033. Chapter 12 - The Youth of Jesus in the Mind of the Modernist
Chapter 12 - The Youth of Jesus in the Mind of the Modernist The Modernistic Tendency The current tendency to deny the miracles of Jesus and so strongly emphasize His humanity as to destroy His divinity expresses itself in picturing the youth of Jesus as entirely normal. It has become the fashion even among men of sterling faith to fall in with this tendency so far as to attribute only moral perfection to Jesus in His youth and to suppose that physically and mentally He was as imperfect as any other boy. A very moderate statement of this view is as follows: “I can understand how that Jesus, when He was going to school, made mistakes in His lessons, as you and I did, while He was increasing His wisdom. I can even understand how He made mistakes in trying to learn the carpenter trade, in running errands for His mother, and in many other ways, just as you and I did. I can understand how He might have done these things if He was made in all things like unto His brethren and took upon Himself the likeness of our flesh.” This is coupled with a hair-splitting attempt to discriminate between mistakes and sins and the argument that such mistakes as described above would not be sins. The Perfection of Jesus That Jesus lived a sinless life is directly affirmed by the Book of Hebrews and is plainly intimated by Jesus Himself and the entire New Testament. The attempt to separate the life of Jesus off into air-tight compartments — physical, mental, and spiritual — is not very impressive. There is not the slightest suggestion that Jesus ever suffered any physical ailments or diseases. The very opposite is implied. He needed no physician. He was the great Physician for all the race. In the same way it is nowhere stated or implied that Jesus ever suffered from the mental ailments that cause errors and mistaken judgments. On the other hand He is set forth as the great and inerrant Teacher of the race. Did Jesus Go to School?
It is well to remember in reconstructing the youth of Jesus that not merely the Child Jesus but also the Boy and Man are included in any assertions as to mistakes or imperfections.
Some critics argue that since Christ “increased in favor of God” (Luke 2:52), He must have changed from a sinful to a sinless state at some stage of His development. They argue that the only thing that can win God’s favor is such a moral change. But the mere question as to when and how such a change took place in the character of Jesus explodes this theory. He evidently increased in God’s favor as He grew in stature and capacity. His steadfast and perfect use of the powers bestowed at each stage of development must have evoked God’s favor. The increasing power and achievements of His boyhood would be a reason for the increasing favor of God. It is not necessary to drag the youth of Jesus down into the mire of sin in order to see how God’s favor increased toward Him. It is a far cry from the picture that Jesus “when He was going to school, made mistakes in His lessons, as you and I did, while He was increasing in wisdom,” to the picture that Luke presents of the very young Child being “completely filled with wisdom.” And the scene in the temple at the age of twelve follows immediately and interprets the above phrase. The picture of Jesus clumsy of hand and foot in the carpenter shop, suffering the rebuke of the village schoolmaster or forgetting what His mother wanted Him to do on an errand is a complete contradiction of the records of Luke. Our previous study has shown that Jesus’ reply to His mother in the temple proves that He was in direct touch with the heavenly Father. His words reveal, not the information current in a village synagogue, but rather a divine wisdom. Would God give Christ that wisdom to confound the learned doctors in Jerusalem and desert Him in the schoolroom at Nazareth, leaving Him nonplused and helpless before the village schoolmaster? The whole proposition that Jesus went to school in His youth is a figment of the imagination. The Gospel narratives never picture Him in the attitude of seeking information from men. His critics who found themselves unable to comprehend or withstand His teachings bore unconscious testimony to this. But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus therefore answered them and said, My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me.
— John 7:14-16. The citation of Hebrews 2:17 that He was made “in all points like unto his brethren” must apply to the entire earthly career of Jesus. If this is cited to prove that Jesus was a normal boy making mistakes as other boys do, it must also be admitted to prove that Jesus made His mistakes during His public ministry just as other men do. This leaves neither certainty nor authority for His entire teaching and life. But nothing could be further from the mind of the author of Hebrews than this. His argument is that Jesus was not an angel, but a man. He shared flesh and blood with us. He was tempted; He suffered for us. But no author is stronger or clearer in specific assertions of the unique personality of Jesus and that He did not share the limitations of knowledge and power that cause us to err constantly. The Gospels represent that Jesus failed at times: the unbelief of the people of Nazareth caused Him to fail to do the mighty works there He had done elsewhere; the unbelief of the Scribes and Pharisees caused Him to fail to win them. But there is not the slightest suggestion that He ever failed when it was His own fault, when His own ignorance or weakness caused the failure. Jesus failed, but only in the sense that God fails when, through the exercise of the sovereign power of the freedom of the will, man in his perversity thwarts God’s plans. The Mystery of the Incarnation The fact that Jesus frankly admitted during His ministry that He did not know the time of His second coming does not impinge upon the perfection of His character for He declared that God had not revealed this to Him. In exactly the same way, the fact that He increased in wisdom during His youth does not mar the perfection of Jesus for Luke also affirms that He was completely filled with wisdom. Imperfection is sin, if perfection is possible. Any imperfection for which Christ was responsible would have been a sin. The fact that Jesus was subject to temptation does not mar His perfection. God can not be tempted of evil. It is impossible for God to lie or to commit any evil. Jesus was tempted. It was possible for Jesus to do wrong or temptation would have had no meaning for Him. This is part of the mystery of the incarnation. But the fact that Jesus could be tempted does not impair His character any more than the fact that He did not know the time of His second coming. These were limitations which God in His infinite wisdom had decreed His Son should endure while in the flesh. Temptation is not a sin; it is the yielding to temptation that is sinful.
Unbelief of the People of Nazareth The fact that the people of Nazareth did not recognize anything unique in His character and conduct during His youth is cited by modernists to prove that His youth was normal. It is well to examine these witnesses before they are permitted to take the stand in this case. Who were they? The unbelievers of Nazareth who are summoned by the unbelievers of the twentieth century to help them to sustain their case! If the unbelieving attitude of the people of Nazareth proves that Jesus was normal in His youth, then their testimony also proves that Jesus never worked miracles in His ministry and that He was but a mere man. They rejected Him and His claims completely. If their testimony is valid, then it discredits not merely the perfection of Jesus’ youth, but also the power and uniqueness of His ministry. Two conclusions may be drawn from their failure to recognize the unique character and conduct of Jesus in His youth. One is that their unbelief and callous indifference had utterly blinded them to the facts of His youth and to the miraculous facts of His ministry. The other is that Jesus had made no display of His virtue, wisdom or power during His youth at Nazareth. The visit to the temple at the age of twelve seems to be a single gleam of light which He permitted to shine forth during this whole period. He gave proof of His miraculous information on this occasion, but after this lapsed into utter obscurity as He made Himself subject to Joseph and Mary. At any further visits to the temple He probably did not engage the scholars in any further discussion; else the ministry of Jesus would have been pushed back into His youth and the attention of the nation focussed upon Him as a boy. When He came to the temple for other feasts, He doubtless was lost in the great crowd and attracted no attention. There is no reason why the people of Nazareth could not have overlooked His unique character. It is always easy for the world to overlook virtuous persons, if they are obscure. The selfish, wicked character of the people of Nazareth accentuated their blindness to the character of Jesus. Those who hesitate to affirm that Jesus had miraculous guidance in His youth need to ponder the prediction of the angel concerning John the Baptist: “He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” If John the Baptist grew up in the wilderness, without instruction from a village schoolmaster, but instructed and guided by the Holy Spirit, how much more is this miraculous guidance true of the Son of God? For of Him it is written: “But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and because he needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25). The Uniqueness of Jesus When Jesus came to this world, He emptied Himself, says Paul, of His heavenly glory; but even as a young Child, asserts Luke, God “completely filled him with wisdom” — furnishing that measure of wisdom and strength which each stage of development and each occasion demanded. If Jesus had made a mistake, it would certainly have been a violation of His conscience. He would have failed to use the wisdom and power God was returning to Him and would have failed to do what was justly expected of Him. Jesus did not always attempt what was required of Him by His critics. He did not leap from the pinnacle of the temple, neither did He show a sign from Heaven. He only attempted that which could justly be required of Him. And His inspired biographers insistently represent His life as errorless. We cannot fill in the details of how Jesus spent His time during His childhood and during His early manhood. But we can be sure that His life was unique, free from sin, and absolutely full of divine wisdom and perfection at every stage of His development.