INSPIRE BELIEVE GROW WRITER CONTRIBUTION
Do Any Bible Stories Give You a Distaste for Jesus?
I actually have a few that bother me.
Jesus is the love of my life.
He is my love because He loved me first and gave Himself as a ransom for my soul. However, I do find a few Bible stories that leave a bit of a sour taste. I know Christ will forgive me and help me to understand one day.
Here is the first story that gives me pause:
Jesus and His family travel to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. When it concludes, the family heads back home. After a day, the parents realize that Jesus is missing from their caravan. Three days later, they find him back in Jerusalem in the temple.
Here is the dialogue that transpired:
When his parents saw him, they were shocked. His mother asked him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been worried sick looking for you!” Jesus said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you realize that I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2: 48–49, GW)
Okay, that seems like a smart-aleck type of answer. Had my kid pulled this trick and then talked back to me, I would have flicked him in his sarcastic mouth and grounded him for a month.
Does anyone else agree? At least a little?
The second story that bothers me:
When Mary asks to do something about the wine shortage at the wedding feast. Here is His response:
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4, NIV)
Again, the response seems disrespectful. I love how Mary ignores him and tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them. His hour may not have come, but in one moment, a mother would kick her son from the nest.
The third story:
When the family of Jesus come to the place where He is teaching, they needed to speak to Him. Someone announces to Jesus that His family is there.
Here is His response:
He replied to the man speaking to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” (Matthew 12:48, GW)
Of course, Jesus made a valid point about who is considered family. But why was His family there? Were they there to tell Him that Joseph died, or was it something trivial? We don’t have the entire picture. The family had to wait in the wings until Jesus got to the crux — “Those who do what the Father wants is family.” Did He ever go to His earthly family? The Bible doesn’t say.
I imagine by now you must think me a heretic. I assure you I am not, and if you are honest, I’m sure you will agree that some stories in the Bible may bother you.
Here is my humble conclusion:
The Bible tells stories, but we don’t have the complete picture of the times, the manners, the language, or the mentality. We have to fill in the blanks, personalizing it with a possible faulty summation.
At times, Jesus seems strange to me, but I live in a highly different era with dissimilar expectations of social manners.
More importantly, I look at Him with my odd vision obscured by worldly sin. I see through a smoked glass, but He promises I will see clearly one day.
The bottom line is Christ is without sin, and these stories have no bearing whatsoever on His flawless character. I live by the faith He has given me.
This faith instills a trust that He is not a sarcastic pre-teen, a disrespectful Son, or an uncaring sibling. He is righteously excellent in every way, and every response He made, although possibly lost in translation, was made through love.
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