Jesus Didn't Disturb Spiritual Blindness
It comes as a profound shock to most to realize that Jesus did NOT attempt to "convert" people then — and He explained this principle to His disciples.
Read Matthew 13:10-15 — "And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven, but, to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias [Isaiah], which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."
You see, Christ in His day did not try to disturb the spiritual blindness that was over their minds. Here is Mark's account: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but unto them [the vast majority] that are without, all these things are done in parables: that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand" (Mark 4:11-12).
Parables were spoken to hide the truth, not to make the meaning clearer.
In the earlier "Jesus Trip" article, I mentioned Jesus did not come to save the world THEN, and received many angry letters informing me of various scriptures in the Bible concerned with Jesus' death for our sins and transgressions, and statements concerning His position as Savior of the world!
But I deeply and devotedly RECOGNIZE Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior, and the eventual Savior of all the world! But I also deeply recognize the plain, clear, written Word of God that Jesus Christ deliberately conceded His meaning during that time to the general populaces, and explained to his disciples that the general public COULD NOT understand. (please read this article "Is This the Only Day of Salvation?")
Jesus Hobnobbed with Upper Crust
Many took very excitable issue with my statements concerning Christ's house in the "Jesus Trip" article.
One letter asserted, "If Jesus wasn't a hippie, He had the earmarks of one; travelling up and down dusty roads, living on handouts and what He could find in fields or trees; having no facilities for bathing or clean clothes; being locked up in prison for vagrancy."
The same person said "Nowhere in my Bible is Jesus identified with the 'respectable.' Their gripe was that He hobnobbed and ate with the poor and wretched class, avoiding the upper crust — the scribes, the Pharisees, and elders."
Yet, like so many others, this person read only certain portions of the Gospels, and then came to certain opinions and conclusions of his own, largely influenced by false tradition and past religious teaching!
The Bible plainly speaks of Jesus entering into the homes of some of the greatest and most respected Pharisaic leaders. He also was personally acquainted with tax collectors and many rich men of His day!'
Notice Luke 7:36-39 — "And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he [Jesus] went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat [to eat a meal]. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden [invited] him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner." (You can read the rest of the story for the ensuing conversation and the lesson Jesus taught this leading Pharisee)
Tax collectors (although understand — ably not very popular with the Pharisees or the common people because they collected taxes for the Romans) were part of the wealthy intelligentsia or upper class of that day. Read Luke 5:27-29 — "And after these things he [Jesus] went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, follow me. . . And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans [tax collectors] and of others that sat down with them."
Notice the narrative of Jesus' visit in Jericho. "And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was. . . And when Jesus came to the place . . . and said unto him, Zacchaeus . . . today I must abide at thy house . . . And he [Zacchaeus] received him joyfully" (Luke 19:1-6).
Joseph of Arimathaea
Jesus was well acquainted with Joseph of Arimathaea, who obtained Jesus' dead body from Pilate and buried Him. Look at what the Bible tells us of this man. "When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple" (Matt. 27:57). Now notice Luke's account, "And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor [of the great Sanhedrin or Jewish legislative body — see Clarke's Commentary by Adam Clarke, Vol. V, p. 279]; and he was a good man, and a just: (the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God" (Luke 23:50-51). Also read for yourself of Jesus' conversation and association with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and leader of the Jews (John 3:1-12; 7:50-53; 19:39).
The wedding feast at Cana in Galilee (John 2:1-11) was a case where Jesus was "hobnobbing" with the "upper crust." Such a great feast was obviously given by wealthy people. The occasion of the healing of a centurion's servant (Luke 7:1-10) was another case. A centurion was a leader over 100 men, which in all likelihood meant the head of the garrison at Capernaum and the leading Roman officer for the area.
This is not to say that Jesus showed these people any more SPECIAL attention than He did the masses and the "poor and wretched class." But neither should anyone assume that He deliberately rejected or ignored the "upper crust," and went out of His way to ensure that He "identified" only with the "poor and wretched class." Jesus Christ "was all things to all men," and was never a "respecter of persons." Some of the same people who wrote very bitterly complaining letters to me concerning the earlier article in The PLAIN TRUTH, attempted to remind me of the scriptural facts concerning Christ's ability to "look on the inward heart," not on the outward person. Yet, some of these same people seem to ACCUSE Christ of BEING a "respecter of persons," alleging to me continually that Jesus ignored and avoided the "upper crust," and those in any official capacity, and "hobnobbed" ONLY with the weak, poor, and downtrodden of society.
Neither extreme is true — as a careful study of the Scriptures proves.
Christ Was a "Family" Man
Even though it is very obvious Christ was not married, He was, nevertheless, a member of a fairly large family.
After the enunciation of Jesus' conception and virgin birth, Joseph, already the husband of Mary, bound by the "espousal" though not yet having consummated the marriage, reacted in a manner which is incomprehensible for a very young man.
Turn to Matthew 1 and verse 19, "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily."
To a younger man, such an enormous announcement would have been met with a great deal of righteous indignation, petulance, jealousy, and weird imaginings.
Almighty God chose, for the prospective legal father and the mother of His own Son, Jesus Christ, the very best conceivable parental examples. Not only was Joseph of the direct line (explained in the preceding verses of Matt. 1) of David and from David back to Abraham, and thence to Adam, but he was also a righteous man, and a prosperous one.
Both Joseph and Mary were obedient to the laws of God, and when you understand the laws of God as magnified in Old and New Testaments alike, including even the laws of success, of physical cleanliness, and of husband and wife relationships, you have a much clearer picture of the circumstances under which Christ was reared as a young child.
In Luke 2:51 you read of how Jesus, after the incident of being found teaching in the temple at age 12, returned to the home of His parents, and "was subject unto them."
Christ's antagonists said, "Isn't this the carpenter's son?" And this is mentioned more than once. Joseph, then, was a "carpenter." In our specialized societies, carpenters are thought of as those who work with sawn and hewn lumber, and primarily work only at pounding nails into boards.
Ask a modern carpenter if this is "all he does," and he will very likely give you a lengthy lecture about the many skills required to become a good carpenter.
Complex Carpentry
However, during the day of Jesus Christ, "carpentry," included much more than just the fabrication of wooden dwellings. Most of the homes were a combination of stone, mud and clay, and hewn beams and "lumber."
The city where Jesus spent much of His early ministry around the Galilean area was Capemaum. I have been to Capernaum several times, and have seen the remnants of the porches, the arches, the mosaics, and the walls of the buildings which were there during the time of Christ.
Capernaum, at that time, was a beaming, modern, beautifully sculptured Grecian-type city. It was filled with beautiful homes, multi-leveled, with large central gardens, mosaic walks, fountains and even, believe it or not, indoor bathrooms and steam baths!
The homes of the wealthier class during that time were marvels of architecture, and a far cry from the stone and adobe hovels imagined by many as being the general domicile of the time.
A "carpenter" would have to know a certain amount of mathematics, engineering principles (working with block and tackle, levers, and knowing how to construct arches and cantilever overhanging balconies, etc) and especially would have to be skillful in finishing work, such as interior surfaces, mosaic hallways and walkways, and would even have to know a certain amount about plumbing.
Believe it or not, all during that day and in the first two or three centuries thereafter, home plumbing included indoor water, which was delivered via a system of pipes and could be cut off by valves just as in a modern home today.
This may seem astounding to many people who have not familiarized themselves with the degree to which architecture and the science of home building had advanced during Jesus' day. It was not uncommon, especially around areas where subterranean "hot springs" were abundant, for large central buildings to be constructed with Roman "baths," which usually featured several levels of open, running water around niches in the walls and underneath stones in the floors, through which would be ducted hot, boiling spring water. Wealthy Romans could then sit in this common "steam room" and enjoy a steam bath.
It is essential to get somewhat of a picture of the cities of Christ's day (remember — He spoke of Capernaum as being "exalted unto heaven") in order to really comprehend the way of life lived by the common people, and by Christ Himself and His own family.
Generally, a boy of about twelve years of age could be thought of as entering into "adult society." This is obvious, too, when you consider the account of Jesus with the doctors and the lawyers of the Temple at age twelve.
However, Christ's ministry did not begin until he was "about thirty." That means that at least from age twelve or a little later on up to age thirty, Jesus remained with Joseph (or if Joseph died sometime earlier, Jesus remained with the family), as a "carpenter," laboring and working all over the hill country of Galilee — no doubt principally in the cities of Nazareth and Capernaum.
Jesus Had Brothers and Sisters
Remember, too, that Joseph and Mary went on to have a large family! His brothers were named James, Joses, Simon and Judas (Matt. 13:55).
[Editor's Note: Refer to the April issue of TOMORROW'S WORLD for the article "'What Was It Like to Be the Brother of Jesus?"] There were "sisters" (verse 56) implying more than one — though how many is not stated. So, by the very least reckoning, there were five sons, and two daughters. Remember, this is a conservative number, since there could have been more than two girls. Mary, then, was eventually the mother of at least seven children! And it requires a man of some substance — a family obeying the laws and the precepts of God, including the laws of success, to properly provide for a family of this size!
Joseph was obviously a prosperous businessman — more like a "general contractor," than just a hammer-wielding one-man carpenter. It would have been contrary to God's laws to have brought into the world so many youngsters if Joseph had not been amply able to provide for them.
Jesus, then, while He was not married, did grow up as a young man with brothers and sisters, and was very definitely a "family man" in the sense that He, as the elder brother, became the leader of the family, and directly responsible for it.
Not one more word is heard of Joseph after the time of the mentioning of the word "parents" in Luke the second chapter. From that time on, wherever Mary and the other children are mentioned, they are alone. Obviously, though the Bible does not record the event, Joseph had died sometime after Christ's twelfth birthday and prior to His thirtieth. Joseph is never mentioned, and is nowhere on the scene, during the entirety of Christ's ministry, or even at His death.
Yet, Mary and the brothers and sisters are mentioned on several occasions.
Many have reasoned that, because Jesus spoke to His disciples of all His "brothers and sisters" meaning any other human being, that He did NOT have REAL brothers and sisters. Not so! The account of Matthew 13, verses 55 and 56 is very clear in this regard. The brothers are specifically NAMED in that account, and Jesus had no disciple called Joses, and certainly He had no female apostles!
John 2:12 is very plain. "After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his BRETHREN, AND his disciples: and they continued there not many days." Here, the Biblical account written by John, that "disciple whom Jesus loved," very clearly shows that His disciples and His "brethren" were two different groups of people. Some have misunderstood Christ's les-, son given upon the event of the arrival of His brothers and sisters concerning the "brotherhood" of all mankind, and assumed, without checking these scriptures carefully, that Jesus had no earthly kin.
However, notice the account in Mark the 6th chapter. As Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, some of His persecutors began to say, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house."
Notice! Jesus plainly said, "Among his OWN KIN"!
He plainly admitted, then, that He, the prophet who was being dishonored, was, at that time, in His own country, and AMONG HIS OWN KIN!
He also plainly stated that He was IN HIS OWN HOUSE!