His Childhood

This past Sunday marked the third Sunday of Advent and the second message in our Christmas series we have called The Story. This is our attempt to consider the meaning of what is called the incarnation, God’s coming to us in the human life of Jesus. This past Sunday we considered Jesus as The Boy, and took time to reflect on his life between his birth and his full adult manhood, what are often called the silent years of Jesus.

If we consider the Jesus story as a whole, we realize that most of it is hidden from us. Most of what we might like to know about him, even purely for interest sake, is not told us. For instance, we are not told what he looked like. There is, in art history, a kind of common representation of him. But the only thing said in all of Scripture is from Isaiah 53:2, a text which anticipates the coming of the Messiah. It merely says: “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.” The fact that the gospel writers did not give us a physical description of Jesus might mean that, for them, the way he looked did not in any sense adequately represent the person he really was. That’s something to muse on.

We have only one story about him during these long silent years. The boy Jesus, age twelve, travels to Jerusalem with his family for the Jewish Passover. He surprises his parents by remaining behind, staying in the temple, listening to the teachers of Israel and asking questions. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” he asked them. It was clear that he knew who he was and what his life was about, even at that young age. You can read the story in Luke 2: 41-52. But following this he submitted himself to eighteen more years of silence and ordinariness. We hear nothing from the Son of God until his baptism by John. What can this mean to us?

Whatever these years of silence meant, it was his mother, Mary, who revealed the way. Mary was a contemplative, treasuring all that was happening. Mothers do this; they remember our lives. Mary remembered and saved all the pieces of the story, and then thought about what everything meant. It is very likely that our record of the birth narratives in Luke’s gospel came through Mary’s memory.

The word contemplate is derived from “temple” (the place of divinity); it means to observe things in a special place, especially in the presence of God. To be contemplative means to look at life in the presence of God, or through the eyes of God. It means to pay attention with a God-focused awareness. This is surely the meaning of the hidden years of Jesus. Before he did or said anything public, before his entrance onto the stage of ministry and public teaching, he spent those eighteen long years learning and growing in his knowledge of his Father, the world, and the shape of his mission. Before he acted, he contemplated the meaning of what he would do.

At Christmas, we are drawn to the gospel truth that God became one of us, and one with us. But consider this: that for the larger part of his life, Jesus lived in obscurity and made it sacred. We do not see the hidden life of anyone – just the results. But the life of Jesus reminds us that a hidden life oriented towards God is all-important.

Our Christmas series, The Story, continues this Sunday at Westside King’s Church with a talk entitled “The Man”. See you among the Christmas trees at 9:29 or 11:11 am. And remember that our Christmas Eve services will be held at 3:00, 4:30 and 7:00 pm.

Bob O