Does 30 Feel Any Different Than 29?

August 28, 2012 — 2 Comments

Last week I crossed a threshold… I turned 30 years old. I have since had a few people ask, “Does 30 feels any different than 29?” Well, as a follower of and believer in Jesus Christ, it has caused me to consider a few things in light of the fact that 30 was the age in which Jesus began his “official” ministry, according to chapter 3 of the book of Luke in Scripture.

My wife and I hosted a small birthday party with our closest friends last evening and I enjoyed the opportunity to opine with some of them about the various aspects of the humanity of Jesus. Very little is said about him between the ages of 12 and 30 in the Biblical record and lately my mind has been flooded with thoughts of what was happening at this point in Christ’s life. Caution: they’re a bit abstract but perhaps you’ve had similar thoughts…

  • What kind of things was he doing when he was 27, 28, and 29 years old? What have I done in the last 3 years?
  • I know from Scripture that he never sinned nor erred morally in any way whatsoever (1 Peter 2:22). Yet, as a carpenter there were bound to be times when he cut himself while sawing, banged his thumb with a hammer, or cut a board too short (measure twice, cut once). None of these (and others) are moral error or an offense of the law. What do you think?
  • As a kid, was he “rough and tumble”? He must have tripped and scraped his knees, right? My three year old son Caleb has roughly a couple dozen (at current count) tiny bruises on his legs from simply being a kid, running into things, and falling down… how many bruises did Jesus have on his legs when he was three years old? Some I’ve asked about this in the past were staunchly opposed to Christ having ever been bruised or bleeding before the events leading up to Calvary. While I don’t remember all their arguments, I was reminded last night by one of our friends of a ceremony that takes place at 8 days old for little Jewish boys… Jesus bled at least once before Calvary’s events.
  • Regarding social conventions, when I’ve been asked to go somewhere I honestly, downright just do not want to go, I have at various times resorted to telling a “little white lie.” The bottomline is that this is sin; plain and simple, a lie is a lie no matter how “big” and that is sin. What did Jesus do in this situation? Again, I know he didn’t lie because “in him was no sin,” so how did he respond? “No, thank you. That doesn’t sound very fun nor is it at all something I’d like to do.”

Anyway, I know it’s a bit of rambling this time around, but these thoughts have been running rampant in my mind for days now, leading up to rolling over the “big 3-0.”

Does 30 feel any different than 29? Honestly, no, but as I seek to live deliberately and not just take things as they come, I think these and several other thoughts I’ve had are worthy of my continued consideration.

What do you think about any of this? Have you ever had similar thoughts?

Posted on August 28, 2012 In Miscellaneous , , , , , , ,
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  • Teg

    Interesting line of thinking….
    Having just turned 30 myself I want to start by saying that perhaps 30 may not feel any different than 29, but rather than what is different is that it is a milestone which prompts us into deep thoughts about who we are and how that is related to who those that came before us were.  It happened to me, as well – I woke up and took a long look at what 30 meant, and based on other 30′s I know, or have known, or have known of, started to ask myself what was missing and where I was going to be headed to fill the voids.  That deep thought is certainly something that wasn’t present in my earlier years, at least to this extent.    That said, as far as Jesus goes, he was human.  Of course he bled. of course he made mistakes in measuring and cut himself.  Chances are he experienced everything from embarrassment to anger, as do we all.  The difference would have been how he handled it and what exactly he found angering or embarrassing (that perhaps in our petty lesser ways we find upsetting he may not have).  I suspect as a child, like any, he hit a stage where his hands and limbs could not keep up with what this mind wanted, and like young children became frustrated and/or  angry at failed attempt over failed attempt.   we are beings that are designed to first recognize self, before we can recognize others. we’re hard wired that way. I also have no doubt that as a child Jesus went through a stage where he threw a stick, or pushed at his mother in protest when she went to wipe his face.  And they weren’t moments of error or sin, just moments of humanity.    Jesus himself forgave those for their human nature and didn’t judge. Even those that wronged him the most. 
    I find myself coming back again and again to two things: the years we know little about, and the fact that the bible was written to much after Jesus, by men no less human and apt to misinterpret, misunderstand, misrepresent or error, or simply accidentally view things through a biased lens, than me or you.  Do I believe in the life of Jesus and the words of the bible. yes. But do I think it’s all 100% literal and 100% correctly crafted?  The jury is out. Unless by truly Godly intervention the likelihood of there being no errors in the bible itself is slim – no matter how special the people chosen to deliver God’s message were, they were still human.  It is in that fact I wonder what Jesus may have done during those years….we can’t claim to know what a man DIDN’T do, when we weren’t there to see for ourselves.  I personally think there may be much blank detail of Jesus’ life that’s been assumed but not known, and the first of that may be along the lines of just how “human” he was.  I am sure Jesus was in fact moral in a way most of us are not – you’re idea that Jesus would politely decline honestly is likely right.   Jesus loved and cared, he was free of the need to hold grudges or to be anything other than benevolent and altruistic.   That indicated overall he was a perfect man, free of sin and full or morals.  But does that mean he wasn’t ever annoyed? didn’t ever screw up? didn’t ever bleed or misstep?  Jesus was a man, and perhaps his best quality was his compassion, which undoubtedly had to have been developed through an understanding of what it truly was to be human. And  without error of any kind it would be impossible to be able to relate to  what it is to be human, and even more impossible to call yourself one.

    • http://www.charlielyons.ca/ Charlie Lyons

      Teg,
      I think you’ve broken the record for the longest comment on a post here. ;-) I appreciate your thoughts though. Thank you for commenting.

      While I hold to the Biblical belief that Jesus Christ was fully human and yet without sin (multiple Biblical references to this), we are certainly diving into a realm that cannot really be substantiated anywhere else within the Scriptural record. Since becoming a parent of a toddler, I am almost convinced that while Jesus was fully human and without sin, it could be possible that he “did wrong things.”

      As a child (certainly a younger child), until someone becomes aware that something is “wrong,” do such actions constitute sin? I’m almost persuaded that the answer is ‘no.’ I am more and more convinced that there is a definite difference between simple ignorance (being unaware) and outright defiance. This is the difference between mom or dad asking a child to do something and the responses of “why, Daddy?” or “NO!”

      You’ve definitely got me thinking deeper here, Teg. Thanks again for your comments.