the youth of Jesus that the inspiration of Matthew and Luke is profoundly emphasized. The early Christian romancers allowed their imagination to run riot concerning this period in the youth of Jesus. The silly, miraculous tales that these Apocryphal Gospels tell are in contrast with the simple and restrained statements of Matthew and Luke as the night with the day. The history of these early years of Jesus’ earthly life is destined to remain as obscure as the place in which they were spent. The hand of God guided the little family to the obscure village and guided the pen of the sacred historians in the paths of almost complete silence. A study of the youth of Jesus should accept as its motto not to become wise above that which is written. If the period at Nazareth can be even faintly reconstructed, it must be in the light of the known facts about this period and in the reflected light of His personality and public ministry. Following the early records of Matthew and Luke we must journey to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, back to Bethlehem, to Egypt, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and back to Nazareth. In Bethlehem

How long the couple and the Babe remained in the stable is uncertain. The crowd which had assembled for enrollment probably ebbed away from Bethlehem in a few days. At any rate, by the time the Wisemen came, they had changed to more comfortable quarters for they were not in a stable, but “in the house.” This may have been the home of some friend or relative. But they are nowhere represented as poverty-stricken and unable to pay for lodging. There had simply been “no room in the inn.

Luke says in language severely simple: “And when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him, his name was called Jesus When John had been circumcised and named, the relatives and friends of Zacharias and Elisabeth gathered to celebrate and rejoice. How lonely this scene in Bethlehem seems in contrast! The shepherds returned to their task on the night of Jesus’ birth. The couple solemnly conferred upon the Child the high and holy name which the angel had commanded. Thus He was circumcised for He was “born under the law.” But in the same moment His divine personality and destiny were emphasized for He was called Jesus: “For it is he that shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). In Jerusalem At the end of forty days, as prescribed by the Mosaic law, Mary fulfilled the rules for ceremonial cleansing and took the Child to the temple to present Him to the Lord. Luke pauses to quote the law that every firstborn male shall be holy to the Lord. The offering of “a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons” indicates lowly circumstances, but not extreme poverty — “only well-to-do people offered a lamb and a pigeon.”

Two aged saints of Israel, full of piety and Messianic expectations, who spend their days in the temple in meditation and prayer, are present on this occasion. The age of Anna is indicated by her seven years of married life and eighty-four years of widowhood: she must have been more than a hundred years of age. The age of Simeon is suggested by the statement: “And it had been revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). Luke draws a beautiful picture of the aged man taking the Babe in his arms and lifting his eyes to heaven saying, “Now lettest thou thy servant depart, Lord, according to thy word, in peace….” He speaks as a watchman released from duty. He can depart now with joy for he has seen the Christ who shall be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.” Plummer says of this beautiful poem spoken by Simeon, “In its suppressed rapture and vivid intensity, this canticle equals the most beautiful of the Psalms.” As Mary and Joseph marvel at his words, the aged man blesses them, and, addressing Mary, foretells the high destiny of the Child and offers the ominous word that “A sword shall pierce through thine own soul.” This is the first intimation of tragedy in Luke’s Gospel. It contrasts with the joyful message of the angels. Surely the “sword” did not symbolize any doubts concerning Jesus in the heart of Mary, as some suggest, but rather the anguish of her soul at Golgotha. Did not this prophecy cast a shadow across Mary’s path, send them flying with swifter steps to Egypt, and lead them to exercise still greater care over the young Child? As Simeon prophesies, Anna comes forward and gives thanks to God for the Christ-Child, predicting His future to those standing near.

Back to Bethlehem

Luke omits all reference to the Wisemen and the flight into Egypt. He simply notes the return to Nazareth, but it is evident that they must have returned to Bethlehem and that the visit of the Wisemen followed this presentation in the temple. (1) The star appeared at the time of Jesus’ birth. Forty days is not too long for the journey of the Wisemen from the far East. (2) Would the offering in the temple have been as meager as a pair of turtle doves, if they had just received the magnificent presents of the Wisemen? (3) With Herod and all Jerusalem upset by the visit of the Wisemen, the presentation in the temple would have been exceedingly dangerous. (4) Immediately after the departure of the Wisemen, the angel warned the couple to take the Babe and flee into Egypt. In Egypt

One of the most touching pictures in the art galleries of the world is of the flight into Egypt. Mary rides the mule with the Babe in her arms while Joseph walks alongside. Fear of pursuit and tenderest devotion toward the Infant are revealed. The flight into Egypt caused a second fulfillment of that prophecy of Hosea: “Out of Egypt did I call my son.” Egypt, because of its proximity and vastness, had always been the ready refuge of troubled Israelites. How long they remained in Egypt or what happened there, we do not know. Some of the Apocryphal Gospels represent the stay as lasting several years. This has no basis in the New Testament and it is extremely improbable.

Nazareth

After the death of Herod, Joseph, who must protect both the mother and the Child, is instructed to return to Judaea. Fearing violence from Archelaus, they are encouraged to go on and return to Nazareth. And what of the life at Nazareth? What sort of boy was Jesus? How did He develop? How did He spend His time? We sometimes forget that not merely His childhood and youth but ten long years of His manhood were spent at Nazareth.

One of the certainties is that Jesus worked at some sort of manual labor in His youth. Matthew makes it plain that Joseph was a carpenter (Matthew 13:55). We learn from Mark 6:2, Mark 6:3 that Jesus also was known as a carpenter. The Greek tekton means artisan or artificer in wood — a carpenter. Mark records the amazement with which His townspeople heard of His teaching and miracles: “Whence hath this man these things and what is the wisdom that is given unto this man and what mean the mighty works wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary...?” This clearly points to a quiet, unassuming life at Nazareth. He had been an obscure part of an obscure village. They had never discovered Him. The emphatic “by his hands” thrown in contrast with tekton shows the scorn of the people — “Do these same hands — a lowly carpenter’s hands — now perform miracles?” Justin Martyr says, “He was in the habit of working as a carpenter when among men making plows and yokes” (Dialogue with Trypho 88). A carpenter in such a quiet rural community probably made such tools, also simple furniture, and did the construction and repair work on the roofs or interiors of the simple stone houses. Justin claims to have had this information from the “Memoirs of the Apostles.” It may have sound tradition back of it. Kent discards this tradition from Justin. It is held to be merely a reflection of the saying “Take my yoke upon you. But Kent proceeds to “out-Herod Herod” in this line of ingenious invention by writing a long paragraph on “The Young Master Builder” in which he represents Jesus as a contractor because of “His interest in the foundations of the temple, His parable of the houses built on a rock or on the sand,” etc.; because He showed skill in training His disciples as if He had been accustomed to direct large groups of men in His youth; because He seemed to show partiality to the viewpoint of the employer in some of His parables! (The Life and Teachings of Jesus, pp. 55, 56). It would be hard to conceive a more ridiculous line of argument than this paragraph affords. Other Christian writers of the early centuries represent Jesus as a goldsmith. But this has no historic basis. It probably is a reflection of the general scorn for manual labor. The title “The Carpenter,” applied to Jesus in derision, forever ennobles honest toil.

While the Scriptures make plain this phase of Jesus’ early life, they do not suggest that He ever went to school. He was accustomed to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day for worship (Luke 4:16). But the only time we find Him in the attitude of receiving instruction from men is in the temple at Jerusalem where He confounded the sages of Israel by His questions and answers. This question of how Jesus developed thrusts us into the presence of the profound mystery of the incarnation. The Roman Catholic View

There are three views of Jesus’ youth. One is that held by the Roman Catholics. It represents Jesus, the boy, as a miracle worker performing the most astounding things in the presence of the townspeople of Nazareth. The ridiculous stories told by the Apocryphal Gospels have been adopted and developed by the Roman Church. These tales were merely the attempt of early Christians to fill in this period from their imagination and thus tickle the fancy of the public or else prove various heretical views. This is completely contradictory to the New Testament which plainly represents the miracle at Cana as the “first of his miracles” (John 2:11), and represents the people of Nazareth as amazed that such a quiet character as Jesus should be performing miracles. The Modernistic View At the other extreme stands the modernistic view that Jesus was simply a normal boy making His mistakes just as other boys do. This is held by some who still claim to believe in the sinlessness of Jesus. This is an example of the radicals’ disregard of logic. For if Jesus made His mistakes in His youth, at what stage in His development did He cease to make mistakes and begin to live a perfect life? If His innate divine personality did not make His life errorless, what produced the change from an imperfect to a perfect life? To say that the coming of the Holy Spirit at His baptism produced the change is merely to join hands with the first century heretics. What is the meaning of this very baptismal scene if it does not teach that Jesus had lived in His youth without sin? He denied any consciousness of sin in His discussions with the Pharisees. His youth is certainly included in the sweep of these declarations. The radical view that the youth of Jesus was entirely normal means nothing more than the ancient heresy that He was not the Son of God from eternity, but became the Son of God at His baptism. This view is even further from the New Testament than that held by the Roman Catholics. The New Testament View

Written in the boldest letters across the story of His birth in both Matthew and Luke, there is the word “unique.” After thirty years He began His public ministry and in a thousand different ways the Gospels affirm that His life during this period was “unique.” How shall the gap be bridged? What right has anyone to write “normal” across the youth of Jesus? The Scripture asserts that the life of Jesus was normal on the physical side both during His youth and public ministry and that His mental life was unique during both periods. We read that during His public ministry He hungered, thirsted, was weary, was tempted, suffered, etc.; and at times He expresses surprise or chagrin while at other times His mental life is unique — reading the hearts of others or the course of the future; but He did not share our experience in sins or mistakes or shortcomings. Luke says of the young child, “the child grew and waxed strong” (euxane, kai ekrataiouto —Luke 2:40). This denotes normal physical growth, for the same language is used of the child John the Baptist (“The child euxane” —Luke 1:80); but here comes a radical change in the description. He asserts of John: “He grew and waxed strong in spirit.” But he says of Jesus: “He grew and waxed strong, being completely filled [pleroumenon] with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” This statement covers the period of His life prior to twelve years of age, for Luke 2:41 takes up the story at that point and illustrates by detailed account what kind of boy Jesus was. The important word in the passage is pleroumenon — “being completely filled.” Some illuminating cases of the use of this word in the New Testament are as follows: “The fish-net was completely filled with fish” (Matthew 13:48); “They completely filled both boats [with fish] so that they began to sink” (Luke 5:7); when Mary broke her box of ointment, “the house was completely filled with the odor of the ointment” (John 12:3). Again, on the day of Pentecost, “they were all completely filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). But now, most important of all, when Paul struggles to find words to express the mysteries of the incarnation, his favorite word is this verb pleroo in its various forms. “For in him dwelleth all the fullness [pleroma] of the Godhead bodily,” is a decisive passage (Colossians 2:9). Now, this is the same word Luke chooses when he says that even in the earliest days of His boyhood Jesus “was completely filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” The latter phrase Luke also reserves for reference to the Child Jesus, and points clearly to the word “unique.” This does not mean that all of the wisdom and magnificence of the ministry of Jesus is to be reflected back into His childhood. After Luke says that the child was “completely filled with wisdom,” he also says “He increased in wisdom.” In other words, Jesus developed, but His development was unique. At each stage, His wisdom was complete for the requirements of the occasion. In the Temple The scene in the temple proves that whenever extraordinary occasions arose God gave Him directly the necessary wisdom and power. Joining the two declarations (Luke 2:40 and Luke 2:52) and interpreting by concrete illustration his first declaration that Jesus “was completely filled with wisdom,” Luke presents a picture of the boy of twelve sitting in the midst of the most learned scholars of Israel, “both hearing them, and asking them questions: and all that heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.”

“And when they saw him they were astonished.” Joseph and Mary were astonished because Jesus had not been making an idle show of His wisdom and powers in the home or in the village of Nazareth. But He had the divine wisdom and power when the occasion demanded. The clinching evidence is this: In answer to their rebuke, Jesus says: “How is it that ye sought me? Know ye not that I must be in my Father’s house?” (or “about my Father’s business?”). Three conclusions are evident: (1) Jesus affirmed He was not bound to Mary and Joseph by the ordinary bonds of obedience as the normal boy. He went back, and was “subject to them in all things,” but here He was again “fulfilling all righteousness.” (2) He recognized, in some measure at least, that He occupied a unique relationship to God. Study the use of the words “my Father” in the mouth of Jesus during His ministry. Jesus corrected Mary. She, falling into the popular usage, had said, “Thy father and I.” Jesus said, “God is my Father.” (3) He recognized that He had a high and holy mission that set Him apart from the normal regulations of a home. Again He corrected Mary. She had set forth that He had not been faithful to the obligations of their home. He responded that He had been fulfilling a higher obligation in His Father’s house. How much He knew of His divine mission at this time, we do not know, but He certainly did not learn any of the above things in any schoolroom or from Mary. The scene proves His direct contact with God. God was filling Him completely with wisdom as the occasion of increasing years demanded.

Solitude

Amid the busy life in carpenter shop, home, and synagogue, were there not many hours and days of solitude? The scene in the temple at Jerusalem emphasizes His loneliness. Even Mary did not understand His nature and purposes. Hours of silent communion with God in mountain or desert formed a large part of His intensely active public ministry. How much more would we expect this while He waited at Nazareth for the coming of the Holy Spirit as the apostles waited in Jerusalem before Pentecost. From the summit of a mountain at Nazareth Jesus could sit overlooking the old Roman road and watch the caravans carrying the commerce of the Eastern world toward Egypt or Syria. Here or occasionally in the desert or by the lake shore, the Boy and the Man must have meditated on the needs of a lost world and engaged in constant communion with the heavenly Father.

Service A modern writer of fiction has furnished a most beautiful and satisfactory picture of the youth of Jesus. Ben-Hur lies in the dusty road at Nazareth, disheveled, exhausted, famished, and in chains. The Roman soldiers, halting for the moment, stand scowling at the villagers and none dare help the unfortunate prisoner,

“Thereupon a youth who came up with Joseph, but had stood behind him, unobserved, laid down an axe He had been carrying, and, going to the great stone standing by the well, took from it a pitcher of water. The action was so quiet that before the guard could interfere, had they been disposed to do so, He was stooping over the prisoner, and offering him a drink” (Ben-Hur, p. 130). A gentle hand laid upon the shoulder of young Ben-Hur and a single look from wondrous eyes drive out of his heart the hatred and the feverish plans for revenge for the cruel wrong he has suffered. The hand of the young Nazarene is placed upon his head with a subdued blessing and the soldiers move on with their prisoner.

All of the miracles were compressed into His public ministry, but certainly not all of His divine understanding or His love and His deeds of kindness. Whatever else transpired during His youth at Nazareth, we can be sure that much of it was devoted to quiet and loving service.