Dear Parents,
Our High Life Sunday school class began a new study this week on the life of Jesus. As we closed our our series on Identity, it seemed natural to move into a series which focuses on the One we are serving and should strive to be like. This series will look at many topics that are a part of our everyday lives, like family, relationships, sin and temptation, material possessions, death, and more. In some cases, we will look at what Jesus was teaching, and in other cases we will just look at his life and how he was living. Our primary text for this series will be the book of Matthew, though we will reference other gospels when needed.
For our first week of studying the life of Jesus, we looked at his birth and early family experiences. We considered some of the facts that we don’t often think about as reality. For instance, Jesus really was born in a barn. To much of society, it probably appeared that Jesus was born out of wedlock, which was scandalous for his time. We know that Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, but there had to be many (because we know that many Jews rejected him as Messiah) who did not believe a word of what Mary claimed. Jesus grew up in what today we would call a blended family, having an earthly father, Joseph, and his half-siblings. Why look at all these details that really don’t seem to be part of the big picture? Good question.
First, I wanted the teens to see that Jesus has experienced family life in a real way. When we think of the life of Jesus, we sometimes don’t think about the human side of his life and the everyday experiences that he had. Many teens today struggle to survive in dysfunctional families. And while I’m not suggesting that Jesus’ family was dysfunctional, I am trying to illustrate that Jesus understands family relationships. He’s been there. Although it’s not recorded in the gospels, I imagine he had siblings that didn’t always treat him right. Per Luke 2:41-52, we know that Jesus’ parents had at least one instance of misunderstanding Jesus and correcting his choices. I imagine there had to be other instances as well. When our teens experience these family frustrations, they can walk in the knowledge that Jesus went through these types of things too.
In addition, we addressed head-on the lie that our family status gives us more or less value in this world. We often look at our family situations and compare our families to other families, wishing we could just have the same nice house, or the same great jobs, or the same perfect parents, married for 30 years, or whatever it may be. The comparison game is a dangerous one. But we play it all the time. We look at other families and feel less about ourselves because we think that in some way we don’t measure up. But look at Jesus’ family. He was born in a barn. To the disbelieving townsperson, he was born out of wedlock. His family situation was far from the ideal, yet he was the greatest man to ever walk the earth. The bottom line is that our family situation does not in any way disqualify us from serving God and from being valuable in his eyes. Family is messy, but Jesus has been there. He gets it. And his life shows us that it’s ok. Our families might be messy, but we can still follow after Jesus with all that we are and know that he loves us, mess and all.
Blessings,
Catherine