By Connie Arnold
What if you were trying to convince someone that you were from another world? That you could show them how to get there? How far do you think you would get? In the case of a patient in a rehab center, such a declaration caused a staff member to immediately phone the patient’s daughter. We’ll call the man John Miller and his daughter Loretta. She was well known to the staff because she visited her father every day.
When Loretta reached her father’s bedside, she calmly pulled up a chair and sat near to him. He looked in possession of all his faculties. His eyes were clear and he showed no signs of aggression.
“They don’t know who I am or what I can do,” he said. “I can get out of this bed and walk out of here. I’m from another planet.” Although he was confined to a wheelchair, Loretta didn’t dispute his claim but took his hand and let him talk until the conversation took on a more normal tone.
To John’s generation, living out their last days in what he considered an old folks’ home was comparable to desertion by those he loved and those who were supposed to love him. John’s mind had dealt with the fear of abandonment in the rehab center by giving himself an alter ego. His entertainment genre was science fiction whether reading or watching, so he became an alien from another world, not constrained by his present physical conditions.
A normal Jewish family in Nazareth did normal Jewish things: kept the feast days, honored the Sabbath, attended synagogue. The parents instructed the children at home until their religious education was taken over by the rabbis. The Torah was explained: the most important event was to be the coming of the Messiah who would set up a kingdom. Then one member of this normal family began to step out of bounds. He was the oldest child in the family and His name was Jesus.
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man,” (Luke 2:52 KJV). While He was developing physically, He was developing a reputation. How would He increase in favor with God? He was obedient to the Scriptures. How could He increase in favor with man? He was obedient to His parents.
When He was 12, He accompanied His parents to the temple in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. On the journey back to Nazareth, His parents missed Jesus. His parents found Him still at the temple.
Mary said, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You,” (Luke 2:48b, KJV). He responded, “Why were you looking for Me? Didn’t you know that I must be in My Father’s House?” (Luke 2:49, GNV). “But they did not understand what He was saying to them. Then He went to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them…,” (Luke 2:50-52, NIV).
And what did Jesus do before He started His ministry? We aren’t told, but we know that He was a carpenter and worked in the family business. There is no evidence that Joseph lived to see Jesus enter into His ministry. After Joseph’s death, Jesus, as the eldest child became the head of the family. Jesus would not have shirked the responsibility of providing for the family until His siblings were grown.
When Jesus became 30 years of age, He stepped out of bounds again. He revealed that He was the Messiah, God’s Son, sent from Heaven to Earth with the message of salvation for humanity. Not everyone believed. His closest friends were filled with great fear when He took control of the storm. His disciples asked one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:41, ESV).
But John knew. John the Baptist underscored Jesus’ divinity when he saw Him coming the next day and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, NKJV). God Himself reached down from Heaven and declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” (Matthew 17:5, KJV).
It shook the Jewry. The Pharisees couldn’t condemn Jesus’ misspent youth, his dereliction of duty in caring for his family, or His lack of scriptural knowledge. They couldn’t dispute His miracles or His love for the people. But He hadn’t come to them first, would not compromise, ask for their advice or permission. They hated Him for His condemnation of their hypocrisy and for questioning their authority. The Jewish rulers finally thought they’d brought Him down when they incited the masses to cry, “blasphemy, crucify Him.” They killed Him.
But His death on the cross only validated His claim when He arose the third day to ascend back home. He was God’s Son, sent from another world, to make a path for His children to come to where He was.
John Miller was not from another world. His daughter took him home where the fear of being forsaken no longer brought on uncontrollable stress. He lived several more years with an alert mind and no recollection of that time. John was not from another world, but John did go to be in Jesus’ world when he left this one.
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Riches of Heaven 