Who's Asking?
"After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." (Luke 2: 46, 47)
It's the time of year that I always find myself thinking about the human Jesus. When I think about that little baby lying in the manger, it's a far cry from the miraculous, supernatural Christ. I don't know why it's so hard for me to see the "fully man" side of Jesus, but I suspect it has something to do with growing up and going to Sunday school. See, I learned a lot of stories about walking on water, healing the sick, and raising the dead. But I never heard any about being tired or hungry.
Even this 12-year-old Jesus that stayed at the temple when his mom and dad had left for home seems to have more of a Godly persona in my mind than a human one. The way I always heard the story, indeed the way I read it in most commentaries, is that the boy was quizzing the Rabbis. These were the questions he was asking them, and the answers which amazed him were to those queries.
My problem with this is that it steals from Jesus one of the most human qualities there is: the act of learning. Certainly, there had to be a time in his life when Jesus didn't know who he was, just as we know there was a time when he certainly did know. Barclay thinks that his moment of discovery was this day at the temple. I'm really not sure...and I'm even less sure about the accepted interpretation of the question-and-answer session. Couldn't Jesus and the teachers have been asking each other questions? And couldn't their astonishment stem from the realization that this young boy was their peer?
I don't know. But seeing Jesus as learning, as understanding his mission as he grew and matured helps me to see the human side of him. I'd love to hear other thoughts.
posted by Thurman8er @ 1:18 PM
6 Comments:
It never ceases to amaze me what I learn that I thought I already knew from Sunday School and sermons! I just purchased Dr. Kenneth Bailey's book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. He is a NT scholar who lived in the middle east for forty years. Chapter one is about the birth of Jesus ... so much we take for granted from our Sunday School lessons that simply are not reality! Though I'm not that far into the book, others have said this chapter and the one on Jesus and women are well worth the price of the book.
First, I need to get that book Greg is talking about.
I seem to remember either Shelly or Atchley teaching about the Biblical concept of Heaven and it being as the Garden of Eden would have been before the fall of Man, here on Earth. Which ever one it was, they spoke of their opinion of that reality. That there would have been pain and injury if you fell out of one of the Garden’s trees.
Now, this may be “Exam Week rambling” but if you believe that concept and the fact that Jesus said, “I have come to give life and more abundant life,” then what we see in Jesus is how Heaven should operate here on Earth. I believe that “Heaven” and Jesus would also contain a capacity to feel pain, learn, enjoy a good joke, and perhaps even like cats. :)
What do you think, should I go back to factoring quadratics?
If Jesus could learn, he could also forget. At least, that has been my human experience.
cwinwc (who happens to be one of my best friends in life) wrote, "Jesus ... [would] perhaps even like cats."
You need to put a stop to this type of heresy right now!! I know of some churches in the south that have very rigid theological questionnaires that you could use ... never mind, then I'd never be able to leave a comment. But SOMETHING has to be done!! :)
Since Greg knows this particular cat personally, how about my cat, "Buddy?"
The human side of Jesus has become a very precious and comforting aspect of His "being" to me.
There is NO doubt whatsoever that he liked(s) cats! :)
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