There was a man who was born in an obscure village as the child of a peasant woman.  He grew up in another obscure village and worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty; and then for three years was an itinerant preacher.

          He never wrote a book.  He never held public office. He never owned a home or had a family.

He never went to college or put his foot inside a big city.  He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born.  He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness.  He had no credentials but himself. 

          While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him.  His friends abandoned him; one of them even denied him.  Another betrayed him and turned him over to his enemies.  He went through the mockery of a trial and was nailed upon a cross between two thieves.  While he was dying his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth—his coat. When he was dead, he was taken down and laid to rest in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. 

          More than nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the center of the human race and respected leader of millions of people.  All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected mankind upon this earth as powerfully as has this ONE SOLITARY LIFE.* 

                                    “Truly this man was the Son of God.”  Mark 15:39

Jesus’ birth was historically documented and is celebrated each year around the world; but other than what we read in Luke 2:41-52 the Bible does not tell us anything about his childhood and youth. From this account we do know that  Mary and Joseph were devout in their religious observances and as required by their faith, made the yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. In addition, they brought their 12-year-old son to celebrate his first Feast in preparation for his bar mitzvah at age 13, when Jewish boys commemorate their passage into adulthood–a typical boy in a typical family of that day.

We also learn that after the festivities, Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem with the other pilgrims, but Jesus lingered in the temple where he “astonished the teachers with his wisdom and knowledge.”  When after three days he was he was found and admonished, he explained that he was “about his Father’s business.”  He then left Jerusalem and returned to Nazareth with his parents and “was obedient to them.”  We hear nothing more of Jesus until his baptism by John in the Jordan River at age 30.  Evidently, this is all God determined that we needed to know; but could it be that for his transgression Jesus was grounded for 18 years?  

Wishing You a Blessed Easter

and

All the Joys of a New Beginning

*Although frequently credited to an anonymous author, the passage above may have been written and preached by Phillips Brooks, pastor and author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” It is documented to have been delivered on July 11, 1926, to the Baptist Young People’s Union at a Los Angeles Convention by Dr, James Allan Francis. He was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, became a pastor at the age of 21 and served in ministry for the remainder of his life.  His first pastorate was in NYC at the Riverside Baptist Church and after serving in several other parishes in the East, he moved to Los Angeles in 1914.

Information printed with permission from Celebrating Holidays:

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