SLTJ:Ch 19

The Silent Years

© L.D. Underwood 2011

When reading the gospels, there is a noticeable gap between Christ’s early life—as a newborn and young man— and the beginning of his ministry as an adult. There is a gap we might call the “silent years.” Luke records events about Jesus’ childhood that a as a speaks to his prodigious attention to details we might expect from a physician. Luke 2 records “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.” In this, we see details of a sort of physician’s chart. We also see, essentially, his bar mitzvah—Jesus’ arrival at the age of accountability—that is to day adulthood: “And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast” (Lk 2:43, KJV). Luke also makes us aware that Jesus had a consciousness of his sonship as to who he was conscious of his deity: “And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?” (Lk 2:49, KJV).

Luke also records that “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Lk 2:52, KJV). Notice he increased in wisdom, which meant he grew mentally; which might boggle our minds because here is the omniscient one, the one who knows all who is growing in wisdom. He grew in stature, that is physically; in favor with God—spiritually; in favor with man—socially. In other words, here was very definite normal growth. While the Gospels are silent, we might surmise that Jesus at the age of 18 or 19, 20, 21, whatever the age might have been in that bracket of time, he is working in the father’s carpentry shop. It is very likely that Joseph may have died already before the family grew up. We guess that because there is no mention of Joseph after that early infancy of Christ. So, as the village craftsman of Nazareth, Jesus being the eldest son, would have to support his mother and the younger brothers and sisters, so it is obvious that he would know what it was to earn a living and knew what it was to come home tired at night. He knew what it was to have dissatisfied and critical customers at the shop. In other words, he didn’t live a protected or cushioned life.

This might raise the question, Was the work that Jesus did in the carpenter’s shop secular or sacred? It was, arguably, sacred. Some might believe in the false dichotomy between that which is secular and that which is sacred; but everything to a believer ought to be sacred or not be done at all. We compartmentalize so much; we say well taking an exam in a class or writing a paper, or spending some time in recreation; or those kinds of things we call secular so frequently, but everything has sacred implications to a person who is walking with God. Based on that notion, we might conjecture that Jesus made the best cabinets in town. We might also posit that while he was working in that ordinary per pursuit, he was bringing glory to the Father through the quality of his life. We might also suggest to that it would make a tremendous difference in the way we approach classes, or jobs that we have, or whatever it might be, if we will begin to see that everything that we do has sacred implications to it. We are not just turning a paper in to a professor, but we are also at the same time worshipping God in the quality of what we are producing as an expression or offering of praise to Him. It will revolutionize our whole lives if we get away from that secular humanistic view of dividing life into compartments and see it as one integrated whole.

In addition to this we have another piece of evidence which we can call “public comment.” That is, we have no man on the street survey or public opinion poll available. But we do have number of public reactions to Jesus and we know of course the public always reacts and makes an estimation of a person—it may be a faulty estimate; it may be just a general impression; but usually it is determined by emotion rather than by fact. But we can be quite assured of the fact that people are always making an impression of others. Jesus certainly grew up in a small town, and everybody recognized him as a normal boy. Apparently that is all. For example, in the next chapter of Luke, Luke 4:28 & 30, we have the statement made, “When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath and passing through their midst, he went away.” They were impressed of course with the way he talked; we find for example in Matthew 13, after giving a series of mystery parables, the reaction of the people expressed is, “Is not this the Carpenter’s son? Isn’t this the hometown boy we’re all familiar with; not someone who has a halo around his head or is segregated in some austere or mystical way, but one who is just a regular boy from town and now he is talking with this tremendous truth that he is proclaiming.

A third piece of evidence is what we might call the “prophet’s copy” and the prophet in this case is David and his copy is Psalm 69. We refer to Psalm 69 as a messianic psalm; that is to say, the Psalm vibrates with mention of the future Messiah. It is filled with Jesus Christ. In fact, we find that this Psalm is quoted eleven times in the New Testament as referring to Jesus Christ. Perhaps more than any other Psalm with maybe the exception of Psalm 22, the Psalm of the cross, Psalm 69 says a great deal and relives Christ’s earthly experience. For example, it begins, “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul; I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold. I've come into deep waters and the floods sweeps over me. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. Then verse 4 is quoted by Jesus himself, so there is no doubt of the application when reading: "they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away."

So, there is the slander, there is the denial of his enemies: the Scribes, the Pharisees, others who literally hated Jesus and the reason was because, until he came along side of them, they looked like pretty good men. Even in the temple, as a lad, he astounded them with his virtue. If we skip down to verse 8 he says, “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.” So there is even estrangement from his own family members.

The presence of Jesus in a household would have caused some difficulties perhaps. Some of us know from experience how hard it is to live with near perfection on the part of a brother or sister at home. Think how much harder it would be to live with absolute perfection. A stranger to his brethren, a stranger to his mother’s children. Going on the eleventh verse for example: “I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.” He becomes a proverb; he becomes a byword by the people. Little towns, as some of us know, can be very cruel. There were rumors of illegitimacy that were spreading. Undoubtedly, we can imagine, there was name calling and not only the best people in town, but also those in skid row would make up these disparaging odes and sing them about him and his mother. We can imagine there would be derision and insults and reproaches. We could just read through this whole sixty-ninth Psalm to get that kind of a picture. We have no idea what Jesus endured during those thirty years in order that we might have a clear title as legitimate sons and daughters of God. He suffered at the hands of men. That is one reason why the writer of Hebrews in the second chapter tells us that he can sympathize with us in every trial. We can see in those silent years a young man, growing naturally and normally; we hear the sound of a carpenter’s hammer; and I hear something of the sob of his soul.

There are of course a number of theories as to the brothers and sisters of Jesus. You have read about these already; the Roman Catholic view; the Hieronymian theory, established by Jerome in the Fourth century, saying that the brothers rather than being actual brothers, were cousins. Of course, the bottom line for that theory is to bolster the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity. The Epiphanian theory, again in the fourth century says that the brothers were only half brothers, sons of Joseph by a previous marriage—also trying to establish and maintain Mary’s virginity. Then the Helvidian theory, which is one that protestants would hold to, that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were his true siblings; were his true brothers and sisters. No one reading the New Testament without theological presuppositions, would ever think anything else than that. Certainly the birth narratives of the gospels presuppose that Mary had other children. That fact that Jesus was the firstborn would imply others to follow—being that he was the eldest son, he would support the rest of the family after the death of Joseph.

We are not certain about the physical appearance of Jesus, that is to say, what he looked like with any certainty. We know, based on scripture, he had complete humanity; that he advanced at each stage of growth; he was perfect at each step, or each step of that progression. That is, he didn’t probably didn’t act like a thirty year old when he was fourteen. There was a normal type of progression and growth in his life. But as far as his looks are concerned, we have no way of knowing for sure. The only portrait of Jesus given in the entire scripture is the one given in the first chapter in the book of the Revelation, which is a very symbolic picture. Anyone who would try to picture that in portrait form as one artist tried to do, would produce simply a monstrosity. But other than that, we have no physical description of Jesus given. We have a hint or two. For example, we know that the rabbis had some very definite standards for the outward appearance of any proper Jew, especially one who would be a teacher. He would have been severely and harshly criticized if those standards were not met. We have no indication that anyone ever scorned him for his physical presence. With some degree of speculation of course, one of those standards, that the Jews had, was that the claim that the reflection of the divine presence could only descend upon a man of tall, powerful stature. Again, with a marginal degree of speculation, we might have to agree that ruggedness would have to be at least part of the requirements because of his frequent journeys by foot in the land of Palestine. We know for example, that the color of a Palestinian Jew in antiquity was a light brown color. His eyes could either be brown, or blue. His hair would most likely be black. The hair normally was worn to the shoulder and beards and mustaches of course were again appropriately and commonly worn in that time. Again, we need to factor in some degree of conjecture when considering all this. While Jesus may not have been able to make a professional football team as a linebacker, as some popular youth speakers have tried to image him, it seems to be that he wasn’t a pale-faced weakling, or an effeminate kind of individual as some of the pictures or motion picture characterizations of Jesus seem to indicate. There’s a clue also in the Gospel of John in the eight chapter that indicates he was not yet fifty years of age, before he said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (8:48). The crowd said “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” We figure that Jesus is about 30 years of age give or take when he began his ministry; so it may imply that the sorrows and the cares of life as the man of sorrows may have made some imprint upon him. But even that is a bit weak.

There are descriptions of Christ of course, that come down from later times in history. We have that familiar one that is ordinarily referred to, that comes from the writings of St. Anselm of Canterbury in the eleventh century—a sort of an idealistic kid of picture. I personally have never seen a picture that pictures Jesus Christ as I would imagine him in my mind. Perhaps it is deliberate that we have no description of him because then again there would be worship of an image of Christ rather than seeing him as the man for all season and the one who appeals to humanity at large. There is no question he was a Jew, but certainly he didn’t capitalize on Jewishness in the sense of being exclusive. So maybe it is a good thing we do not have a complete record of how he looked.

We move now from this early period of preparation to what we will call the period of inauguration. The second major part of Christ’s life, which will begin from Christ’s baptism to his rejection at Nazareth. The baptism to rejection at Nazareth is a period of roughly fifteen months. We are now at the beginning of the public ministry of our Lord, which means he is about, we estimate, 30 years of age. At this time, Tiberius Caesar is the emperor of Rome, he has succeeded Augustus Caesar and we know at the beginning of John the Baptist career is the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar which would be the year 28 or 29. That becomes the only fixed date in Gospel chronology—that of the beginning of John the Baptist’s career. So, before we talk about the baptism of Christ, we should consider the ministry and message of John the Baptist.