Paper 126

Paper 126

THE TWO CRUCIAL YEARS

1. Of all Jesus' earth‑life experiences, the fourteenth and fifteenth years were the most crucial ... No human youth, in passing through the early confusions and adjustment problems of adolescence, ever experienced a more crucial testing than that which Jesus passed through during his transition from childhood to young manhood.

2. Jesus had great respect for the sincere Pharisees and the honest scribes, but he held the hypocritical Pharisees and the dishonest theologians in great contempt; he looked with disdain upon all those religious leaders who were not sincere.

3. This is the calendar year of his fourteenth birthday. He had become a good yoke maker and worked well with both canvas and leather. He was also rapidly developing into an expert carpenter and cabinetmaker.

4. He continued to carry on his advanced courses of reading under the synagogue teachers, and he also continued with the home education of his brothers and sisters as they grew up to suitable ages.

5. The prospects of the family seemed good; the future was bright.

All did go well until that fateful day of Tuesday, September 25, when a runner from Sepphoris brought to this Nazareth home the tragic news that Joseph had been severely injured by the falling of a derrick while at work on the governor's residence...Jesus desired to go immediately to his father, but Mary would hear to nothing but that she must hasten to her husband's side ... But Joseph died of his injuries before Mary arrived.

6. Just at the time when prospects were good and the future looked bright, an apparently cruel hand struck down the head of this Nazareth household ... and every plan for Jesus and his future education was demolished ... This lad of Nazareth now became the sole support and comfort of this so suddenly bereaved family.

7. As the years passed, this young carpenter of Nazareth increasingly measured every institution of society and every usage of religion by the unvarying test: What does it do for the human soul? does it bring God to man? does it bring man to God?

8, On Wednesday evening, April 17, A.D. 9, Ruth, the baby of the family. was born, and to the best of his ability Jesus endeavored to take the place of his father in comforting and ministering to his mother during this trying and peculiarly sad ordeal. For almost a score of years (until he began his public ministry) no father could have loved and nurtured his daughter any more affectionately and faithfully than Jesus cared for little Ruth. And he was an equally good father to all the other members of his family.

9. During this year Jesus first formulated the prayer which he subsequently taught to his apostles, and which to many has become known as "The Lord's Prayer."...At last Jesus gave up the idea of having each member of the family formulate spontaneous prayers, and one evening in October he sat down by the little squat lamp on the low stone table, and, on a piece of smooth cedar board about eighteen inches square, with a piece of charcoal he wrote out the prayer which become from that time on the standard family petition.

10. In the course of this year Jesus found a passage in the so‑called Book of Enoch which influenced him in the later adoption of the term “Son of Man" as a designation for his bestowal mission on Urantia ... Jesus had an unerring ability for the recognition of truth, and truth he never hesitated to embrace, no matter from what source it appeared to emanate.

11. His profound periods of meditation, his frequent journeys to the hilltop for prayer, and the many strange ideas which Jesus advanced from time to time, thoroughly alarmed his mother. Sometimes she thought the lad was beside himself, and then she would steady her fears, remembering that he was, after all, a child of promise and in some manner different from other youths.

12. From this year on, Jesus’ disclosures about what was going on in his mind steadily

diminished; that is, he talked less about those things which an average person could not

grasp, and which would lead to his being regarded as peculiar or different from

ordinary folks...He craved a trustworthy and confidential friend, but his problems were

too complex for his human associates to comprehend.

13. With the coming of his fifteenth birthday, Jesus could officially occupy the synagogue pulpit on the Sabbath day....Therefore on the first Sabbath after his fifteenth birthday the chazan arranged for Jesus to conduct the morning service of the synagogue. And when all the faithful in Nazareth had assembled, the young man, having made his selection of Scriptures, stood up and began to read;

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to set the spiritual prisoners free; to proclaim the year of God's favor and the day of our God's reckoning.

14. Gradually Jesus and his family returned to the simple life of their earlier years. Their clothes and even their food became simpler. They had plenty of milk, butter, and cheese. In season they enjoyed the produce of their garden, but each passing month necessitated the practice of greater frugality.

15. Apparently all Jesus' plans for a career were thwarted. The future did not look bright

as matters now developed. But he did not falter; he was not discouraged. He lived on, day by day, doing well the present duty and faithfully discharging the immediate responsibilities of his station in life. Jesus' life is the everlasting comfort of all disappointed idealists.

16. The pay of a common day‑laboring carpenter was slowly diminishing. By the and of this year Jesus could earn, by working early and late, only the equivalent of about twenty-five cents a day. By the next year they found it difficult to pay the civil taxes, not to mention the synagogue assessments and the temple tax of one‑half shekel. During this year the tax collector tried to squeeze extra revenue out of Jesus, even threatening to take his harp.

17. Fearing that the copy of the Greek scriptures might be discovered and confiscated by the tax collectors, Jesus, on his fifteenth birthday, presented it to the Nazareth synagogue library as his maturity offering to the Lord.

18. The great shock of his fifteenth year came when Jeans went over to Sepphoris to receive the decision of Herod regarding the appeal taken to him in the dispute about the amount of money due Joseph at the time of his accidental death ... Joseph's brothers had taken an appeal to Herod himself, and now Jesus stood in the palace and heard Herod decree that his father had nothing due him at the time of his death. And for such an unjust decision Jesus never again trusted Herod Antipas. It is not surprising that he once alluded to Herod as "that fox."

19. As he grow up to manhood, he passed through all those conflicts and confusions which the average young persons of previous and subsequent ages have undergone. And the rigorous experience of supporting his family was a sure safeguard against his having overmuch time for idle meditation or the indulgence of mystic tendencies.

20. At one time Jesus faintly hoped that he might be able to gather up sufficient means, provided they could collect the considerable sum of money due his father for work on Herod's palace, to warrant undertaking the purchase of a small farm...But when Herod refused to pay them any of the funds due Joseph, they gave up the ambition of owning a home in the country. As it was, they contrived to enjoy much of the experience of farm life as they now had three cows, four sheep, a flock of chickens, a donkey, and a dog, in addition to the doves, Even the little tots had their regular duties to perform in the well‑regulated scheme of management which characterized the home life of this Nazareth family

U.B. 126:1386‑1394.

Discussion Questions

1. How might Jesus’ life have changed if his father had lived?

2. Why did the people of Jesus’ day believe that prophets and men of promise performed miracles and worked wonders?

3. Do you think the death of Joseph was a completely natural event or did it have supernatural direction?

4. Do Christians question why Joseph is never mentioned in the adult life of Jesus?

5. Why are religious leaders sometimes not honest and sincere?

6. How is Jesus’ difficulty in making decisions about his life mission helpful and comforting to young people in making decisions about their vocational and life mission?

7. What in Jesus example of turning disaster and disappointment into discipline and direction can help us in similar situations?