God With Us

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I thought it would be appropriate for us to just consider another of the prophecies that is in Isaiah, but not really from the framework of Isaiah. I want to look at it a little differently. You remember the familiar words of Isaiah 7:14, ”Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel”, literally, God among us or God in our midst. That prophecy about Christ emphasizes that the child to be born, the Messiah, would be God and that He would dwell or live among us.

But that wonderful name, Immanuel, also means that Jesus became one of us. He lived like we live. He faced the same difficulties and troubles in life that you and I face. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is with us, with us in the midst of this life in a fallen world. And that’s so helpful. Because let’s be honest, all of us can be tempted when the trials of life come upon us of all different kinds, we’re tempted to ask, “Why is this happening to me?” Does this mean that God somehow doesn’t love me? Does it mean that He’s changed His perspective about me? - to assume it’s a sign of God’s disfavor. But trials are part of life in a fallen world. Job wrote, so long ago in Job 5:7, “For man is born for trouble, As sparks fly upward.” You sit looking at a bonfire and you watch the sparks inevitably come off of the fire and Job said, trials and troubles in this life are just like that. They’re just inevitable. They’re going to come. And God uses every trial for our good and for His glory. Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

But I think the biblical theology of trials and their inevitability in this life is most clearly seen in the life of Jesus and His earthly family. Think about it for a moment. When God sent His one-of-a-kind Son, the Son of His love into this world, God the Father didn’t protect His Son from the trials and troubles of this life. In fact, Jesus and His family experienced a stream of extremely difficult times.

I think when we read the biblical record of Jesus’ birth and life, we’re tempted in some ways to sanitize it, to ignore or downplay the hard things, and to imagine that Jesus’ life really was nothing like ours at all. The Christmas story, I mean, I love the Christmas story, but when you just read it, and you read it with the right lighting, and in the right environment, and with the right tone of voice, it sounds so warm and cozy. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Now don’t worry, I’m not going to rain on Christmas, alright? I know some of you purists are really concerned. Not going to happen. I love Christmas. But what I want you to do tonight is to consider with me the trials of Jesus and His human family, even those connected to His birth. And the reason I want to do that is because I want to show you how Jesus was truly God with us in the midst of the troubles and the difficulties of this life. I think by the time we’re done, you will find it to be a great encouragement.

Jesus faced, as James puts it at the beginning of his letter, and it’s interesting, isn’t it, that James, Jesus’ half-brother, would begin his letter by talking about the reality that we face various trials. Jesus faced various trials. There are too many for me to address all of them, but let me just point out several, particularly connected with His early years that will give us a little insight into what He faced and, when we’re done, I’ll draw it together and show how it connects with what we face. Alright? So, let’s do it together.

The first trial that confronts Mary, Joseph, and eventually Jesus has to do with His conception and birth. And, specifically, it is the suspicion of sexual sin that tainted the reputation of Jesus and His parents. Turn with me to Matthew 1. Matthew 1:18, says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” Now, to fully understand what’s going on here, let me back away from this verse and just give you a little bit of the order of events, chronologically, as they unfold in Matthew 1 and Luke 2.

Here’s how it unfolds. You have, first of all, Gabriel appears to Zacharias in the temple and announces the birth of John the Baptist in the first part of Luke 1. Secondly, six months later, Gabriel appears to Mary in her home in Nazareth. So, one was in the temple in Jerusalem, the next is up in Galilee in Nazareth, and there he announces the birth of Christ to Mary in Luke 1:26 and following. Mary, hearing that announcement, hearing the reality that she’s going to bear the Messiah, leaves immediately and visits Elizabeth, her cousin in the hill country for three months until John is born. And again, that’s recorded in Luke 1. It’s highly unlikely, the way it’s phrased in Luke 1, that Mary took time to explain all of this to Joseph before she left. She hears the announcement; she leaves immediately to see Elizabeth in the hill country. Then Mary returns home to Nazareth, three months later, after the birth of John the Baptist, pregnant.

Now, this is where the story gets difficult. Just to remind you of what a first century Jewish wedding was like, it was composed of two parts. There was first of all the kiddushin, or the betrothal period. It was much more serious than our engagement. In fact, you could only end it with a divorce and, during that time, the couple were not to live together, and they would remain sexually pure. In fact, any form of sexual sin was considered adultery, and the guilty party was to be stoned, according to Deuteronomy 22. Matthew adds that all of this happened before they came together. So, they had respected these rules. They had not had sexual relations. The second part of the wedding was to come, or the marriage, was to come later, and that was the huppah. That’s when the man went to the house of his wife, with a great deal of fanfare, all of his friends, you know, the bands and everything else playing, and he brought his wife back to his home to live. This was accompanied by as many as seven days of feasting and the consummation of the marriage. What you find with Mary and Joseph is they were in the kiddushin. They were in the betrothal period that, again, was like our engagement, but much more serious. At some point, even though they had remained sexually pure, at some point during the kiddushin, could be as much as a year’s time, something remarkable happened. She was found to be with child, Matthew says, by or out of the Holy Spirit.

The next thing that happens as this story unfolds is Joseph learns from Mary of her pregnancy and decides to divorce her. Look at Matthew 1:19: “And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.” You know, again, my father-in-law who taught theology for 50 years used to say, “When you come to the Scripture, read it with a sanctified imagination.” Can you imagine what it would have been like to have been Joseph? You’ve lived for this time your whole life. You’ve anticipated marrying and all the joys that come with that, and your bride-to-be, whom you’re betrothed to, comes to you and says, “I’m pregnant.” And then she tells you the story. Imagine the shock when he heard the news. He obviously knew the child wasn’t his, and her explanation must have seemed incredible to him. If you think about it for a moment, of course it was. Only shock, devastation.

But once those left him, Joseph, like all of us, has to begin to think about his options. And what were his options? He really only had three options. The first option was to marry her. And this simply was not done. In fact, the Jewish Mishnah prohibited a man in this situation from marrying the woman. And besides that, just practically, think about what his marrying her said to everybody around him. It said it was a sort of tacit admission that the child was his forever ruining and tainting his reputation in that culture. So, that really wasn’t an option. The second option he had was to disgrace her. That is, he could make a public accusation of her infidelity in a court of law. But such a public proceeding would publicly shame him and his family. But it’s interesting, when you read the text of Matthew, Joseph wasn’t thinking about himself when he’s working this through. He decided not to take Mary to court. Matthew tells us, notice what he writes there, it was because Joseph didn’t want to make a public spectacle of her. What an amazing man! Joseph’s only other choice was to send her away secretly. The Greek word translated “send away” is the same Greek word translated divorce in the two passages in Matthew (Matthew 5 and Matthew 19), when Jesus deals with the issue of divorce. And that is exactly what Joseph had decided to do. Rather than publicly disgrace her and court trial and all that that brought, he had decided that he only had one option and that was to privately divorce her and end this relationship.

The sixth part of this story, as it unfolds, is that an angel appears to Joseph in a dream in Matthew 1:20-23. This was so important. I mean, think about it. There was nothing Mary could do. There was nothing else Mary could say to defend herself. She’s told him the story. She’s told him what’s transpired. He doesn’t believe it. And frankly, neither would you, neither would I. So, the Lord sent an angel to speak to Joseph in a dream in verse 20 and notice what he said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife...” “To take Mary as your wife” describes the second part of the Jewish wedding, when the man took the woman and took her back to his home. So, God tells Joseph to finalize the marriage. And so, that’s exactly what happens. Joseph takes Mary as his wife, keeping her a virgin until Jesus is born, according to the last two verses of Matthew 1. So, Joseph did exactly as the angel commanded him. He took the next step and formally took Mary from her home into his home.

And again, think about this. Read this with a sanctified imagination. They lived in Nazareth, a very small town, somewhere in the first century between 200 and 500 people. In other words, there may very well have been fewer people in Nazareth than there are in this auditorium tonight. Do you think word might have gotten around? Of course, it did. Joseph himself didn’t believe Mary’s story at first. You can bet nobody bought their story. So, from the beginning, in the minds of the people around them, one of two things that happened. Either Mary had been unfaithful to Joseph and Joseph went ahead and married her anyway, or they had been sexually immoral together. And again, in that culture, the Jewish culture of the first century, this was devastating. So, this was a serious trial. And in this trial, their reputations were assaulted, their integrity was questioned, and their spirituality became a joke in Nazareth.

Jesus’ reputation was attacked throughout His life for the same reason. You can see this little innuendo that occurs. For example, in John 8:41, Jesus says to the Jewish people, ”‘You are doing the deeds of your father.’ [And you can just hear the dripping sarcasm.] They said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.’“ So, God the Father didn’t choose to protect His Son from a bad reputation.

There’s a second trial that we find in the early life of Jesus, and that is, Mary and Joseph were forced to travel several days from home when Mary was nine months pregnant and soon to give birth. Turn over to Luke’s account, Luke 2, the familiar words of Luke 2:1-2: “Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” This census was likely the one that was ordered by Caesar Augustus in the year 8 BC. But for several reasons, and I’m not going to get into that tonight, it likely wasn’t carried out in Palestine until about 5 BC.

A census. In Roman thinking, the census was used for two purposes. It was used to determine military service and to calculate taxes. But the Jews were exempt from military service. So, in Israel, this census was all about taxes, taxes for Rome. Look at verse 3: “And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.”

Now, what we learn in those verses is that Mary and Joseph were both descendants of David. You can see that in the respective genealogies, likely, Joseph’s genealogy as Jesus’ legal father in Matthew 2; Mary’s genealogy as Jesus’ mother in Luke 3. Both of them were descendants of David through different sons of David. You remember that - some of you will remember the curse on Jeconiah. That’s the reason for that. Women, 12 years of age and older, had to pay a Roman poll tax and so they too had to register. So, Mary and Joseph leave Nazareth to head to Bethlehem.

Now, Bethlehem is about six miles south of Jerusalem. The entire journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem is about 90 miles through the Transjordan, the area around the Jordan River. Here’s what it would have looked like. Here is Nazareth in the north, and here is Bethlehem in the south. They would have traveled not down through the hill country, the mountainous area between the two arrows, but rather they would have traveled through the Jordan Rift Valley where the Jordan flows because that’s much easier traveling, plus it doesn’t take them through Samaria and some of the dangers there.

Here’s a map of roads, ancient roads, in Israel. You can see the Sea of Galilee there in the north, the Dead Sea below, and you can see here is where one of the main roads out of Galilee begins, and here is where it ends. They would have likely taken that route down on the Mediterranean side of the Jordan, or if not, then they would have taken the road on the desert side of the Jordan that you can see there as well. But it would have been one of those two roads that they would have traveled down.

Now, this is what that journey would have looked like. Here is the Jordan Rift, just south of the Sea of Galilee. This is a wonderful farmland. The Sea of Galilee is about 800 feet below sea level. It’s a rich area, a lot of crops are grown. And so, you can see that’s beautiful. But as you make your way down the Jordan... Today, the Jordan River is a relatively small stream, but that’s because of a number of factors in the time during the rainy season, especially, it was much wider, much more formidable for traveling. They would have traveled down through the Jordan Rift alongside the Jordan River, all the way down to Jericho. This was difficult. It would have taken three days under the best of circumstances. But imagine traveling three days, if you’re a woman who is nine months pregnant, and you’re doing it on the back of a donkey. By the way, that picture that I’m showing, that’s what the road from Jericho to Jerusalem looks like. That’s an actual shot of the Judean wilderness that they would have traveled through.

Now, another problem complicated their journey. It was the weather. Because if it was December, as the evidence suggests, and again, that’s a different message for a different time, but December is often cold and wet in that part of the world. The rainy season peaks in December and January, and the average rainfall in Jerusalem during both of those months is about five inches of rain each month. The average December temperatures in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area are similar to our own, 50s during the day and 30s at night. Now, just think about that for a moment. This would be hard enough if you had your Toyota Highlander. That’s not how they were traveling. Three days, a nine-month pregnant woman, traveling down the Jordan Rift Valley on a donkey. And then traveling through that wilderness to get from Jericho to Jerusalem in cold weather.

It would have been so much easier for Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus to be in their own home surrounded by family. I mean, today when a woman’s pregnant and nearing delivery, she doesn’t want to travel far from her home. This was a serious trial that affected their comfort, their peace of mind, and traveling from Jericho to Jerusalem, even potentially, their personal safety. The road was filled with bandits and robbers, as you know even from the story Jesus tells of the Good Samaritan.

A third trial that Jesus and His family faced in those early days was when they arrived in Bethlehem, there was no place for them to stay or give birth. Look at Luke 2:6-7: “While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Now, it’s interesting that Luke doesn’t say, nor does he even imply that Mary went into labor the night they arrived in Bethlehem. We actually don’t know how long they were there before she gave birth, but what we are told here is that there was no usual place to stay.

Now, this is a very interesting issue. Our English text says this, “there was no room for them in the inn”. But that’s not exactly what Luke says, because when Luke wants to speak of a paid establishment or an inn in the way we think of it, in modern parlance, a hotel or motel, he uses a different Greek word, pandocheion. That’s the word he uses in the story of the Good Samaritan, for example, when the Good Samaritan hires a room for the man who’d been injured to stay and cares for him. That’s the word he chooses to use. But here, Luke uses a different word. He uses the word kataluma. This literally means guest chamber. And it could be referring to public guest chambers provided by the community, a kind of unmanned hostel in the little village of Bethlehem. If it were this, it would be a sort of two-story, simple structure, most of them in the time were built like this - a two-story, simple structure with primitive rooms on the second floor. And then the inner court of the ground floor is where the animals were kept along with any cargo. It’s where the servants slept if there were servants. Now, if this is the kind of place, this sort of unmanned hostel that the community maintained, then don’t be too hard on the innkeeper. There probably wasn’t one, as there would have been in a normal inn. And if this is what Luke meant, then what happened was they had arrived perhaps late in the day and available space had already been taken, possibly by fellow travelers, more likely by Roman officials who were there for the census.

I remember when my mom died, it was right after Hurricane Katrina, and we went to Mobile. And even though Katrina had hit in New Orleans, you know, it’s two and a half hours away, we couldn’t find a hotel room in Mobile because all of the insurance adjusters and all of the workers and power company people and all of them had filled up all the motels in Mobile. So, it was difficult for us to find a place to stay. That could have been what happened with Jesus and his parents.

But the guest chamber, while it could have been a public guest chamber, it very well may have been guest quarters in a private home. This is actually far more likely because this is the word that’s used, example, referencing the upper room. Guest quarters in a house. So, there were no guest quarters available in any private homes in Bethlehem. In this case, I have just rained on every kid’s Christmas program, because what do you do with an innkeeper in this scenario? Sorry, but I don’t think it was likely.

I think, based on the words he uses, it’s not that Mary and Joseph arrived too late to get a room at the local inn. We know they had relatives in Bethlehem. That’s why they returned there for the census. It’s where their families were from. But none of their relatives made room in their guest quarters for a pregnant woman. Think about it. There’s only one reason for that, and it’s a reason that makes great sense. They chose not to offer a room to one they believed was an unwed mother. The fact that Jesus was born in a place for animals seems clearly to imply shame and rejection. Think about it, ladies. What woman in her right mind turns away a pregnant woman and says, “No, I want you to give birth where the animals live.” There is shame and rejection in this decision. Instead of an inn, instead of public guest quarters, or a private home of relatives, instead, Mary and Joseph had to stay in a cave. That’s the reality of it.

Again, don’t think you’re a little craish where you’re, you know, the little lean to and the hay and all of that. No, it’s more like a natural cave. How do we know that? Well in the second century, Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with the Jew, Trypho, wrote that Jesus was born in a cave. The Protoevangelium of James in the second century refers to the cave in in which Jesus was born. Origen, who lived from 185 to 253 AD, said that in his day, there was a well-known cave that was identified where Jesus was born. This is a geological feature in Bethlehem. Many houses in Bethlehem are still built in front of caves. Here is the cave that I think historically is almost certainly the place where our Lord was born. This is inside the Church of the Nativity, and because it’s a cave, the church was built over the cave, you go down, down into the cave where Jesus was born. The traditional cave of Jesus’ birth is 39 feet by 10 feet. The original Church of the Nativity was built over that cave. And again, it’s almost certainly where Mary gave birth. Tragically, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and all of those who have come before have so obliterated that cave that this is what you’re left with. This is the place in this cave where our Lord was almost certainly born. Here’s another view.

Now, just to give you an idea of what that cave was like, there is an adjacent cave to the one where Jesus was born. It’s where Jerome translated the Vulgate. And again, it has a long tradition that dates back to Origen and others, way back. This is what... Oh, I should show you this first. This is the place of Jesus’ manger in the Church of the Nativity. And it was very unusual for there to be a wood manger. It was almost certainly a stone manger because wood was hard to find in the areas around there, but stone was very common. This is the adjacent cave in the Church in the Nativity. It gives you an idea, kind of a better feel for what that cave would have been like. This is where Jerome translated the Vulgate.

Now, once Jesus was born in this cave, in ancient Israel, newborns had their navels cut. They were washed with water and then salted as an antiseptic. Then as Luke says, “...she [Mary] wrapped Him [Jesus] in cloths...” Wrapping the arms and legs of a newborn with strips of cloth was very common, in fact, back even in Ezekiel’s time, some 600 years before Jesus. Ezekiel 16:4: “As for your birth [talking about Israel metaphorically], on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.” So, that was an ancient tradition that predated Jesus by many, many centuries.

But what comes next in the story is not common. There was only one newborn in Bethlehem that night, lying in a manger or in an animal feed trough. As I said, it was likely a stone manger because stone was so much more common than wood. According to Jerome, the manger of Luke 2:7 was still visible in his time and consisted of a rock groove with plain, clay walls in a side cave off of the main cave that was some 10 feet by 10 feet in size. So, a children’s room off of the cave.

Here is, by the way, this is not the manger in Bethlehem. This just gives you an idea of what a stone manger in that part of the world would have looked like. Here’s a, just to give you a little sense of size and scale.

So, Jesus and His parents then experienced a very personal rejection by their relatives in Bethlehem with whom they had likely hoped to stay. Apparently, the best we can deduce, their relatives have learned that Mary was pregnant before their wedding and so Mary and Joseph were forced to stay in a cave where animals were kept, and Mary apparently gave birth with little or no assistance.

But there’s a fourth trial that comes that’s even worse, worse by far, and that is that the most powerful man in the country tries to kill their son. Forty days after Jesus’ birth, likely in the winter of 5 BC, Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth. Luke 2:39 says, “When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord [so after those 40 days], they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.” Now, there’s some question about whether this happened after the wise men had come in the flight to Egypt or before, but Luke seems to imply that after they presented Jesus at the temple, they returned to Nazareth. If so, they simply went to Nazareth to collect their belongings and to move to Bethlehem, because the next time we find them, they are living in a house in Bethlehem. The visit of the Magi comes as they’re in that house, happened somewhere between 40 days and two years after Jesus’ birth, likely between February 5th, or excuse me, February of 5 BC and April of 4 BC. The reason we know April of 4 BC is that’s when Herod died. So, all of this had to transpire before Herod died.

Of course, the visit of the Magi is recorded in Matthew 2. Turn with me to Matthew 2. You have the first 12 verses - the story of their coming. I love that story and it’s one we’ll study again in the future. We did just a couple of years ago. But I want you to see that their visit is followed by this severe trial. Look at verse 13: “Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.’ So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’“

So, Herod, having learned of the date of the timing of the Messiah’s birth, decides to get rid of the rival by killing all children two years of age and younger. We can assume that he left himself a little margin, so likely the timing given him by the Magi was, I would think, likely a year or less. We don’t know for sure but knowing the wretched kind of man Herod was, that just makes sense. In a village the size of Bethlehem, about a thousand people, if you do the normal sort of math of how many there would be two years of age and under in a village that size, likely as many as 20 infants were killed. That’s why it’s called the Massacre of the Innocents.

Joseph and Mary left hastily during the night, likely leaving most of their belongings there in Bethlehem, and with Jesus, their oldest child, less than two years of age, and Mary, possibly at this point pregnant with James, they travel about 265 miles to Egypt.

The population of Egypt was cosmopolitan. It was accountable directly to the emperor, and there was no Roman governor, and so it was an easy place for fugitives to get lost, and many of them went there for that very purpose. The port of Alexandria was the second largest city in the empire, and it had a huge community of Jews. And so, it’s possible, we don’t know for sure, but it’s possible that’s where they settled.

We also don’t know what Joseph did there. Perhaps he resumed his trade as a carpenter and that’s how he supported his little family. Or perhaps God had already arranged the financing through the gifts of the Magi, and he sold them, and they lived for those months off of the proceeds of the sale of those gifts.

But about 18 months later, on April 4th, 4 BC, Herod died. And Mary and Joseph and Jesus, and possibly at this point, James, left Egypt to return to Israel.

Some of you have moved often in your lives, but think about in the ancient world, and think about this family. They have moved three times in three years, and one of those was a distant international move. In chapter 2:19-23, we discover what happens next. Joseph apparently, when he came back to Israel, still planned to live in Bethlehem. But then he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father Herod, and God warned him in a dream not to resettle there. So, Joseph took his belongings from Bethlehem, and his family settled again in Nazareth in Galilee.

Again, I ask you to just think about realistically what this meant for this little family. This whole episode was a severe trial. They had to leave their new home in Bethlehem. They had to flee their country. They escaped but think about this. They had to do so during the night as the angel commanded them, which meant that people they knew, the families they had connected with, children they knew were put to death by Herod as they made their way toward Egypt. And of course, the greatest trial was the threat to their own child, the possibility of losing their little one.

A fifth trial that this family encountered is that Joseph died while Jesus and His siblings were still young. Turn with me to Mark 6. This is one of several implications that are in this most interesting verse. Mark 6 and look at verse 3. As Jesus is teaching in Nazareth in His hometown, He’s just begun His ministry, so this is some 30 years after His birth. We read this in verse 3. The people say, ”‘Is not [speaking about Jesus] this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at Him.”

Now, in that verse, we learn a lot about Jesus’ family. We learn that He, of course, was the oldest. We know that because she was a virgin when He was born and there were no other children. But we learn that He had four brothers, that after Jesus, Mary and Joseph had four male children. He also had at least two sisters because notice the plural, sisters. He may have had more than two, but he had at least two. So, Jesus had at least six siblings.

Now, in this text, the members of Jesus’ family, all of them are mentioned, but not who? Not Joseph. He was still living when Jesus was 12. You remember the incident at the temple. He’s mentioned in that episode. But he’s not mentioned here during the early days of Jesus’ ministry. And he’s not mentioned at any time after that temple episode when Jesus was 12. It’s extremely likely, most scholars believe certain, that Joseph died during Jesus’ teen years, leaving Mary with at least seven children. It was a huge trial, certainly for Mary, but it was in many ways a larger trial for Jesus, because Jesus lost His father while He was still young. And although He certainly was not Mary’s husband, as her oldest son, in the Jewish culture, He was now responsible to care for and provide for her. And as the oldest male in the home, He was also suddenly responsible to parent His younger siblings, to provide for them, to shepherd them, to teach them the Scripture. So, Jesus in a sense acted as a kind of husband, caring for Mary and providing for her, and as a parent, shepherding six younger siblings, at least six. He clearly took over the family business because notice here in 6:3, He’s called “the carpenter”. So, that means that Jesus worked six days a week to support His family. Jesus faced a severe trial of losing the earthly father that He no doubt loved while He was still young and then having the weight of Mary and His six siblings falling upon Him. He’s responsible at a very young age, probably in His late teens to care for His entire family and to teach them and bring them up.

Another trial that faced Jesus was Jesus’ family was filled with conflict. Don’t misunderstand, not because of Him. He was the Prince of Peace. He brought peace wherever He was, but because of His sinful, unbelieving siblings, because whenever His siblings first became aware that He claimed to be more than their brother and the human son of Mary and Joseph, listen carefully, they all refused to believe in Him - all six of them, six plus.

In fact, His brothers thought He was crazy. Turn back to Mark 3, Mark 3:20. He’s now launched His ministry. His ministry headquarters is in Capernaum, on the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee. Verse 20 says, “And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this [that’s His relatives, His brothers - you’ll see in a moment], they went out to take custody of Him...” The word means, “to take and seize by force”. In other words, they came out to grab Jesus, to seize Him by force, and to demand and insist that He come back to Nazareth. Why? “...for they were saying, ‘He has lost His senses.’ [He’s out of His mind. Who does He think He is?]”

Go down to verse 31. This is when they arrive. “Then His mother and His brothers arrived...” Now, I don’t think Mary thought Jesus was out of His mind. I think she is playing the role of a normal mother - concerned about her son, concerned about His health. He’s overdoing it. He needs to slow down. He needs to eat. He needs to care for Himself. But His brothers - that was not their perspective. They thought He was out of His mind. And so, they all arrive in Capernaum and Jesus is teaching inside a packed house in Capernaum. “...and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, ‘Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.’ Answering them, He said, ‘Who are My mother and My brothers?’ Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.’”

The view that Jesus’ brothers had of Him, and apparently His sisters as well, is very clear in an incident that occurs just six months before the crucifixion. It’s mentioned in John 7:5. There were told this: “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” Now, you talk about a trial for the perfect Son of God. He poured His life into His six younger siblings. He loved them, He taught them, He worked day and night to provide for them, and they rejected Him. How sad for Jesus to have His own family reject His claims?

I don’t know for sure, but I personally think it’s likely that that’s why at the cross, Jesus gave responsibility for the care of Mary to John, His apostle. You remember Jesus, in His incarnation, limited the independent exercise of His attributes, including His omniscience. In other words, Jesus didn’t know everything. He only knew, in His omniscience, what the Spirit directed Him to know. I think it’s very possible that Jesus may have gone to His grave, gone to His death, thinking that those He had loved and cared for and taught would always reject Him, and therefore He gave the care of Mary to John. If you’ve had a child who’s walked out on the faith, who’s turned his or her back on and all that you’ve tried to teach them about Christ and the gospel, Jesus knows from experience how that feels.

Those are all very difficult trials, wouldn’t you agree? But He faced so many others during the time of His ministry. Let me just give you a little list. He was completely rejected by all in His hometown of Nazareth and with whom He’d grown up. They didn’t want to have anything to do with Him. They tried to kill Him when He preached His sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth. He was targeted by several unsuccessful attempts to take His life. He endured countless insults and verbal attacks, said that He was in league with the devil, was the devil himself. He was falsely accused of the capital crime of treason against Rome. He was convicted of blasphemy against God by the highest court in His country. He was abandoned by His friends at the worst moment of His life. He knew such profound, spiritual anguish that His capillaries burst, and He sweats drops of blood. He experienced extreme physical violence against Himself. He endured extreme physical pain and suffering. He was executed as the worst of criminals. He experienced for those hours on the cross, total separation from God, and then at the age of 33, He died.

No wonder Isaiah said He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus regarded these and the other circumstances in His earthly life as trials. Listen to what he said to His apostles in Luke 22:28, ”You are those who have stood by Me in My trials...”

So, here’s the question, why? Why did the Father allow His Son and His earthly family to face so many hard things? It wasn’t because God was angry with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. It wasn’t a sign of disfavor. I mean, after all, think about it. In Matthew 3:17, a voice came out of the heavens at Jesus’ baptism and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am”, what? “Well-pleased”. So, why did God allow all these trials?

And here we get to the heart of what we can learn about ourselves and our own trials. Let’s briefly consider them. Here are lessons from the trials of Jesus. These are lessons that we can consider as we look at our own lives. We don’t face the same trials that He did, but if you’re a human being, you face trials. You may not be in the middle of one right now, but you’ve been in them, and you will be again because, as sparks fly upward, so man is born for trouble. So, what are the lessons we learn from the trials of Jesus?

First of all, God always has a sovereign plan. All of these trials were necessary for the Word of God to be fulfilled. God had a plan. Remember Romans 8:28? “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” And in retrospect, we can see the plan that God had for Jesus.

Let me just give you one example. Let’s take one of those trials. Take the fact that Mary and Joseph had to travel 90 miles to Bethlehem while she was nine months pregnant. It was because Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. It was prophesied in Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem. And it proved, through the Roman government, that Jesus was of royal descent. He was in the line of David by both of his parents. So, how do you get a young woman, nine months pregnant, to travel 90 miles on a donkey? Caesar Augustus issues a decree. The Roman emperor orders her to. You see, God had a plan, and He was working out that plan. What appeared at the time to be only a trial, a severe trial, was God’s providence working out His plan.

And you know what? We can look back at that and go, “I see that, Tom! Of course, that’s what was happening!” But let me just remind you that God is doing the same thing in your life. You don’t have the opportunity of retrospect to look back and say, “Oh, I see. I see what He’s doing!” But He’s doing the same thing. He has a plan. He’s promised. “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it?” And so, when God says, “I will cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Me and who are called according to My purpose,” He’s going to do that. And that includes your life. That includes your trials. He has a plan and He’s working it out.

There’s a second lesson we learn from Jesus’ trials, and that is, that Jesus is our caring, sympathetic friend. Look at Hebrews, Hebrews 2:17: “Therefore, He [that is, Jesus] had to be made [literally, He was obligated to be made] like His brethren [that’s us] in all things...” In other words, He had to be fully human. He had to take flesh and blood. He had to be one of us. Why? “...so that [and there’re two purpose clauses here] He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God [I’ll come back to that in just a moment], to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” He had to be, as I made the point, He had to be one of us to be our substitute, to stand in our place.

But go back to the earlier one: “...so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest.” What does that mean? Well, the writer of Hebrews defines it in verse 18: “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” In other words, Jesus personally experienced the trials of this life and the temptations that come with those trials, the same kinds of temptations you face in the midst of trial. He understands. He understands you. He’s experienced it and He can help, if you’ll go to Him for help in the midst of your trouble. He’s a caring, sympathetic friend. You know, we sing that song, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. Do you believe that? It’s true.

Thirdly, Jesus is our flawless example. Look at Hebrews. Since you’re here in Hebrews, look at Hebrews 5:8. This is a fascinating verse: “Although He [that is, Jesus] was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Now, don’t misunderstand. That doesn’t mean Jesus was ever disobedient. In fact, back in chapter 4:15, we’re told that He was without sin. So, it’s not that He was disobedient. So, what does it mean that He learned obedience? Well, remember, Jesus developed as a normal human being. He grew, He developed in every way. And so, He had to learn certain things. And, here, what the author of Hebrews means is that He learned by acquired knowledge and firsthand experience what it is to continue to obey even in the face of suffering and trials. The result was that His moral and spiritual strength as a human grew stronger and stronger and stronger.

And that’s exactly what God intends trials to do to us. Remember James? Look at James 1. James 1:2, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter [here it is] various trials...” Consider it all joy. Now, he’s not saying, “Find joy in the trial.” Here’s what you find joy in, verse 3, “knowing [you find joy in something you know] that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”

I love that word endurance. It occurs several times in the New Testament. It’s a weightlifter’s word. It’s a word which means “to remain under”, literally. That’s what the word means. It’s composed of two Greek words put together, compound word, “to remain under”. Picture a weightlifter at the Olympics who snatches that huge amount of weight, presses it over his head. And then to make a legal lift, has to hold it for a certain period of time. And he just stands there under that huge weight. His whole body is shaking. He’s remaining under that weight. That’s what God does with trials. He builds our spiritual muscles, our spiritual endurance, when we just remain under the trials. We grow stronger.

And what does that do? Verse 4: “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” In other words, it builds spiritual maturity. Here’s how Paul puts it in Romans 5. He says, “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations [in our troubles], knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance [there’s that concept again]; and perseverance [produces], proven character...” As your endurance and trials grows, it produces proven character. You say, proven to whom? Not to God. He already knows your character. To you. When you remain true in the midst of trials, it becomes obvious that you’re the real thing. You’re not like the soil, you remember, in Jesus’ Parable of the Soils who, when trouble comes, they’re gone. You’re still there, you’re still believing in Him, you’re still following Him. And proven character produces hope, hope for the future.

So, that’s what God did in Jesus’ life through the trials He endured, and that’s what he’s doing in your life and mine. He’s building your endurance, which in turn proves to you that you really are the real thing, which increases your hope.

Number four: Jesus is our perfect substitute. I love the way Paul puts it in Romans 5:19: “For as through the one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One [that is, Jesus] the many will be made righteous.” And I don’t think he’s talking solely about His obedience at the moment of death on the cross. I think he’s talking about His obedience comprehensively, the obedience of His life and His death. He was perfect.

Think about us. In the middle of trials, how many times do we fail? How many times do we question God, complain, doubt His power, doubt His wisdom, doubt His goodness? But think about this. Jesus our Lord, in the trials that I documented for you tonight and so many others that I didn’t have time to, in every one of those circumstances, in every one of those trials, Jesus responded in perfect obedience, perfect love to God, perfect love toward others. He never failed once under trial, and He stands in our place. And in justification, that perfection gets credited to my account and yours, and God looks on us and treats us as if we had endured our trials like Jesus did. That’s the heart of the gospel.

This year, every single one of us has encountered various trials, various troubles, various difficulties. I don’t know what yours is tonight. I don’t know what you’re facing, what you’re enduring. But I can tell you this. If you’re in Jesus Christ, those trials are not an expression of divine disfavor. No, it’s part of living in a fallen world. God didn’t protect His own Son from the troubles of this life when He was here. Instead, in His goodness, He used them for good. And that’s what He’s promised to do in your life as well.

Let’s pray together.

Father, thank You for the time we’ve been able to spend together tonight. Thank You for the fact that truly our Lord is properly named as God with us. He’s with us in the troubles and difficulties of life. He’s with us as one of us living here and living in a fallen world, a broken world, facing all that it brings against us. Thank You that He’s a perfect example and model of how we ought to respond. But at the same time, Father, thank You that He stands in our place and His perfect response is ours, that you look at us because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ credited to us, you look at us as if every time trials come in our lives, we’ve responded just as He did. Thank You that you don’t treat us as we deserve, but that You treat us as He deserves. Lord, in this season, remind us of all the facets of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ when He was upon the earth. Encourage us. Lord, I pray for those who are here tonight who find themselves in the midst of difficulties and troubles. Lord, may they find comfort in the knowledge that, in Christ, You are with us. You understand. In our Lord, He experienced what we experienced, and He responded perfectly. May we follow His example, and may we glory in the truth of the gospel that makes His perfect responses ours. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen!