Goodie Two Shoes

So, no doubt you already have a picture in your mind of what the title suggests.  In fact, you can probably put a name with the face.  And, the whole idea can make you gag.  So and so was so perfect.  Ugh!  He/she made us look bad (and who doesn’t hate that???).

Can you imagine growing up in a household with Jesus as your older brother???  We know very little about Jesus’ life before He began His public ministry at age 30, other than the brief episode where He spent time in the Temple “where all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and answers” (Luke 2:47) and He asked His frightened parents, “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”  (Luke 2:49).  They couldn’t exactly ground Him for that, could they?

This child is like no other.  The very Son of God.  But, how many knew that?  Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zacharias.  Perhaps a handful of others, though we don’t know that for sure.  We do know that when Jesus began His public ministry, He was described as “being SUPPOSEDLY the son of Joseph, the son of Eli…”  (Luke 3:23) and that when He first read the Scriptures in the synagogue and proclaimed, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21), their response was, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” (v. 22) and were so incensed, they desired to shove Him off a cliff.  We also know that- even after changing water into wine, even after amassing a certain following, healing a paralytic, feeding 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, “not even his brothers were believing in Him.”  (John 7:5)  They had grown up with Him!  He was “just” their big brother.  Yea.  He was perfect and that was annoying – certainly hard to live with  and live up to, but Messiah?  C’mon!

Many of us have siblings who have achieved a certain success, but do we acknowledge it or think it’s a big deal?  Probably not because “that’s just my brother.”  But, perfection? That’s a tough one.  Did Jesus ever get angry with them?  Joseph had died and, as the eldest son, He would have born responsibility for the family.  He was trained as a carpenter, and we assume He kept that going, though we really don’t know.

Maybe we need to re-think the concept of Goodie Two Shoes.  It might turn out to be something to emulate (without rubbing someone’s nose in it).  I doubt if Jesus ever ridiculed anyone for not being as perfect as He.  When we try to be the best we can be, maybe it would help us to try to imagine what Jesus might have been like in those years that are left out of the Scriptures.  The Son of God in anonymity, yet without sin.

“…but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever…”  (Hebrews 7:28)

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29)