A Boy and His Mom
A young mother was tucking in
her five-year old son at bedtime. The walls of the room were bare except for random
smears of mud on the bare, rock walls enclosing the tiny room. Bare logs, also
jointed with mud, formed a ceiling. An oil lamp burning on a small, wooden
table provided the only light. After saying their prayers, the son spoke
quietly, as if to avoid awaking his younger siblings. “Mom, today the priest
was reading from the book of Isaiah where it says God will send a savior. We
already go to the synagogue and study and worship God and pray to him. We
follow the Law and have faith in God. Why do we need another savior?” “Well
Son,” the mother said, “we’re having a pretty hard time following the Law and
we don’t always keep God’s commandments. And also with the cost of living going
up so fast, we’re having a hard time coming up with all those perfect animals." [This is my story, so I can have her say that.] “So the savior God has promised
will offer one truly perfect sacrifice which will save the whole world
once and for all, for all who will receive it. He will be called by many names
- Prince of Peace, Bright Morning Star, Lily of the Valley, Redeemer, Name
Above All Other Names and Son of the Most High, just to name a few. “Oh”, he
said with eyes wide in amazement. After a few moments of pensive silence, the
boy said “Mom?” “Yes Son.” “Do we know when the savior will arrive?” “Yes son,” the mother spoke with quivering
lips. “We do, and he’s already here.” “Well who is it and where does he live?” he
asked. It was as though a sword had just
pierced her soul. She remembered Simeon prophesying “And a sword will pierce
your own soul too.” This was the moment she had dreaded since her first
encounter with Gabriel a little over five years prior. Knowing another of the
names for her son would be “Man of Sorrows”, no words could describe the hurt she
now felt for him. But in a large cauldron of emotions, she also felt unbridled
pride and humility - knowing she had been favored among women, having been
chosen to bear and rear the “Light of the World”.
Out of God’s love, the
Comforter came to her in that moment and gave her the words to say: “Well my
precious Jesus, I’m sure God will reveal him to you at the right time. Jesus
lay silent, processing what he had just heard. He sensed there was more to the
story than his mother had presently revealed. He had a special feeling that his
role in the story might somehow be more than that of an ordinary
five-year-old. After many seconds which
seemed like an eternity, he finally spoke. “What will the Son of the Most High have
to do – and how will he find the super-perfect sacrifice?” As tears streaked
down her face, Mary replied “God will show you the answers to those and many
more questions in due time.” “Mom, why are you crying?” Jesus said. Honestly
reflecting half of her emotions without giving away the painful part, Mary
replied: “Because I am so happy God is sending a savior.” “Oh, OK Mom.” replied
Jesus as he turned his head into the straw-stuffed pillow to drift off to
sleep. “I love you, Mom.” “I love you too, Jesus.”
And the child grew and became strong; he was filled
with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. (Luke 2:40, NIV.)
Fast-forward 27 years. In a heart-wrenching
display of both his complete humanity and his complete divinity, Jesus prays: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew
26:39, KJV.)
_______
It is fascinating to
think about when and how Jesus learned he was the messiah. The Bible does not
say. In fact, we know very little of Jesus’s early life. After Jesus’s birth, Mary and Joseph took the
child and left for Egypt to escape Herod’s command that the messiah be found
and killed. After Herod died they moved to Nazareth in Galilee. They traveled
to Jerusalem each year for the Feast of the Passover. When Jesus was twelve, he
was accidentally left behind in the temple. He was found listening to the
teachers of the law. The next record of Jesus was at his baptism.
Aside from Matthew’s and Luke’s
records of his birth and Luke 2:40, there is no Bible record of his childhood until
his study in the temple at age 12. So the foregoing vignette is simply the
product of my imagination. The objection from some I have shared the story with
is this. “Since Jesus is not a created being, but has always existed, he is
timeless. He created the universe. How could he not know as an infant he was
God’s son?” That is a fair question. We know Jesus is fully God. But we also know
that from the time he was conceived, he has been fully man. Phil 2:5-8 “…Christ Jesus … made himself nothing … being
made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
We know Jesus occupied a
human body with all its organs. He had a stomach which became hungry when
empty. Jesus’s temptation in the dessert following his baptism would not have
been temptation if he had not suffered hunger. We know he had human emotions,
as he wept at the death of Lazareth and anguished over Israel’s rejection of
him as their messiah. His veins flowed with blood and his body was made largely
of water, both of which were shed at his crucifixion. He breathed. Lk 23:46 “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father,
into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his
last.” Because his flesh was capable of being scarred from the injury and
healing processes, he was able to show Thomas his wounds. There is no evidence,
Biblical or otherwise, that Jesus somehow had a body biologically different in
any way from that of any other of the species.
Finally, we have from Luke
2:40, that Jesus “…grew and became strong
[and was] was filled with wisdom…” as a child. I draw from the “filled with
wisdom” phrase that Jesus obtained wisdom as he grew. He developed from having
no wisdom to having great wisdom. He had a special, completely submissive
relationship with his Father. That process was continuing as he studied in the
temple. Lk 2:46 “After three days they
found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them
and asking them questions.” These verses, coupled with the logical
conclusion that Jesus’s brain must have developed in a manner similar to that
of any other child, supports that at birth he didn’t possess a brain capable of
logical thought, let along self-awareness. No, I believe all the evidence and
logic strongly suggest Jesus became aware of his deity at some point between
leaving for Egypt and his baptism by John.
To those who would say since
Jesus is God, he knows everything, I would refer them to Matthew 24:36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not
even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Jesus was
speaking of his second coming. I believe Jesus, the one who created all things,
knew everything before his incarnation. But in his incarnation, he willingly
set aside for a short time his omniscience to become like us biologically and
mentally in every way.
Theologians don’t agree on this point.
See Note 1 below.
Assuming the reader can
accept the possibility Jesus wasn’t born with a self-awareness that he was the
messiah, how then did he obtain that knowledge? Instead of learning he was the
messiah from his mother, God the Father could have sent Gabriel or another
angel to break the news to Jesus. It seems unthinkable to me God would choose
to send a lowly messenger to reveal to the one who would save the world he was
the chosen one. This would be analogous to sending an email for such a
monumental revelation.
No, I think there are only three
possibilities. 1. He was told by his mother, Mary. 2. He was told by the Holy
Spirit. 3. Jesus was told of his deity directly by his Father, God. We are told
a lot about Jesus’s relationship with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. Cases
can be made for each of them. We are told relatively little about his
relationship with his biological mother. The whole of the Bible record of the
great love between Jesus and his father suggests, even demands, it would have
been God himself who appeared to Jesus at the appointed time.
Finally, it must be said it
is not important to know when or how Jesus achieved this knowledge. Had it been
so, God would have revealed it to us through the Bible.
My hope in and inspiration for
writing this article was to cause the reader to think critically about what he
or she believes concerning Jesus. And through the thought, I hope you grow
closer to Jesus by understanding that because he lived in a flesh and blood
body, he can sympathize with us completely. If you don’t know Jesus as your
Lord and Savior, I pray the article will draw you to his saving grace.
Note 1: Did Jesus know
everything in his incarnation? Here is a case for “yes”:
Here is a very good article that
thinks “no”. The debate which follows in the comments section is also
interesting.
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