We
can hardly help but be struck at the few families whose histories we trace in
the New Testament. But the one that comes before our view now, stands alone.
Never, before or since, has there been such a Child as the little One who was
born in that stable in Bethlehem, because there was no room for Him in the inn.
O ever
homeless Stranger,
Thus,
dearest friend to me:
An outcast
in the manger
That Thou
might’st with us be.
How
rightly rose the praises
Of heaven,
that wondrous night,
When
shepherds veiled their faces
In
brightest angel light:
Come now
and view that manger:
The Lord
of Glory see,
A
houseless, homeless Stranger
In this
poor world for thee.
“to God in
the highest-glory-
And peace
on earth,’ to find
And learn
that wondrous story-
‘Good
pleasure in mankind.’
Blessed
Babe who lowly liest
In
manger-cradle there;
Descended
from the Highest,
Our
sorrows all to share.
We cling
to Thee in weakness,
The
manger, and the cross-
We gaze
upon Thy meekness
Through
suffering pain and loss
There see
the Godhead glory
Shine
through that human veil,
And
willing hear the story
Of love
that’s come to heal.
My soul in
secret follows
The
footsteps of His love-
I trace
the Man of Sorrows
His
boundless grace to prove.
A child in
growth and stature
Yet full
of wisdom rare:
Sonship in
conscious nature-
His words
and ways declare.
Yet still,
in meek submission,
His
patient path He trod;
To wait
His heavenly mission,
Unknown to
all but God.
(J.N.D.)
We
fain would linger in that dear home at Nazareth: but the Wisdom of God has, for
the most part, drawn a veil over those childhood years. We do get that lovely
glimpse of Him when He was twelve years old: and we hear Him say to His mother:
“Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49.) The
literal meaning is, His Father’s ‘things’ were the very atmosphere in which He
lived. Yet, see Him, the LORD of Glory, return with His parents to that humble
home; and there He “was subject to them.”
In
that carpenter’s home at Nazareth our Lord was ‘brought up’. It is almost
exactly the same word which the Spirit uses of us, with our children, In
Ephesians 6:4 (Trepho and Ek-trepho). “Bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord.” However, of this we may speak later. But let us who
are parents gaze for a moment on that ‘bringing up.’ Never had there been such
a child: Never was He disobedient; never cross; never sulky; never rude; never
self-willed; never untruthful. How very different to us, when we were children!
How very different to the children we seek by His grace to bring up now! He had
four brothers: James and Joses, and Juda and Simon, besides “His sisters.”
(Mark 6:3). In this verse He is called “the carpenter,” and doubtless as a boy
and a young man, He worked at Joseph’s trade in the carpenter shop. Perhaps at
this time Joseph was dead, as here our Lord is spoken of as “the son of Mary,”
and no mention is made of Joseph.
We
know that for some time after He entered His public ministry His brethren did
not believe on Him; and it is more than probably that the envy of those
brothers (in that lovely story in Genesis) who were so different to their
brother Joseph, was but a picture of the envy of these unbelieving brothers in
Nazareth. This would make life hard for that Child; but how sweet to see that
the one next in age, and perhaps nearest to Him, “James, the Lord’s brother”
(Galatians 1:19), was quickly won to be His loyal and faithful follower. Nor
was James the only one of those four who were won by Him; for in 1 Corinthians
9:5, we see “the brethren of the Lord” linked with Cephas. And we may well
believe, (as we might expect), that each one of that family at Nazareth became
earnest, true and devoted followers of their, and our, Lord Jesus Christ.
When
we turn to the Epistle of James, written almost surely by our Lord’s brother,
we read in the first verse: “James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus
Christ.” It is most refreshing to see James link the Lord Jesus Christ with God
in this way, showing his absolute faith in the Deity of Christ: and it is
lovely to see how whole heartedly he confesses Him as Lord, and owns himself
His “slave” for this is the meaning of the word translated “servant.” A slave
is one bought with a price, and James, the brother of our Lord, openly
confesses this of himself in the first words of his letter.
Is it using our imagination too much to suppose that those years, when our Lord was being “brought up” in the same home as James His ‘brother’, were amongst the influences that won him for the One Who was his ‘brother’ yet his Lord? In the light of 1 Peter 3:1, we may suppose that this was the case. Peter is speaking of unbelieving husbands, and he says: “If any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives.” The word translated ‘conversation’ really means: ‘Manner of life; Behavior; Conduct.’ It is a very favorite word with Peter. He uses it eight times in his two little Epistles, while we only find it five other times in the whole New Testament. So, the behavior of the believing wife wins her unbelieving husband. James uses the same word in his Epistle, Chapter 3, Verse 13. I wonder if he was thinking of the ‘manner of life’, ‘the behavior’, ‘the conduct’ of Him Whom he had watched so closely throughout childhood, boyhood, and manhood, as he wrote those words? His mother kept all these sayings in her heart, and I doubt not His sayings and His manner of life had entered deeply into the heart of James also.