Jesus the Christ Chapter 9
So much in this chapter, I love it.
First, I love the fact that we know so little about Christ’s childhood. I like that He and His family have that privacy. I love that we don’t have too much information to judge Mary by, or compare ourselves to. And really, what would we learn, more than we know? He was sinless, He learned, He progressed. He had friends and family, He worked to become a carpenter. He was “all that a boy should be, for His development was unretarded by the dragging weight of sin; He loved and obeyed the truth and therefore was free.” That’s so profound on so many levels.
I love that Talmage calls the fictitious detail in versions of Christ’s childhood “revolting in its puerile inconsistency”. Tell us how you really feel, James!
I know I mentioned it before, but it bears repeating- I have so much respect for Mary. It must have been very difficult to be her. It’s hard enough to be a mom without the added weight of the growing realization of what exactly will be required of your child as the literal Son of God. But what joy He must have brought her!
I think this must be true: “There could scarcely have been a full measure of truly human experience in the relationship between Jesus and His mother, or between Him and Joseph, had the fact of His divinity been always dominant or even prominently apparent.”
I love that Jesus was “a close observer of nature and men”. There is so much that we can learn from that- from His ability to teach using examples that the people He was speaking to could understand. This is why we can’t live in a little bubble, we need to experience people and things. (There are safety limits to that, of course.) I think that’s where literature comes in so handy- in exposing us to mindsets or experiences that we can’t otherwise partake of, and I love that He found metaphors in everything. And I LOVE that He so closely observed nature. I’m sure that the Spirit spoke peace to His soul as He considered all of those things that He had created so long before. There’s so much to be learned from nature, so much that we miss on a regular basis. I need to keep this in mind with Z and Audrey- that they need to be able to observe many, many things.
What stood out to you?
“Over His mind had fallen the veil of forgetfulness common to all who are born to earth, by which the remembrance of primeval existence is shut off.” That’s amazing to me, and that helps me understand how He was really tempted. Even if he decided ahead of time not to sin, like you mentioned a few posts ago, he was tempted just be virtue of being a human acting in faith. He might or might not have known somehow at this point who He was and what His mission would be, but He was acting in faith. He didn’t remember volunteering. This is awesome to me…