Jesus had four brothers and two (or more) sisters (Mt 13:55-56). One of his brothers, Jude, had children and grandchildren. In Jesus’ culture, we would expect that his other siblings had children as well.

A story from ancient church history relates events involving Jesus’ family fifty years after his death. The story is interesting because it invokes both the Messiah legend surrounding Jesus as well as the fallout of Messianic expectation from the Jewish Wars.

The text refers to the grandchildren of Jude, “who was said to be the Lord’s brother.” And the story concludes, “They ruled the churches because they were witnesses and were also relatives of the Lord.”**

It may be as simple as observing that Jesus’ great-nephews just continued the “family business.” I wonder, however, what they thought of the man and his life. Jesus was their great-uncle after all.

Did their father have a relationship with Jesus that he passed on to these boys? And by relationship, I mean, did they pass time together and share some common, human interests?

I can’t imagine that to his nephew(s) a pan-handling know-it-all would have been acceptable — an uncle who refused to get a real job. Case in point, when Jesus started teaching, his mother and brothers thought he had lost his senses (Mk 3:21, 31).

As we read stories about Jesus’ experience, it’s easy to bracket off other elements of life like extended family. The immediacy of our own experiences begs the question, however. What were the contours and texture of Jesus’ experience as we consider all of the elements of his life?

SpendaYearwithJesus.

** Read the story of Jesus’ great-nephews at <http://newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm>. Scroll down to 19-20. Eusebius (4th century) quotes Hegesippus (2nd century) in Historia Ecclesiae, Book III, ch. 19-20. Accessed: October 2013.

In Misquoting Jesus, Bart Ehrman offers an insightful summary of Jesus relationship to the Hebrew Scripture.

Christianity began, of course, with Jesus, who was himself a Jewish rabbi (teacher) who accepted the authority of the Torah, and possibly other sacred Jewish books, and taught his interpretation of those books to his disciples. Like other rabbis of his day, Jesus maintained that God’s will could be found in the sacred texts, especially the Law of Moses. He read these scriptures, studied these scriptures, interpreted these scriptures, adhered to these scriptures, and taught these scriptures. His followers were, from the beginning, Jews who placed a high premium on the books of their tradition.**

Ehrman provides a helpful starting point for thinking about Jesus’ experience. I agree that Jesus accepted the authority of the Torah and therefore adhered to and taught the material. I would nuance the term “studied” to avoid information-age assumptions. Jesus memorized and meditated on the text specifically, and in this way he “studied” it.

The story of the Hebrew Scriptures informed Jesus’ experience.

** Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Harper Collins, 2009).

There is a delightful legend in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. It comes from Jesus’ youth when he and his parents were fleeing from the land of Herod’s rule south to land of Egypt.

Now when they [Joseph, Mary, and the child Jesus] were journeying on, Joseph said to Jesus: ‘Lord, we are being roasted by this heat; if you agree, let us go alongside the sea, that we may be able to rest in the coastal towns.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Do not fear, Joseph; I will shorten your journey; what you were intending to traverse in the space of thirty days, you will complete in one day.’ And while they were speaking, behold they perceived already the mountains of Egypt and began to see its cities (Ps.-Mt. 22.1).**

Anyone who has been on a journey under adverse circumstances relates to Joseph’s plea.

Picture failed air conditioning on summer road trip or screaming child on airplane or rush hour gridlock. Oh, how nice it would be to have the relief of just thirty minutes compressed into one!

We need to pause at this point, however, and ask a question. Does Jesus break rules of time and space uniquely to bring relief? (Careful, think of Jesus’ compassion in feeding large crowds.)

Questions of authenticity surround every story about Jesus and cut to the heart of Jesus’ identity.

In the 8th or 9th century someone recorded this story about a legendary shortcut. I invite you to follow SpendaYearwithJesus and consider the questions and options for yourself.

** Wilhelm Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, trans. R. McL. Wilson, Rev. ed., vol. 1, 2 vols. (Louisville/London: Westminster John Knox/James Clarke, 2003), 464.

Imagine you’re a student of Elizabethan literature. Suddenly, one day in your seminar class, your professor is joined by none other than … William Shakespeare! You’re speechless. You fumble for words, for just one intelligible question for the “bard.” You are in the presence of the greatest writer of his age!

Peter, James and John had that experience. They met the greatest writer of his and their age–Moses. Every Sabbath, Sabbath after Sabbath, they gathered and read Moses’ writing!

The Gospels relate how Jesus took Peter, James and John to a high mountain to pray. The summer seems a likely time since winter on the mountain would be quite inhospitable. As they were praying, Jesus’ clothes glowed bright and white, then “Elijah with Moses” appeared (Mk 9:2-8).

This moment was something beyond the modern-day celebrity “meet-and-greet.” Can you imagine meeting one of your heroes from history?

If you met Moses, would you ever be able to read the books of Moses the same again? You would know something that no one else knows. What the author looked and sounded like!

I can imagine that Peter, James and John had a hard time keeping it to themselves at first. Of course, Peter eventually did tell (2 Peter 1:16-18).

The disciples felt exuberant. (Yesterday in the SpendaYearwithJesus storyline) Jesus confirmed that he was Messiah!

Shortly thereafter, their hopes were shaken by Jesus’ comments about dying and raising.

Exuberance and disappointment.

In the summer of 2013, my brothers and their families, my parents, and my family were planning to go to Orlando. We had taken a trip two years before and it was great. So we were excited to get together again.

You can imagine our disappointment when my dad called to let us know my mom was not going to be able to make the trip. The fact is, my mom had been under treatment for myeloma cancer for almost five years. We thought she was stable, but we were wrong. Our excitement to go to Disneyworld turned to concern for my mom’s condition.

Exuberance and disappointment.

We can connect with the disciples’ and Jesus’ experience. We can feel the uncertainty of human experience — both the exuberant uncertainty of happy opportunities and the weight of grief in a terminal diagnosis.

Perhaps Jesus’ disciple-optimists were thinking about implications of Messiah’s leadership (of course, not without its challenges: dying and raising as a metaphor rather than literal prediction). The disciple-pessimists were probably concerned about their future.

Either way, I don’t think they got much sleep after the news of that day.

It went by so fast

On a fall Saturday in 1994 at a rooftop restaurant in Atlanta, Ga, I asked my girlfriend to marry me. She said, “Yes.” Actually she said more than yes, but that’s another story. After that 6 hour long evening, my fiancee and I said to one another, “It went by so fast!”

All year, Jesus’ closest disciples try to understand the man to whom they gave their loyalty. They see crowds gather around Jesus, and towns cool to his presence. They witnessed the mixed support of civic leaders and opposition of religious leaders.

In Jesus’ experience from Passover to Passover, today is a turning point — the stuff of speeches and books. Yet in only six verses (Mark 8:27-33)…

Jesus reveals his demise.

The disciples expected greatness. They could not mistake the foreboding nature of his words.

The limits of a human day

Jesus’ experience, like ours, is wrapped in the limits of a human day. Today is a big day in Jesus’ experience, but it passes like any other day.

The sun sets, emotions calm, people sleep. The sun rises, a new day, new emotions. And naturally …humanly… memory slides slowly from vividness to oblivion.

Today is a turning point in Jesus’ story. I wonder if his followers felt about this day like my wife and I do about the night of our engagement. The event passed so quickly.

Like important days in our lives, however, the significance accumulates with time.

Join the story at SpendaYearwithJesus.com

I enjoy following the Olympics. The competition, the athletes’ backstories, the surprises, the heartbreaks, and even the behind-the-scenes operation of the games.

During periods of Olympic interest, it strikes me to ask, Why didn’t Jesus talk about sports?

Jesus talks about life — farming and fishing, fields and trees, building a tower. Sports were not off-limits to the religious people of the day. So why doesn’t Jesus talk about sports?

Simply put, sports did not make a significant imprint on Jesus’ experience or culture.

One reason is that Jewish participation in Greek sports posed some major incompatibilities in the participant’s “athletic suits,” and Roman sports were rather violent.

So even though first-century Jewish historian Josephus writes about a sports complex (a hippodrome) located in ancient Jerusalem, this stadium does not factor into Jesus’ story.

Jesus apparently had other interests and occupations, even though sports were a part of ancient life.

Knowing the context helps us frame and tell Jesus’ story.

Connect with Jesus’ experience.

“His progress is so rapid.” I share in that conclusion about the way Jesus traveled, but what makes me think that way?

The quote is from scholar C. C. McCown, who noted concerning his walking experience: “The writer knows from having made both journeys on foot, but not in one day.” So why is it that Jesus makes the trip in one day while McCown did not? Which time-frame is normal?

Even in 1938 when McCown wrote, the western world was speeding up and McCown’s perspective of Jesus with it. I tend to think that if it took the human McCown more than one day, then the same for Jesus.

Here’s the funny thing. This is one time I’m willing to concede Jesus’ divinity. Being rushed is human. Being divine means something higher is driving steadying you.

C. C. McCown characterizes Luke’s central section in the full quotation as follows:

The opening verse pitches the dominant tone for the whole narrative: with the cross before him, Jesus turns his face steadfastly from Galilee toward Jerusalem (9:51, 53). His progress is so rapid, in the concise account, that the very first night brings him to Samaria to sleep, not in the city where first shelter was sought, but in some village to which he moves on after a rebuff (9:52, 56). Whether the route was from Tell Hûm either across Esdraelon by way of Tabor to Jenîn or Qubatîyeh, or down the Jordan Valley by way of Beisân to some village in the mountains south of it, this would be no small achievement, as the writer knows from having made both journeys on foot, but not in one day.++

++C. C. McCown, “The Geography of Luke’s Central Section,” Journal of Biblical Literature 57, no. 1 (1938): 53.

My wife and I recently enjoyed a delicious meal with delightful friends. We ate at our favorite restaurant in the Metroplex, Lavendou Bistro. The food..wonderful; the  conversation..joy.

And (you may have felt this) there was a moment at the end of the evening when I wished it could last, even just a little longer.

In the ebb and flow of Jesus’ summer of bread and fish stew, some meals had to be better than others, some company more friendly than others. Jesus’ moved among the dining tables of his day with contentment. Fish stew was readily available, but depending on his host, Jesus might have eaten lamb or steak.

We don’t have to say that stew and steak are the same culinary quality. Or that all company is the same. We can simply eat satisfied as Jesus did. At the same time, even Jesus could have wanted some dining experiences to last and others to be over quickly!

One of Jesus’ later followers, Paul of Tarsus, said he knew how to be content whether well-fed or hungry. I think he got the idea from Jesus’ experience.

At our recent delicious, delightful dinner, I ate apple tart with ice cream for dessert. The earliest inscriptions of recorded history refer to apples. Though different varieties, Jesus surely ate apples too. Now the ice cream…?

Listen to a conversation about Jesus’ experience. Assumptions abound like the fact that life was easier for Jesus.

In Torah school, we imagine Jesus as the smartest kid in the room (i.e., he had a learning shortcut) and the most dedicated! Oh, Jesus was the smartest and the most dedicated, why —  because it was easier. Huh?

Here are some historical and human realities for your consideration:

• Honey and dates were available to sweeten bread.
  The man who multiplied loaves never tasted a doughnut (no refined sugar).
• In the carpenter shop, piling boards and swinging mallets leads to crushed fingers.
  Jesus crushed his fingers, especially while he was learning the trade.
• Friendship requires shared space and time and interests.
  Jesus passed time, both entertaining and uninteresting time, with Lazarus and other friends.
• When as many as 100,000 people descend on a city of 30,000, traffic bottlenecks.
  Jesus waited at Jerusalem’s gates and streets like bridge and tunnel commuters today.

By the way, there was a VIP entrance to Jerusalem. Jesus was not a VIP.

Life 2,000 years ago was not easier for Jesus.