Jesus' Upbringing Probably Sucked Too!

In Mark 6:1-6 we find an interesting bit of insight into the full life of Jesus.

He went away from there and came to His hometown, and His disciples followed Him. 2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom given to Him, and how are these miracles performed by His hands? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t His sisters here with us?” So they were offended by Him. (HCSB)

In his hometown, where Jesus grew up, the place where people observed him reveals some aspects of His life that I hadn’t thought of before. When the people in his neighborhood are asking where he got the wisdom and insight to the scriptures and life, where did the power to perform miracles come from? You start to see that Jesus didn’t have an “Ozzie and Harriet” upbringing. “Isn’t this the carpenter?” Or in another rendering, “the carpenter’s son”. There was a certain disdain for trades-people even though without them life could not function. Trades-people were not rich people. They worked long hours trying to fulfill the demands of people who looked at them with contempt. Jesus under Joseph was a carpenter, and this trade was to be his lot in life, not an untrained Rabbi. So the people who lived in the same neighborhood saw Jesus grow up. The text doesn’t say, (other than the brief episode in the temple courts when Jesus was twelve years old), but I wonder if there was a real sense of jealousy among the parents and of Jesus’s peers? I.e. “Why can’t you be like that boy Jesus?” “Now there is a very well behaved boy, I bet his parents are very proud of him”. There is also the unspoken question of Jesus’ real father. I can imagine there were plenty of whispers and finger pointing among the neighbors regarding Mary’s early unwed pregnancy. One could consider that the whispering made by the neighboring parents, were spoken loudly and abrasively when the children gathered to play. I wonder if the other children were allowed to play with Jesus due to his father’s profession and his controversial conception? Would it be a stretch to believe that Jesus himself after hearing the verbal jabs from the neighborhood kids telling him he doesn’t look anything like Joseph, was a question at some point posed to his mother Mary? It could have been that Jesus didn’t get to play much, being the oldest male child he had to both help Joseph in the shop and Mary with the household chores and his younger siblings.

We fail to think about the period from the spectacular humble birth story to the twelve-year-old account in the temple and the gap between the time he reemerges at age thirty. There was a lot of life that took place in those unaccounted for periods. The rumors that must have swirled about the family from the outside and the usual rivalries among siblings on the inside would have made it difficult to navigate life. Within the family dynamic, it may have been similar to what the Patriarch Joseph experienced from his brothers when wearing his hand tailored coat given to him by his father Jacob? I wonder if Jesus received special favor from Mary, based on those things she pondered in her heart about her amazing son.

One could speculate further about the contempt expressed towards the family in Nazareth, but one thing for sure, Jesus didn’t grow up in a perfect “cookie cutter” “Ozzie and Harriet” home. He could have easily claimed he was a victim of his environment, that he didn’t grow up on the “right side of the tracks” and spent his formidable years constantly being harassed by others. When it says the Devil left him until an opportune time didn’t just mean during the trial and crucifixion. This realization that Jesus didn’t grow up in a perfect Christian home, or with a silver spoon in his mouth is encouraging to me and hopefully to others as well.

I believe knowing His true identity was a huge help for his personal maturation. I don’t mean the truth that He is the Son of God, but that He was greatly loved, and knew who His real Father was and is.

This could be argued by the account of the affirmation given him by His Heavenly Father at his baptism. I also wonder if one aspect of his temptation encounter in the wilderness by Satan wasn’t another reminder of the barrage of contempt and identity questions that swirled in his neighborhood growing up?

Let’s face it, life can really suck! It can weigh heavily on you regardless of your pedigree or upbringing. Your upbringing and environment will have some effect on the thoughts you have and the choices you make, but they should never be used as an excuse for not thriving in life. Learning Who’s you are and focusing on how much you are greatly loved can heal a great deal of pain and loss. Whatever life you have experienced can be used for His glory. In fact, He will see to it that it does. It starts by believing what is true about us, what God says is true about us. His word, the Bible is quite clear regarding how He truly feels about us. Here’s a hint…it is beyond anything we could ever imagine! Everything else we may believe regarding our sense of worth is a lie.

So be encouraged. You are dearly loved! You may not have had the best upbringing, Jesus surely didn’t, but know that He identifies with your pain and sense of dysfunction. So too, know you can overcome every and any adversity that is thrown your way because of He who overcame both sin and death not to mention a life less than ideal. All of our negative experiences are but tools at His disposal to be used for His glory and our betterment.

Hard or Soft Water? Let Your Faith Decide

“Come! ” He said. And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.  But when he saw the strength of the wind,  he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me! ”

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt? ” 

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.  Then those in the boat worshiped Him and said, “Truly You are the Son of God! ” (Matthew 14:29-33)

Recently I heard great teaching from a great man (Dr. Bill Dogterom) whom I greatly admire. He told the story from Matthew’s Gospel and described in first person the account of Jesus and Peter walking on the water. Like you I have heard that story a thousand times before, but probably like you missed a key element of that story.

We talk about bold Peter saying to Jesus, “command me to come to You on the water”. (Matthew 14:28) We point out that Peter was the only disciple to actually get out of the boat etc. We know that at one point Peter was standing solidly on the sea, which for a fisherman must have freaked him out, but in a cool sort of way. The text doesn’t say how many steps Peter took, but it says he walked on the water towards Jesus. Yay Peter! So at this point, Peter’s faith in Jesus would appear to be rock solid. Next Peter begins to have that same sinking feeling we all have when our current reality is immersed in fear. The moment we see life’s “impossibles” those situations that all of the sudden appear and its weight starts to pull us down to the point we think we will drown.

Here is what I have missed all these years. When Jesus grabs a hold of a sinking Peter and says to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt? ” I have always perceived this as a disappointed rebuke from Jesus, but it would make more sense that Jesus was laughing when He says it. The same way a parent should respond when your child does something silly. Why do we lean towards believing that God is angry and disappointed in us instead of one who lovingly guides and redirects us? Peter never lost his faith in Jesus, he cried out to Him to save him. My “aha” moment was the fact that Jesus was referring to Peter’s faith from a grander perspective. Peter lost faith in himself, in the fact that Jesus had called him to be His disciple, called him to greatness, Jesus called Peter to follow Him which in that day being asked by a Rabbi to be an apprentice was the highest of affirmations. The person God calls He also equips.

My lack of faith isn’t usually because I have a limited theological belief in God, but a false reality belief that God doesn’t believe in me. When we forget who called us, who claims us as His own, who bids us to walk on water in the sense of attempting the impossible, we express little faith. When we forget to believe what is true about us, what God says about us, we like Peter, exercise little faith, doubting who we are and Whose we are.

Faith in this sense is both faith in God and in the truth that we have been filled with Him in every capacity without limit. Believing and living in a manner that reflects who God says we are, His beloved children, His masterpieces is what separates us the supernatural life experiences from the natural.

It time to get out of the “boat”, believe that Jesus has called us to come to Him, and watch what He does in and through us.