Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: If you open your Bibles with me to Luke's Gospel chapter 2. We're going to read the account of Jesus in the temple when he was a boy. Verse 41.

Every year, Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up to the feast according to the custom. And after the feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day.

Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. And when they didn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days, they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house?"

But they didn't understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and men.

The commentators call these years of Jesus the silent years. From 12 to 30, we have one recorded incident of the life of God on Earth. And then the rest of the Gospels tell us about the three years of his public ministry. And Luke, out of all the Gospel writers, is the only one who tells us about these years.

We heard about Mary and Joseph wanting to do it right, to be the right parents, to raise Jesus the right way according to the book. Which book? This book, the book of the law. And they began to do that in little nowhere Nazareth. That's where Jesus spent his silent years. Now what do we know about them?

Well, we know that he lived there. God lived in Nazareth, God Incarnate. Jesus not only became a baby, our God contracted in a span. Comprehensibly, made man, as Wesley puts it. But not only did he become a baby, he became a boy.

A boy was he, yet very God of very God. A child, yet wiser than his years. A boy was he, yet very God of very God. The Lord's own lamb appears. A boy was he, yet very God of very God, a carpenter's apprentice skilled. A boy was he, yet very God of very God. The lamb his will fulfills. Divinity breathing in air with a boy's lungs. Eternity eating a meal with a boy's joy. The Trinity coming to stay in a boy's house, in a boy's pain, in a boy's world.

A boy was he, yet very God of very God, a son loved deeply by his own. A boy was he, yet very God of very God. The lamb so far from home. Eminence contained. Immanence experienced. Holiness explained in a boy. Truth read clearly. Love loved dearly. God known nearly in a boy. Boy was he, yet very God of very God. A child, yet wiser than his years. A boy was he, the lamb appears.

God living in Nazareth. These are called the submissive years. Jesus went down to Nazareth after this event and submitted himself to the training of his parents for those growing times. And we know that the years from 12 to 18 in all of our lives are very important years. It's where we discover who we are, why we are, who we are, where we are and when we are. It's all of those years. Think back to your own.

And Jesus experienced a growing awareness of his identity. And we're not told when and how he became aware he was God. We're not told. But we have a couple of hints in this particular story. Now the family feast was coming. Three feasts the adult males in Israel must attend: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles. But if he couldn't attend all three for good reason, he must attend the Passover, because, of course, that was the most important. Why? Because it included the day of At-one-ment, Atonement, which of course, commemorated the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and is a picture of God delivering us from the realm of sin into the realm of salvation.

And so this was the feast. The Nazareth party began to head to Jerusalem to commemorate. Big party. Half of Nazareth, probably. And it was safer that way. They had to walk. Look at your maps in the back of your Bible and you'll see how far they had to walk from Nazareth all the way up to Jerusalem. And it wasn't very safe, but they were safer in a big group. And they could share the food and they could share the carrying and they could pick up the little children and take their turn to carry them. And so the Nazareth party arrived in Jerusalem. 200,000 people in the city for this feast.

The rooms, all gone. Joseph and Mary, no doubt, had with the Nazareth party, been able to book the rooms for the feast and they made their way there. Joseph either took a lamb from Nazareth. The fields were full of them around. If you remember. Or he bought one when he got there. But he took the lamb, perfect, a year old, to the temple. The priest accepted it, slaughtered it, and put the blood on the altar. Gave the lamb without its legs being broken back to the father, Joseph. He took it and they began to commemorate the feast. And always traditionally the father would talk to the son, the son would talk to the father. And if you think about it, it must have been quite a conversation.

Jesus saying to Joseph, "Father, what sort of lamb must be slain?" "Well, perfect, my son, without blemish." "And why must the blood be put on the doorpost of the house?" "So that when the avenging angel passes over the land, he'll see the blood and pass over." "Pass over, Father." "Pass over." "Under the blood, Father." "Under the blood." "Only where the blood has been applied, Father." "Only where the blood has been applied."

Sheltered neath the blood-red door, death defeated, danger or sacrificial, gracious giver. You from death my soul delivered. Mercy has passed my soul. And by grace I now am whole. It's all about a lamb, folks. It's all about a lamb. The lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world. And so, Jesus at 12 has become a son of the law. Now he must fast once a week in preparation for the day of Atonement.

Now he is considered able and must start to learn a trade. Now his parents are given more authority to be stricter with him in his upbringing. And both father and mother must teach him the things of the book. These are the days that have just begun. And Jesus with stirrings within him has to stop and get some questions answered. And so he goes to the temple and he finds the rabbis. And they too have this method of talking and asking. And the young boys that were there would gather at this age, at 12 or 13, the most incredible, important for children in the Jewish faith at that point.

And they would ask questions and the kids would have to answer and vice versa. And I can see Jesus at 12, sitting among the doctors, as we're told, asking them questions and answering their questions. And maybe the doctor said, "Son, where will Messiah be born?" "In Galilee of the Gentiles," Jesus would have answered. "In Bethlehem, Ephrathah." Two Bethlehems. In Bethlehem, Ephrathah, of course, his hometown. "Would there be something supernatural about his birth?" He would have been asked. "Yes," Jesus would have replied. "A virgin will have conceived."

"Which family?" "David's." "Which tribe?" "Judah." And then seeing Jesus bend forward, his eyes bright. "Sirs, I've heard he will be called a Nazarene." "That's right. He will be called a Nazarene." What was happening within Jesus? He was finding his God-given identity. And here comes Mary and Joseph, having searched for him for three days and panicked, in agony, the word is, searching for him. "What are you doing here?"

And he's surprised. "Well, I must be about my Father's business." And the doctors sit up. "What did he say? He is addressing God as nobody in the history of the world has ever addressed him. Abraham, David, the prophets, the priests. None of them. They have always had to have somebody to take them to God. And Jesus uses a term that the Midrash, the commentary on the Jewish law, says, "Only the Messiah will ever claim or use a direct relationship with the Father." "Don't you know I must be about my Father's business?"

What had this boy said? And the doctors begin to look and say, "This is this boy's father." "We expected a rabbi, a wise man. But he looks a humble man. A tradesman. Look at the way he's dressed." And with interest, the doctors began to look at this man and marvel at this child and begin to wonder themselves.

And Jesus went back to Nazareth, it says, and submitted himself to his parents and to the training through them, through the synagogue, through the feasts and the meaning and application and the implication of those feasts that he would go through until he was 30 years of age. 18 silent years.

I must be about my Father's business. I must be about my Father's business. And Mary pondered it in her heart. Well, what's happening with Mary and Joseph? Well, first of all, they've forgotten, because familiarity breeds familiarity. Have you noticed? I mean, Jesus was living in their home. Right. With his brothers and sisters by now. And very busy, under occupation, very poor, very hard, just life in Nazareth.

And Mary forgot to ponder. We can all forget to ponder. Plus the angels had disappeared. That didn't help. Remember when the angel came to Mary, said, "I've come to ruin your life," basically. "You thought you were going to marry Joseph and have children, live in Nazareth and, you know, all those dreams that a young girl would have? Well, it's going to be very different, Mary." And then after she'd said, "Be it unto me according to your word," it says in the Bible, "Then the angel left her." The angel didn't stay. She had to do it without the angel.

Joseph had to do it without the angel. It took an angel to convince Joseph that all this was right and that he should marry Mary. And then the angel left him, it says. And after the shepherds had been told, that God had visited us. Then the angels left them. And we have to live our lives without the angels, without the bells and whistles, without the feeling sometimes. We just have to live in Nazareth, remembering and pondering in our heart and mind what it's all about.

And Mary and Joseph had forgotten the angels and Simeon and Anna and all those incredible things that had happened at the birth of Jesus. There had been 12 years of Nazareth living in between. And that can happen to us too. And Jesus can become just part of the family, right? "Yes, Jesus is in my heart. So I go to church and all of this." Right? And we stop pondering. What's the word mean? Just getting heart involved. Heart work is hard work. Treasured truth must be taken to the steps of your soul and there considered in the deep place where nobody goes. In the secret place, quiet, safe for the brush of angel wings. The place where the spirit waits for you to wait and pondering begins.

Here weigh the words you've read or heard. Add information. Ponder, ponder, ponder. Marvel till you get it. And it gets you. Heart work must be done and done again. That's what Nazareth living is for.

Jesus pondered. He pondered and he went after God's heart. Is that what we're about? Have you ever wondered when Joseph died? He died in those years. He died in those years. All sorts of things come into our lives to stop us pondering. Tragedy, grief. Something happens that we can't understand. And we grow suspicious of God. "Why do you let it happen to me or to us or to them or to those I love?"

But these are the submissive years to the training God wants to give us, to the information he's waiting to impart. Not the answer to all the whys in the world, that will only come in heaven. But the answer to the whys we need in order to live in Nazareth and please God. These are strengthening years. It says here, "Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God and in favor with men." And we are not just body, we are body and spirit. We are not just body and spirit. We are body and spirit and soul. Right? We are all of these dimensions.

And Jesus set about growing. It was a choice. It's a choice for us. Perhaps it's not a choice how we grow physically, but in every other way it is. It is a choice whether to grow in wisdom or not. What is wisdom? Spiritual intelligence. That's wisdom. You can't do it without the Holy Spirit. You can have knowledge, but wisdom belongs to God alone. God thoughts. God understanding. Spiritual intelligence, wisdom from on high. Growth in faith and holiness. Knowing God is nigh. More than brains or street smarts. More than school or arts. This is secret knowledge. Wisdom knows God's heart.

Listen to me. Wisdom knows God's heart. That's wisdom. And Jesus said, "I want to know your heart, Father." That's what Nazareth's for. Are you living in nowhere Nazareth? You don't think you're doing anything. You haven't walked on water. You haven't fed 5,000 people. You you haven't preached to the world. These are your submissive, silent years. You know what they're for? Go after his heart. Go after his heart. Go after his heart. That's what they're for.

That's what Jesus did. And he grew in favor with God and in favor with men. He grew spiritually, he grew physically, he grew intellectually, he grew in wisdom. And he grew in favor with God, as we'll see, and in favor with men. Two things we have to do, we have to love God and we have to love people. What is growing socially? It's loving people. All I hear from people, especially these days in the West is, "I need somebody to love me." Well, everybody else is waiting for somebody to love them. So it's not going to happen.

So why don't you quit and start loving other people? And the amazing thing happens is when you love other people, they love you back. You know, we love God because he first loved us. Works the same with people. And Jesus grew up socially in the sense of learning to love. What did he do for 18 years? He loved people. What sort of people? In Nazareth he had nobody else to love. Nazareth sort of people.

And when he started his ministry at the age of 30, we know he loved and people loved him back. The meek loved him, the oppressed adored him, the lepers worshipped him, the lonely longed for him, the lost searched for him, the prisoners waited for his visits, the sinners invited him in for a meal, the scoundrels hung around him, the demon driven cast themselves at his feet. The abuser begged him for mercy, the sick for healing, the blind for sight, the deaf for hearing, the dumb for speech, the mad for sanity, the hurt for comfort, the weak for strength, the sinner for forgiveness, the used for dignity. And all of them for love.

Where did he learn to do that? Nazareth. In the silent years. He didn't just come out of the stocks and start loving people. He practiced. Are we practicing? Are we giving our lives away? Are we investing our lives in a child, in an old person, in an immigrant, in the oppressed, in the poor, in the leper of our day, an AIDS patient? What are we doing with the silent years? Jesus grew in favor. How do we know he grew in favor? Because God thundered it from heaven. Do you remember when Jesus got baptized?

Remember what the voice from heaven, the voice of the Father said? "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What's he pleased with? He hasn't started. Hasn't walked on water, right? Hasn't cleansed a leper, made the blind to see, and the lame to walk. No sermons given. No judgments come.