Jesus was a baby just like every other baby, and yet there has never been a baby like Him. He was God, clothed in human flesh. Have you ever tried to imagine what those early days were like: when Jesus took His first steps, when He spoke His first words. Like every other baby, He would cling to his mother, and He felt safe in the strong embrace of Joseph. As he grew older, He would run barefoot all over Nazareth with His childhood friends, enjoying just being a boy. When He accompanied His parents to the synagogue, what did He hear as He listened to the Priest? At what point did the God part of Him begin to push the human part of Him into the background? I would love to have seen that.
The only information we are given from His childhood revolves around a trip to the Temple in Jerusalem when He was twelve years old. Mary and Joseph have been harshly criticized for not realizing that Jesus wasn’t with them for one whole day when they began their journey home. But their criticism is based on a lack of understanding the customs of that day and how much different the world was then than it is now. While my Mom and Dad never misplaced me for a day, I do remember a time when it was safe to roam all over town with my friends long past the setting of the sun, with no thoughts of anyone doing me harm. Mama and Daddy often had no idea where I was, but they were confident I was safe. I think Mary and Joseph were confident that Jesus was okay. Little did they know the humanity of Jesus was about to take a step back, and the deity of Christ was about to come to the forefront.
As I mentioned earlier, I wonder what Jesus was thinking as he listened to His local priest. In Luke Chapter 2, Jesus began speaking with a group of people who were probably much more educated and schooled in Judaic law than His priest in Nazareth. Luke 2:46-48, “And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. And when they (Mary & Joseph) saw Him, they were amazed.” Can you imagine how these leaders at the Temple in Jerusalem must have felt when a twelve-year-old boy was asking and answering questions that left them baffled? And not only that, according to verse 48, Mary and Joseph were amazed. Although another eighteen years would pass before Jesus began His public ministry, this was a defining moment in His life.
At some point over the next eighteen years, Joseph dies because he doesn’t appear when Jesus steps out of the shadows into the spotlight of history. It began with a trip to the Jordan River. We know from Luke Chapter 1 that Jesus and John were cousins. What we don’t know is how much time they spent together. Based on John 1:33, John the Baptist didn’t seem to know that Jesus was the Messiah until the day when Jesus came walking down the river and asked John to baptize Him. John 1:33, “And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.” On that day, when John saw Jesus, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
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