Jesus as a boy

History is His Story

Epiphany Sunday.“What do we know about Jesus when he was a child?”  Standard answer: we know nothing except for his Temple visit when he was 12 found in Luke 2:41ff.  But from life in the first century and his parables, we learn a lot.

First observation is that Joseph is poor.  He is by occupation a ‘Tekton’, Greek for ‘builder’.  That gets translated “carpenter” in most earlier translations, including Luther’s Bible.  Tekton was probably more like a stonemason than a woodworker, although some have suggested a handyman.  They found building work where they could and worked for farmers for food as well.  As landless peasants, intermittent work made them least well-off of the society. Mary was said by Polycarp (John’s understudy and early Christian Father) to have been 16 when she had Jesus and Joseph was 40.  Poor  Joe had to save up for years to get a decent dowry.  He was alive when Jesus was 12 making him about 52.  Anybody older than 49 was said by Hebrews to be ‘elderly’.  So it is likely that Joseph died soon after the story of Jesus in the Temple.  Jesus has extraordinary sympathy for families where their breadwinner has died like when Lazarus died (Luke 10), leaving behind two unmarried sisters who couldn’t earn a living like men. See also the Widow’s Mite story during last week of his life.  Poverty may also explain why such a promising youth as Jesus wasn’t bat mitzvahed (learned to write with ink) at age 16, becoming a scribe.  He warns scribes/Pharisees about their attitude repeatedly (See Matt. 23:1). Jesus could read and write of course because he wrote in the dirt when a woman caught in adultery was brought to him.

            He had to earn a living for the family as the oldest son, probably during  his early teens.  But he had worked with his dad since the earliest age. Could he build?  You betcha!  He knew some builder secrets.  In Matt. 7 and Luke 6 he tells about a wise man who built his house on a rock and a foolish man who built on sand.  This might not make sense to someone raised in a temperate climate.  In the desert the standard surface is “desert pavement” which looks like gravel.  It is stone that has fractured into gravel by heat/cold. This is not close to desired fields and creeks, but there are also rocky ledges around fields.  A rain is often a flash flood and sand indicates where they occur.  Who is foolish enough to build on sandy areas?  Fly over Las Vegas suburbs and trace the dried stream beds!  Jesus shows in the Rejected Building Stone, he understands that a rough-hewn stone vs. a cornerstone is just in the tooling of a blemishless stone.  

            Could Jesus farm?  His parable of the sower occurs in all three synoptic gospels (See Mark 4:3-20) wherein he knows what happens to seed that falls into all types of conditions. Plows in those days were crude pointed sticks drawn by a donkey.  Then in Mark 4:26-29 he talks about darnels in wheat.  In Mark 13 he talks about how to take care of an old fig tree (figs usually bear like crazy so a barren fig is unusual).  In the prodigal son story, he knows how to survive on pig  fodder, the sort of thing a poor family would do in extreme famine conditions.  In the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18), he clearly knows all about tending sheep, in the Weeds (Matt. 13) he knows all about how weeds grow, and in New Wine (Matt. 9, Luke 5) he understands the way poor folks made wine in skins—as compared with Greek vats and barrels to age after fermentation. And he knew all about mustard seeds, and how crucial daily bread was.

            Thirdly, most peasant farmers farmed their own subsistence land and had no hired men.  But Jesus grew up as a hired man’s son and probably hired himself out as well.  His stories show a well traveled guy looking for work and understanding of what managers were looking for.  Jesus clearly is well-versed on the hiring and firing for not just agriculture, but also in the trades.  And he knows debt as shown in the unforgiving servant story of Matt. 18.  In the parable of the Wise Master (Luke 12), he understands business and commerce of the time intimately and in that same chapter he describes a rich fool who tries to store what won’t last. In the parable of the Talents and the Pearl of Great Value, he shows keen insight into business risk-taking, an understanding still lost on people today outside of business.

            It is written that Jesus had 4 brothers and according to some early Christian writers Mary had as many as 8 children.  Jesus’ insights into the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt. 25) shows he understood well the village weddings and female banter where half the young girls forget to carry enough oil for their lamps. In the Two Sons (Matt. 21) he clearly knows what it is like to interact with an obstinate or devious brother.  And in the Banquet (Luke 14) he catches the poignancy of the relief of a life of hard labor by getting invited into the great feast.  His love of children and his parable of the kids playing ‘marketplace’ reflects, not a loner, but a child who grew up with many peers, brothers and sisters.  As the Wedding at Cana shows, Jesus was well-versed on the responsibility of being the family decision maker.

            So what do we have in Jesus?  What does this resume show? I think an extraordinarily responsible young man, hard working, and a peasant who understood from life the mysteries of faith.  His parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector shows not just his insights into the desperate faith of a tax collector and the pride of a Pharisee, but also his intense heart for the real meaning of Jewish faith.  He is the peasant kid who ‘got it’—from God’s judgment in the coming age to His Mercy, from how faith makes your handling of money to the way it affects your prayers.  And he was able to transmit his message, not just to other common folks of his day, but right down to us today. “light of the World” in more ways than one.