GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH SEMINARY
MODULE 10 --- JESUS OF NAZARETH
JESUS’ MISSING YEARS
Objectives; By the end of this Module you should
1. Have knowledge of Jesus' teenage years and His 'Missing Years'
2. Have an appreciation of different traditions as to how Jesus spent His Missing Years as a young man
3. Be able to read the Gospels to gain a deeper insight into Jesus' formative years
4. Be able to continue to develop your personal living relationship with Jesus Christ in prayer
Contents;
10.1 Jesus' Teenage Years in Nazareth
10.2 Jesus and Marriage
10.3 The Missing Years of Jesus
10.4 Called to be Messiah
10.5 The Death of Joseph
10.1 . JESUS’ TEENAGE YEARS IN NAZARETH
Jesus returned to Nazareth after His escapade in Jerusalem, and entered a quiet period in His life. Adolescence with its changes and emotional need to start developing as an individual, and to forge the ability for a career now became driving forces in His Life. Joseph took pride in teaching Jesus the craft of carpentry, and Jesus spent many hours working in the family shop.
Jesus worked very hard at carpentry. All lumber was hand hewn. He became well used to hammers, saws, chisels, nails and planes. It is possible Jesus worked with stone as well as with wood, as wood was scarce in the region. It is also possible that He built and repaired boats by the Sea of Galilee, and ploughs and yokes for farmers.
Nazareth was probably too small to support full time carpenters, so Joseph and Jesus may have travelled to Sepphoris to find work or to sell their crafts. Herod Antipas financed a major construction project at Tiberius around 15 – 19 AD, which could have provided much work for carpenters in Galilee, including Jesus. Jesus came to know Herod Antipas, who later schemed to have him assassinated. He called Antipas a fox (The New Testament, the writer Luke Chapter 13 verse 32).
The pay per day for carpentry could be at most two sesterces per day, which was not a lot. Jesus and other carpenters could be thrown back on their own resources when jobs ran out. Jesus possibly had experience of standing with other workers, waiting and hoping to be chosen for work so they could buy food and pay for necessities. In later years Jesus drew on the experience in his sermon of the landowner and the men standing around, hoping for a day’s work (The New Testament, the writer Matthew Chapter 20 verses 1 to 16).
As a young boy, Jesus experienced at first hand the cheating and high taxation which went on of poor people like Himself. Jesus used this experience in his sermons, such as in his description of fraud (The New Testament, the writer Luke Chapter 16 verses 1 to 8). As a boy, Jesus was appalled at how people were treated financially in the Temple. In later years He vandalised the tables of the money changers, and the benches of the dove sellers. He drove out all dealers in the Temple, and it is clear that force was used (The New Testament, the writer Matthew Chapter 21 verses12 to 16). Jesus’ action stemmed from years of observing injustice towards Himself, His family and other people also in the poverty trap.
10.2 JESUS AND MARRIAGE
The usual time for men to marry in the time of Jesus arrived for Jesus. Joseph had taken Mary as wife. Now suitable brides were being looked at for Jesus. Jesus was well aware of the young women in Nazareth and Sepphoris. However, He must have somehow felt that now was not the right time for Him to settle. If He did, and fathered a family, He would be totally responsible for His family, and would not be free to follow the Father’s Will for Him which was to carry out the duties of a Messiah. And Jesus was still finding what those duties were.
Jesus wanted to become a spiritual leader, and was exploring what this call of His meant. He had heard the story of the constellations which had marked the skies at His birth, and also of the three astrologers who had travelled to His birthplace. Jesus was aware of the wisdom of other cultures, and experienced with the hard work for a pittance of money in Nazareth and Sepphoris.
Jesus as teenager became aware of many of the situations around Him in society. He saw the poverty widowhood caused for women. In later years He saw an elderly woman donate two coins, a small amount of money in His time which had the buying power of a loaf of bread. Yet His kindly and knowing eye saw that she had put in all she had to give from the desperate poverty in which she lived (The writer Mark, Chapter 12, verse 41).
Jesus saw the disempowerment of girls and women in society, and He determined that in the new ministry He was envisioning, He would give girls and women true place with roles in His ministry. In later years a woman became the first missionary preaching of His role as Messiah
(the writer John Chapter 4 verses 1 to 42). He chose a woman to be the first apostle to preach of His Resurrection (The writer John Chapter 20 verses 1 to 18).
10.3 . THE MISSING YEARS OF JESUS
Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus went to Nazareth at the age of twelve where He lived under His parents’ authority. Jesus increased in wisdom, stature and favour with God and His people (The Gospel of Luke Chapter 2, verses 51 to 52). The years after Jesus turned twelve have sometimes been called the Missing Years of Jesus. Various traditions abound.
One tradition holds that Jesus stayed in Nazareth, practising as a carpenter until the time came when He began His public ministry. When Jesus came to preach at Nazareth as a grown adult, the congregation asked each other was this not Joseph’s son (The New Testament, the writer Luke Chapter 4 verse 23). The congregation then tried to execute Jesus by throwing Him from a cliff, but at the place of execution He managed to escape. The people of Nazareth had been enraged by Jesus’ teachings, and the fact that He claimed that He was the Messiah, the fulfillment of the text of the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 61 verse 1 to 2 (the Old Testament).
Another tradition tells that Jesus went to the East in his early adult years, and that He travelled to India. An ancient manuscript in Ladakh, India, honour a great saint. The manuscript is called ‘The Life of St. Issa, the Best of the Sons of Men.’ Here Issa is the name for Jesus. The manuscript was written in the first or second century AD.
Spirituality in India embraces the Achar Samhita, the Code of Conduct. This includes teachings of Truthfulness, Mercy, Charity, Serving Others, Compassion and Ethics. According to the manuscript, St. Issa spent six years studying spiritual texts, and learning to tap His abilities to teach, heal the sick and perform exorcisms – all crucial to His healing public ministry.
Issa then reportedly left the area and moved to Nepal. Thereafter the manuscript records that Issa eventually returned to Israel, and began the last phase of His public ministry.
According to the manuscript, Issa proclaimed one God;
‘The eternal Lawgiver is One; there are no other Gods than He’.
St. Issa affirmed how sacred life is, teaching, ‘Not only must ye refrain from offering human sacrifices, but ye may not lay on the altar any creature to which life has been given’.
This is in line with Jesus’ driving out the dove sellers in the Jerusalem temple, preventing the sacrifice of innocent animals.
The teachings of St. Issa in India are laid out in the manuscript.
‘Deceive none, that ye may not yourselves be deceived’.
An old woman approached the group to hear Issa. She was pushed aside by one of the men, who was reprimanded by Issa.
Issa said, ‘It is not good for a son to push away his mother, that he may occupy the place which belongs to her. Who does not respect his mother – the most sacred being after His God – is unworthy of the name of son.
Hearken to what I say to you; Respect woman, for in her we see the mother of the universe, and all the truth of divine creation is to come through her.
She is the fount of everything good and beautiful, as she is also the germ of life and death. Upon her man depends in all his existence, for she is his moral and natural support in his labours.
In pain and suffering she brings you forth; in the sweat of her brow she watches over your growth, and until your death you cause her greatest anxieties.
Bless her and adore her, for she is your only friend and support on earth.
Respect her, defend her.
In so doing, you will gain for yourself her love; you will find favour before God, and for her sake many sins will be remitted to you.
Love your wives and respect them, for they will be the mothers of tomorrow and later the grandmothers of a whole nation.
Be submissive to the wife; her love ennobles man, softens his hardened heart, tames the wild beast in him and changes it to a lamb.
Wife and mother are the priceless treasures which God has given to you.
They are the most beautiful marvels of the universe, and from them will be born all who inhabit the world.
Even as the Lord of Hosts separated the light from the darkness, and the dry land from the waters, so does woman possess the divine gift of calling forth out of man’s evil nature all the good that is in him.
Therefore I say unto you, after God, to woman must belong your best thoughts, for she is the divine temple where you will most easily obtain perfect happiness.
Draw from this temple your moral force.
There you will forget your sorrows and your failures, and recover the love necessary to aid your fellow-men.
Suffer her not to be humiliated, for by humiliating her you humiliate yourselves, and lose the sentiment of love, without which nothing can exist here on earth.
Protect your wife, that she may protect you - you and all your household.
All that you do for your mothers, your wives, for a widow, or for any other woman in distress, you will do for your God." *
This beautiful manuscript is inspirational, as is the devotion of the Buddhist monks who have kept the manuscript safe.
Various other traditions are told of how Jesus spent His Missing Years. The Gospels do not give detail of this time in Jesus' Life, and we do not know for absolute certain what occurred. What we do know is that Jesus emerged from this time a vibrant Messiah, ready for the task that faced Him.
10.4 CALLED TO BE MESSIAH
As His relationship with God the Father had continued to grow during His younger years, Jesus had pondered His Call. If He were the Messiah, how was He to bring peace and happiness to the world? He had begun to seek an alternative to the pain and suffering He saw around Him by considering a new approach, a changeover to a society based on the Law of Love, caring, mercy and forgiveness. Jesus considered that complete and total Love, one for each other, with absolute respect for life, human and otherwise, was essential to bring about peace and happiness in all relationships. Jesus now set out on the road to learn the skills He needed.
10.5 THE DEATH OF JOSEPH
As Jesus grew stronger in body and mind as his years wore on, Joseph died. It is not clear what the cause of his death was, and there are no reliable records in the Scriptures as to what happened. The experience would have been a devastating blow to Jesus. A young man, on the way to adulthood, naturally relies on the male role model in his family. When his father dies, something precious dies. A relationship which could have supported Jesus in His years of ministry was no more, and Jesus grieved as only a child can grieve when a parent dies. Mary was left a widow, and according to the mores of the time, Jesus was now responsible for her care. If away, He would have returned home to take up his responsibility to be the new head of the household, caring for His Mother and providing a home for her as was the custom of the time. The next phase of Jesus' Life had begun ...
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright 2012 by Rev. Catherine Whittle D.D. All rights reserved.
* Quotation taken from http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/uljc/uljc17.htm
Photograph taken by Rev. Catherine. Please feel free to use copyright free for any worthy purpose.
