The Grownup Jesus

Around Christmastime, we usually sing the sweet words about the "little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes." I'm afraid I just can't believe that. Jesus entered the world as a normal human baby, even though His beginning was supernatural. I don't think He was a difficult child or a rebellious teenager, but He probably did have to be urged to eat his vegetables and drink his milk just like other children, and He may well have had to be reminded about the curfew hour just like other teens. He did not merely become like us but He became one of us, and "faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin." (Hebrews 4:15 NLT)

As wonderful as the miracle of Jesus' birth is, our salvation does not depend on a sweet little baby. Only the grownup Jesus could make the Calvary choice. I think He did not always know He would die; I doubt that the twelve-year-old boy just beginning to realize that His heavenly Father had work for Him to do was burdened by those thoughts. Some time in those silent years between His childhood and the beginning of His open ministry, while He "grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people," Jesus came to understand--or perhaps, He remembered?--that there would be the Cross.

How steadfast He was in this decision! There were a number of opportunities to evade the Cross during His lifetime, some of those times recorded for us. After His baptism in the Jordan River, the Spirit led Him into a desert place where He would be tempted by the devil. One of Satan's approaches was this: "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." (Luke 4:5-7 NIV)

All things were made by Christ, but temporarily their rulership resides with the evil one. Eventually, all those kingdoms with their authority and splendor will be returned to their rightful owner. "Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11 MSG) "Take a shortcut," was the temptation that Satan presented to Jesus. "You don't really have to go to the Cross. There is an easier way."

Another time, as Jesus tried to explain to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to die, Peter brashly objected, "No, Lord, not you." Jesus rebuked that thought completely. "Get behind me, Satan," He ordered, not calling Peter himself "Satan" but recognizing in that suggestion the same temptation Satan had brought before, that is, to avoid the Cross.

Even while He was hanging on the cross, "'those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, 'You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!' In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 'He saved others,' they said, 'but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.' " (Matthew 27:39-42 NIV) Luke records that one off the criminals who hung beside Jesus hurled insults at him, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" (Luke 23:39 NIV).

It is not true that Jesus could not save Himself. He could have called, as Ray Overholt's song declares, "ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set Him free . . . " The issue was that He could not save both Himself and us. If we had only the baby Jesus, there would be no fulfillment of the redemption plan. Had He, as the grownup Jesus, chosen to evade the Cross or to somehow escape from it, there would be:

No victory over death.
No salvation for us.
No eternal hope.

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture quotation marked NLT is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture marked MSG is taken from The essage. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com