Our Beautiful Lord Jesus

This post was first published on ROOTS on Wednesday, 12th September 2007

One question that was constantly at the back of my mind while growing up as a Christian was what Jesus was like before He began His ministry at the age of 30.

The 4 gospels bring out the 4 "faces" of Jesus (Eze 1:10, Rev 4:7)
- Matthew portrays Him as the King of the Jews
- Mark portrays Him as the suffering servant
- Luke portrays Him as the Son of Man
- John portrays Him as the Son of God

Because of the difference in emphasis, the gospel of Matthew only mentions Jesus' until the age of 2 and then fast forwards to the age of 30, while the gospels of Mark and John do not even mention His virgin birth at all.

Only the gospel of Luke mentions about His growing-up years, since the emphasis is of Jesus as the Son of Man.

In particular, Luke 2:40-52 offers a glimpse into the life of Jesus before He began His ministry.

Yes, Jesus was fully God. Yet He was fully man as well. As God, He was there in the very beginning as the Creator of the universe. As man, He had to empty Himself and become a vulnerable little baby. He had to go through what you and I as humans have go through, so that He could be our representative and kinsman-redeemer. The only difference was that He knew no sin.

Which brings me to another excerpt of the DVD compilation called Humorous Bible Illustrations. This one is entitled "Our Beautiful Lord Jesus".