As I get ready to celebrate what we recognize as the birth of our Messiah, I am so very thankful for all that He did for you and me. But I also recently began noting that His life here on earth was one of much mistreatment and abuse.

I would wonder if at times He was mistreated as a child, just because of the circumstances of His conception and birth. Can you imagine the talk?  “Yeah, I heard his parents weren’t even married and they were so embarrassed that they made up a story of immaculate conception. Crazy.” And “You’re nuts and so it your family. No one gets born without a father. Your mom is a liar.” Maybe even “No one sees angels anymore. Your folks are possessed.”

Unknown Years of Jesus

We don’t hear of a lot of His life as a child and teen. We get “And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him” in Luke 2: 40 and then we have a sighting at the age of twelve when He accompanies his parents to Jerusalem. I’m not sure how in the world this happened (“Home Alone”, anyone?) but Jesus’ parents accidently leave Him behind and travel a full day without him by their side. When they go back to find Him (took them three days to find him once they returned, poor Mary!), He was sitting in the temple listening and learning from the teachers. Notably, He was asking questions of them and people were amazed with His knowledge and depth.

“Where else would I be but my Father’s house?” He told Joseph and Mary when they showed up.

The scriptures note that He returned to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient.

I wonder if Jesus hung out with His BFF and cousin, John the Baptist. But this isn’t likely, as they lived about a four day’s journey from one another. More than likely, the families probably saw each other only once a year or so.

We don’t see Jesus again until He is an adult, at age 30. But rather quickly, Satan gets nervous about His ministry and impact and runs Him through a plethora of massive temptation after Jesus has fasted for 40 days, starting with good ole food and ending with asking Jesus to throw Himself off the highest point of the temple to prove that the angels would save Him. Throughout His next several years of teachings and his ministry, Jesus endured ribbing, accusations, ridicule, opposition, name calling and rejection.

An Abusive Death

And then came His crucifixion. After being beaten, bruised, forced to wear a crown of thorns and carry a heavy cross, Jesus was put to death in an inhumane way that took hours. He obviously suffered. And while in the process of that, He endured yet more ridicule, shaming and treatment that no one deserves.

A few times in His life story, Jesus does appear to lose his temper. But it is never in response to the mistreatment that he incurred. It is a righteous anger when people continue to sin and do wrong, outright ignoring the laws and righteous living. He was perfect-we are made perfect in Him-but many of us have responded to abuse in a wrong way. Some of us get defensive, some of us might use abusive tactics against our abusers including revenge, mistreatment and talking badly about them to other people. Out of sheer frustration, I know that I didn’t always respond in a Christ-like way. God understands this and He also understands the tools we use in order to survive abuse in our lives.

I am responsible for my reactions but also to implement the new tools I am learning in all areas of my life. May God help me continue to be aware of when I react, versus respond. And when I need to implement compassion and calm, instead of defensiveness and anger.

#Healwithme

By Julie Bonn Blank