Grew in Stature and Favor Huh?
Whether one is Christian or not, Jesus is a name pretty much everyone is familiar with. Scripture, the approved Cannon doesn’t include anything from His childhood and I often wondered why. I was sure someone had recorded His childhood somewhere, but the church didn’t seem interested in that. On Youtube I came across speaks of some of the gospels that have been left out of the bible. When hearing them the grew in part makes sense.
As much as He was The Christ for those of us who accept that He was also human and as a child with his particular gifts He could wreak havoc and it seems He may have. Perhaps the church felt if these glimpses of His childhood where He did wreak a bit of havoc with His gifts, anger would have diminished His being The Christ, but I see it differently. What it shows is that like being on the human path has ups and downs, it requires us to learn, grow, become disciplined in our actions, our words and our reactions. The fact that Jesus was very much human, even as He was Christ, and struggled with anger, having to correct consequences of this childhood and youth does not for me anyway diminish that in any way. As a matter of fact it tells me that one can discipline one’s words etc.. and one should. The follies and sometimes arrogance of youth do not need to carry on into adulthood. Then there are gospels that for example have Peter see the horrors of Hades and it does not frighten me so much as give me that kick in the rear to self reflect on my life regularly and ask if I am abiding by a strong ethical and moral code and if I’m not to get on track with that. Choices have consequence in the physical world, but it also harms the soul when we go the route of darkness, selfishness etc..
We need to find a balance so that we are not pushovers, don’t get trampled on, but also have empathy, and one where we discern ethical, and moral actions from those that are not, without becoming legalistic in our faith journey. As I have shared my ancestry discovery has been interesting and I have discovered ties to nobility and all that, as well as to the Persian Mizrahi and Septharic community via my maternal line. How will I honor my heritage? I am going to work on a deeper prayer life, praying in Hebrew daily, seek to have a more Kosher diet and when I can attend Chabbad events. Again, choice plays a huge part in life because the choices made by my ancestors have affected in a sense what heritage I grew up with. Not that I would ever renounce my belief in Jesus as Christ, but in really studying Jesus it seems to me He was born and died a Jewish man, a Middle Eastern Jewish man. My moving to honor my Persian Jewish roots, maturing how I deal with life, people etc…honors Jesus and the totality of who I am. That is important.
Amen