The Jesus I Never Knew

It is amazing how God reveals more of Himself to us every day by His grace.  This week the Holy Spirit has opened my eyes to the life of Jesus as never before.  On Sunday mornings at Calvary Chapel Sydney, we have been studying the Gospel of Mark.  For weeks we have been building up to the crucifixion of Jesus.  If last week you were to ask me what passages I associate with the grief and suffering of Christ, several portions of scripture come to mind.  I would have considered the moment when Jesus wept over Jerusalem, grieved that His chosen people were unwilling to be loved by Him.  I would have cited the moment when Jesus laid down His will in Gethsemane, and when He experienced betrayal, torture, and suffered at the hands of merciless, hateful men.  I would have thought about Christ being separated from God on the cross by the sins of the world when He cried out in a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

This week God has shown me clearly that Jesus, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, experienced sorrow, heartache, and deep hurt long before His public ministry.  Did you know that Jesus had it rough growing up?  He was tempted to despair and embrace depression.  He was even tempted to commit suicide!  Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."  Jesus was tempted in every single way that a man can be tempted, yet He did not sin.  Sometimes our focus on the deity of Christ can shroud our eyes from His humanity.  Jesus had feelings, greater depth and breadth of feeling than any other person who has walked the earth.

There is little spoken about the life of Christ in the Bible before His visit with His family to Jerusalem, and nothing more until John the Baptist points Him out at the Lamb of God around the age of 30.  There are 30 years that are not described for us in narrative form in the Gospels.  But God gave me some insight this week as I was reading into the Christ's childhood and what marked His life before His ministry.  Jesus did not begin honouring and glorifying God only after His public ministry began.  Long before, even as a child, Jesus consecrated His life wholly unto God.  He always did what pleased the Father, even before He was a household name in Israel.  From this we know that Jesus obeyed the Law perfectly.  How did He learn to obey?  Not through the correction of His parents (for He did no wrong), but by the things He suffered.  Hebrews 5:7-8 says this of Christ:  "...who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear ⁸ though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered."  In the days of His flesh, throughout His time on earth, even as a child and young man, Jesus cried many tears to God as He suffered.  He did not begin interceding for men only after His ascension to the right hand of the Father.  Even as a youth, Jesus interceded for those who hated Him.  Did He not say, "Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you?"  God heard and answered His prayers.

When Jesus cleansed the temple the first time, the disciples hearkened back to a Psalm which spoke of Christ:  John 2:17 says, "Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  Since this is a clear reference to Jesus, let us read the rest of the sentence in Psalm 69 with this in mind.  It gives us amazing, prophetic insight into the life of Jesus with His earthly family.  Psalm 69:7-12 says, "Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face. ⁸ I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother's children; ⁹ because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. ¹⁰ When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach. ¹¹ I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them. ¹² Those who sit in the gate speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards."

Jesus was no stranger to reproach or shame for God's sake, long before He grew to be a man.  The Bible tells us that Jesus had half-brothers born of Mary.  Jesus had been conceived by the Holy Spirit.  To many people outside His family, Jesus was thought to be an illegitimate Son born out of wedlock.  Yet notice that the Bible says that He was "an alien to my mother's children."  David is writing these words empowered by the Holy Spirit, and how suggestive this is of Christ's relationship with His mother's children!  The piety of Jesus caused them to think, "What is with Jesus?  Is He from another planet?  What is with His weeping, fasting, and wearing sackcloth?  Why does He rise early and stay up late praying?  That guy is just not normal!  I don't think He's really our brother at all."  Jesus was a byword among His own brothers because of His zeal for the Father's glory.  This reproach for the Father's sake was borne by Christ even to Calvary.  As He collapsed under the cross, people in the gate mocked and ridiculed Him.  Even the drunks made up songs to scoff at Him.  Jesus knew that people were against Him because they reproached His Father.  But He felt the pain just the same.

When Jesus hung upon the cross He said "I thirst," knowing the scripture must be fulfilled (John 19:28-29).  This scripture to which this refers is found in Psalm 69.  This passage reveals a depth of suffering beyond our experience.  Psalm 69:18-21 reads, "Draw near to my soul, and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies. ¹⁹ You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor; My adversaries are all before You. ²⁰ Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. ²¹ They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."  Only the Father could have known Christ's reproach, shame, and dishonour.  Only the Father could comprehend how the reproaches of those Christ loved broke His heart and weighed Him down.  He looked for comfort, for one person to show compassion, but there was none.  This is a description of Christ's life that culminated on the cross.  The reproach Christ endured did not begin or end there.  We do Christ a grave injustice to assume His suffering was reserved to His hours on the cross.

When we magnify the suffering of Christ, His grace to us shines brighter.  He was given gall for food and vinegar to drink, but He joyfully gives to us His broken body and shed blood.  Whoever repents and partakes of Christ by grace through faith will live forever.  Jesus is the One who makes our hearts a living spring of water, a fountain of the Holy Spirit.  When we face trials, are reproached, and suffer, may we understand that Jesus knows our suffering and experienced greater still.  He is able to bear our burdens, and has entreated us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us.  Hebrews 12:1-3 reads, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls."

When we focus on our pain or struggles, our eyes have drifted from Christ.  Look upon the face of Jesus today!  Look upon Him stricken upon the cross, struggling for breath.  See His sweat as great drops of blood in Gethsemane as He agonized.  Look upon Christ weeping over Jerusalem!  Look on Christ as He wore sackcloth and fasted as a young man and was greatly reproached.  Think of His heart broken by His brothers and countrymen alike, completely misunderstood and hated.  "Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls."  Jesus has not left us without comfort, but has provided the Holy Spirit to indwell and strengthen us as we live out our days for God's glory.  How good is it to have a God who was in all points tempted and remained without sin!  Not only that, but He has loved us with an everlasting love.

God knows your struggles, heartache, and pain.  Turn your eyes upon Christ in trust.  He treasures you above His own life and will never leave or forsake you.  You are not alone!