Pre-Passover Self Examination

As all of us have looked around, we've begun to see the signs of spring popping up and reminds us as we have the announcements and begin to think about the upcoming Holy Days that the Passover season is upon us. And in a very few weeks, we are going to be taking the symbols of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for the sins of the world and for your sins in mind. And so, it's a time to begin to examine ourselves. And as has been alluded in even today's sermonette and other messages, as I understand, have been given in recent weeks as well, it's that time of season and time to ask ourselves some interesting questions. Like what will we find as we begin to examine ourselves as we go through this process? Will we find the same things that we found last year, the year before, five years ago? Will we find new areas of our life that we should be aware and focus upon? The Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread is really a time of revealing. We purge out the Old Levon, as the Scripture teaches us, to put the actual physical leaven from our homes. We purge that out. All of that is a representation of sin, spiritual sin. The exercise of doing that to whatever degree you and I go through it in our lives is very instructive. Certainly we need to put it out. Will we get it all out? Time tells us that we never really get it all out. But we should make the effort, and we do make the effort, and that is very, very important. God places this festival at this time of the year to teach us the source of true life and our true spiritual life, which is God and Jesus Christ. So we take a very serious approach to the Holy Days, to this season, to examine our spiritual condition. And in doing so at times, we might find ourselves a bit discouraged when we go through the examination process. We're told in 1 Corinthians 11—and let's just turn and read this traditional Scripture, which we'll refer to here as kind of a benchmark. And it is a benchmark Scripture for this season, for this time. 1 Corinthians 11. And verse 27, which does deal directly with the symbols of the Passover, as Paul has addressed it already in the book of 1 Corinthians with the church at Corinth, and some of the challenges and difficulties they have there. But in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 11, he says, The bread and the wine we take on the Passover service represents the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, the body and blood of the Lord. So it's not to be taken in an unworthy manner.

So as we drink it and eat, we symbolize that blood and that body, that sinless body, that sinless life of Jesus Christ, and we think about that. And we apply it to ourselves. We examine ourselves in comparison to that perfect life that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, lived, as He was on this earth and lived a righteous life, died for our sins, and was resurrected.

As we go through this examination process, it's important that we understand all that we should, in a sense, experience. Because the examination itself can be a challenge. It's difficult to really look at ourselves and take a hard look at our life, ask even ourselves, and ask God to help us understand what we need to see, understand what we should repent of, and to admit what we do see. Sometimes it can be discouraging, especially if it's something that we have seen before, and been brought up to us in some other context. But it need not be completely devastating. Discouraging, perhaps, but not devastating.

We never, ever want to be so completely devastated by this process of examination as we approach this subject that we miss the point. There is a larger point. We can, if we choose, beat ourselves up rather than discipline ourselves into obedience, into repentance, into overcoming, and on the right path of worship. There's a distinction. As we examine and follow the command, the instruction, there's a distinction between veering off into the approach that certain religions encourage of self-flagellation.

There are certain aspects of the Christian religion who advocate a penance, a penitential form of repentance that actually gets into abuse of your own body. People will beat themselves, or they will crawl on their knees in a pilgrimage to a shrine as penance or as worship. And that happens a great deal during this time of season, in other countries especially. And among certain orders, there may be, again, this flagellation, or wearing a very coarse type of a shirt that will bring bodily discomfort to teach you of the sins of the flesh.

And that's not what God teaches. That's not what God's Church wants. That's not what God wants. As we repent at any time or as we examine ourselves during the Passover service, we don't go that far. We don't get into some angst-ridden exercise of frustration. God didn't intend it that way. He intends us to examine, he intends us to, as the Scriptures say here, to make sure that we do not take the symbols in an unworthy manner.

Otherwise we'll be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. And none of us should ever want to do that. So we don't approach the Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, in a light manner. We take it very, very seriously. You just don't slide into it. That's why you always have sermons and sermonettes that we always try to help everyone in the Church to prepare. With some serious thought, reflection, study, fasting, and preparation for coming before God on that very, very serious evening.

And as you will always note, those of us that have been regulars at the Passover service, when we come into the room for the Passover service, it's quiet. We're a bit more sober. It's not an evening necessarily a fellowship, although we greet one another and we're going to talk. But it's a quieter, sober evening, only for the baptized members. Children are not present. And it is a very, very rich evening in terms of symbols, ceremony, substance. And as we come into it, our preparation has been done, our examination has been done, and we come recognizing that we need that renewal. We need that symbol to take those, to renew our relationship with God and our covenant, and to fulfill the command of the Scripture.

But God reveals things to us during this time of year, and as we go on into the days of the leavened bread, not to discourage us, but because He's really offering us the help that we need to overcome. And that's what I want to focus on today. That's the one point I guess I want to leave us, that as we examine ourselves, and as we prepare spiritually for the Passover service, God will reveal things to us if we ask, if we seek, and if we properly approach this subject.

But it's not to overly discourage us. It is to help us. Because as He reveals, He also provides for us the help through His power, through His Spirit, through His encouragement, to meet and admit and deal with and even overcome what we find. The sins that we find. The very sins that you and I annually understand we need to have covered by the blood of Christ. And that is an encouragement. And so, it's important that we look at this process as approaching our Father, approaching God in a manner, that we truly are deepening a relationship with Him as our spiritual Father, and understanding how He, as the perfect Father, the perfect spiritual Father, deals with us.

Sometimes, I've noticed and understood over the years, as I've talked with members, that this very concept of looking at God as our Father, being fathered by God, can be a challenge, and often it is because of the type of parenting we had from our own fathers growing up. And it can be for some a very, very difficult matter to begin to look to God as a Father, as a perfect Father, because of the type of Father that we had. And I think all of us are colored by that to one degree or the other.

When we're baptized and we're begotten of the Holy Spirit, God is our Father. We're brought into an adoption process, as so many of the Scriptures are so. We become sons of God. And God is our Father. And He wants to Father us. Christ is our elder brother. It's a family relationship that we begin to enter into in a spiritual sense, and that's at the heart of our relationship with God. And so this process at this time of year really highlights that.

And it's a teaching moment for us to consider how we look at God as our Father and understand a few things. Let me ask you to think for a moment about how your Father, your physical Father, and then bring in your mother. We don't want to be exclusive. How did they raise you? How were you chastened? How were you corrected and dealt with by your physical parent? I had a Father, and my Father would chasten me, correct me when I needed it, and did many times.

Sometimes He would do it with a word. Sometimes He would do it with His belt. Now, my Father never abused me, never beat me in any sense, but He came from a different time and place. And there were a few times that He pulled that belt off, and I don't say I didn't deserve it. But it sure didn't feel good. My mom was more inclined toward a switch. When I'd see her heading out the back porch toward one of the trees out in the backyard, I headed the other direction.

She always found me, but her favorite thing was a switch. And I had that applied a few times as well as I was growing up. My Father would correct me in different ways. A look from Him would often do the job. There would be times that it may be a word. I remember one time we were getting ready to go to a father and son Cub Scout night. My dad rarely went to those things except when they were special occasions.

This night he was going with me. I remember we were getting ready and preparing to go. He was shaving, and we were in the bathroom. He kind of just looked at me and said, what are you wearing tonight to the meeting? I was just 12 or 13 at the time, kind of smart and sassy. I remember looking back at him and saying, just saying, close, close.

He looked at me and he said, don't you ever talk to me like that again? Because I answered him like I'd answered some of my friends in the schooner yard. Just kind of a flippant close. What do you think I'm going to wear? I didn't say it that way, but it was implied, what else would I wear? He just looked at me and said, don't ever talk to me like that again. I never did. Never did like that, because that brought me up in my tracks.

Made the point. So my dad was a bit rough at times. He came from a family of 12, very poor, but he was never cruel. It was only years later that I really came to appreciate what my dad had to put up with in raising me. And I think all of us probably come to ourselves at some point as an adult, usually after we had our own kids, and they start doing the same things that we did.

Then we finally begin to realize sometimes how obnoxious we were, how irritable we were, and what we put our parents through. But I've understood as the years have gone by more and more about my dad's teaching and his guidance, what he left with me as a legacy, hard work. Pay as you go. Don't get into debt. Treat people with respect. Many, many other lessons. But how about you? How did your father chase in you?

How did he correct you? Because that forms and shapes a lot of our impressions about a parent, certainly about a father. And it may, in some cases, be something that we have to kind of work back from as we try to develop a relationship with our spiritual father after we come into the church with God, as he is fathering us in a relationship, very strong and deep relationship toward the kingdom of God. Because he is our father. We are his children, and he is raising us into his family. And it's a lifelong process. And each year to pass over, we get our lenses cleaned a little bit as we examine ourselves on this very important subject.

And as I think all of us would probably say to one degree or the other, our human parents didn't always discipline perfectly. And any of us as parents would probably admit that we've not been perfect in our own discipline as we raised our children. And probably wish there were moments and words that we could take back, or things that we could have done better. We're always left with our own legacy, and that's the way it is. But that's not the way it is with God, because with God, he is a perfect father.

He is a perfect father, and his discipline is always perfect. That's what we have to understand about God. His discipline is always perfect. And that's what's so importantly beautiful about the relationship that we have with God. You know, my father at times would say no to some of my requests, or not let me go on certain trips or activities.

If I would ask him, and I don't know if I was exactly grounded, but I was denied sometimes opportunities to go where I wanted to go. And I remember learning at some point that if it was really, really something I thought I just had to do, that there was a way to get around it, and I'd go to my mom. And she would go to my dad. And invariably it worked out. Now, I'm not advocating that as the perfect method. That's not the way to do it. But you learn those things. It's just not the right way.

You can't, you know, if you learn with a parent to get around a time of discipline, it's not one of the best lessons to learn, because you're really learning manipulation. You're learning to get away with something, and it's not showing respect. God doesn't let us off that easy. We can't get around God. That's my point. He doesn't let us off, because there are times when God chooses to chase in us, and when that happens, we have a serious matter on our hands, because we can't ignore it.

When we examine ourselves, or through whatever circumstance, something gets, in a sense, kind of just brought right in front of us, and it's staring us in the face, and we can't ignore it, and we're close enough that we finally get through our thick head that God's trying to teach me something here in this situation that doesn't go away, or keeps coming back, or we keep seeing year after year. When that happens, that's a very, very serious matter, because it would seem that at that moment, God has chosen at that time, and what He has deemed to be the right time to reveal something to us, to reveal something to us, in His way and in His time, something that needs to be corrected.

And therein, we should understand that God's correction is always the right time, in the right way, and in the right proportion. God's correction. As human parents, we don't always get it right, we don't always do it right, and we will sometimes be less than perfect, as sincere as we are. But God is always perfect, and in the proportion and in the manner in which He does it. In Hebrews 12, there's a section on correction from God.

Beginning in verse 3. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. As I said, we can at times be discouraged over any number of different trials and situations that might come up, but we don't need to be weary and discouraged to the depth of our being. You have not yet resisted the bloodshed striving against sin, and for that we should be thankful. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, which says, My son do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. You know, when a parent disciplines from that perspective out of love, not anger, not retribution, not through any other imperfection of the human's condition, when a parent rebukes and chastens every out of love, then there is every hope that the correction is going to bear fruit. And again, all of us as parents, we recognize the challenge that is there. And as parents, it is important that we understand to correct, to teach, to shape, to mold, all in love. Because that's how God does when He works with us. And as He scourges every son whom He receives. Not again in a physical type of scourging and chastening, but in a spiritual sense. The scourging that takes place is the impact upon our life as we recognize we've fallen short. The guilt that we would normally feel that then would lead us to change so that we eventually move the guilt, and God's Spirit cleanses us. But we have to understand at those moments how God is working with us. Verse 7, it goes on. If you endure chastening, or this corrective process, this examination process, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? If we have a relationship with God as a spiritual father, He is going to chasten us as we allow it, as we submit ourselves to it. And part of that is in the process every year of this preparation for the Passover service. And so it will happen. And it's important because it affirms the fact that we have a father, and we're in a family relationship with him. If we don't have that, as it's going to go on to show, then something's missing. Verse 8, it says, if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. So if we just go through our lives and are never chastened by God, we're illegitimate. In other words, there's not a relationship there. Sometimes in relationships, within a family, certainly, there have to be hard moments faced with your children. You love your children. You want the best for them. They can be sweet, cute, and adorable. But sometimes they step across the line. Sometimes they do something, they say something, and as they grow older, that has to be corrected. And the art of parenting is going when and how, and the right and the proper and appropriate time to deal with it, out of love.

And they're hard. It's hard to do. I love my grandchildren. We have three of them. We wind up seeing our grandson Liam more than we do our other two, because of our connections together within the Church. And look, I have to admit it, he's the cutest little grandson ever was.

And you can say that about your grandson and your sons and whatever else, too. But I don't correct him so much. Although at times, as he spent overnight with us, been with us several days at a time, you get into more of a relationship and you see his cue is a button, but he can be, you see that self-will or you'll see the attitude begin to come out after there for a while. And you deal with it in the right way, and here's parents are as well.

And as, look, children grow older, and even in our own relationships within the Church, grow older, develop and mature, there are times when we may have to bump up against situations that have to be addressed.

You know, even your friendships may require certain difficult moments to address issues, situations, hurts, to be able to understand and to move forward. That happens among us within the Church. It happens at times from the pastor to the membership. There are times as the pastor just has to get involved in certain situations and say some things, address some things, understand some things, for the good of the individual or for the overall direction and good of the Church and the role that is there. And it happens in the home, it happens in the workplace, it happens whenever there are people mixing and mingling and having relationships, because that's just the part of the dynamic. And at times it can be difficult to bear ourselves, to meet certain things, and it can be challenging. But if there's a core, solid relationship, if there's God's Spirit, certainly within the Church in our relationships, we can meet them, we can work through them, and we can be stronger as a result. The principle of iron sharpening iron, that the proverb talks about, as we sharpen each other's lives, is very, very sound in that way. Iron sharpening iron can sometimes create a spark, to get it to a point where something is sharpened. And that doesn't mean relationships get severed, doesn't mean relationships end. It means that everyone has a chance to learn. They become teaching moments. They become moments when we all need to look at ourselves. That's how this process of chastening, bringing it back here with God, comes about so that we have a legitimate relationship with our Father. And also, we could say even our legitimate relationships among ourselves. In verse 9 here, Hebrews 12, it goes on, Well, certainly we should.

That's why it's so important to understand when God begins to chase in us, we can't ignore it. And He does so to encourage us to holiness, to righteous character, to a higher level of life with Him, a holy life, where we then knock off another rough edge, where we knock off another sin, come to grips with an attitude, perception, or a weakness, or a challenge that we might have.

And verse 11 is really the kicker in this. He says, You know, I never had a whipping from my parent that was joyful. They were painful. Mommy, don't do it! One time years ago, not around here, in another church long ago, far away, there was a family on the front row, and they always had challenges with their children, and they wind up on the front row, because they always came late, and there's always seats right just like today on the front row.

And the little kid, the little son, started acting up, and the dad was not always the most patient, and I remember just one week at church, grabbing that kid, the father grabbed the kid, and went off down the aisle, and, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, don't!

And, you know, I'm in the middle of a sermon where that's going on, and you didn't miss a beat, but everybody was just kind of watching that one going on out. You know, when I would see my mom heading off for that tree, I knew what was headed. Pain. It's painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, to those that have been trained by it.

It's afterwards that the fruit is born. It's afterwards that we learn, and there may be some hurt feelings. There may be some words, crying in tears as we relate to our parents, as we even relate to God.

Or if member to member gets into a discussion, and, you know, there's some words and tears and misunderstandings and, you know, just the churn of human emotions, but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit. It yields peace because there's righteous character that's been built. There's been holiness that has been built. As it says back in verse 10, God chastens us so that we might be partakers of His holiness, which is righteousness, as we have been trained. That's what God wants to bring us to.

That's the end result of God's correction. So when He shows us something, He also offers us help. And if we see that correction from God's point of view, then it requires us to change our point of view toward God. Because He's repairing us for the Kingdom of God. In the end, He wants us there. And that's why He does it. He knows that if He brings this out, when He does, that it's going to help us take that next step toward the Kingdom.

And that's what it's all about. The journey of our life is toward the Kingdom of God. This is what we begin at baptism. This is what we began when we came under the blood of Jesus Christ as we were baptized and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior and our soon-coming King. This is what we're going toward as every year we take the Passover symbols to renew that commitment to the Kingdom of God.

That's why when we come even, if you will, to the night to be much remembered the next evening, a more joyous occasion, whether you do it literally or figuratively in your own heart and spirit, you lift a glass of water or glass of wine, whatever it might be, diet coke, and you say, to the Kingdom. To the Kingdom. Because that's what the night to be observed really means. As they left Egypt, they were on their way to a new world, to a new life.

As we were baptized, as we keep the Passover each year, it reminds us that we're on our way, taking another step, another year, to the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God. And that's what God wants us to get to, and that's why He chastens us and brings us to whatever we need to understand as a wise, caring, and loving Father.

We all are familiar with the story in Luke 15 of the prodigal son. I'm not going to turn to read through all of that, but I'll just refer to it. I think we all know that story, the prodigal son. The father who had these two sons, and one of them decided that he wanted his inheritance so that he could just go and do his own thing. The other son was the good son, who stayed home and worked the farm, worked with his father.

The father of that story, it's called the prodigal son, but the father is an integral part of it. In the story, the father really is teaching us something about God the Father, as He deals with us as His sons. The father of that story is a very wise father, very, very wise, because He gave His son what His son needed. He did more than just give Him what He wanted. What the boy wanted was His $100,000, His half million dollar inheritance. Whatever the father had to liquidate, if you will, to get it for Him, He did it. He sold the stocks, sold off part of the land, whatever. He gave Him His inheritance. Would you do that with your 18, 19, 23 year old son who might come to you after you know Him, you know what His character is? Would you do that? Would you liquidate your 401? Sell a few cars, go to the bank and cash in a few bonds and whatever? And give Him His inheritance at that age. Would you do that? I'm not saying you should, because really the point of the story, as I was thinking about it in preparation for the sermon, is this father, Christ is painting the picture of a wise father who knew what His son needed as much as what He wanted. And He went ahead and gave it to him. It obviously didn't bankrupt the family business. It kept going. It didn't completely disrupt the family. He still had one son there. I think that the father knew the road the son had to travel in order to return. That's what I think is another lesson of that parable for us to understand. Because you know the story. He went off and he wasted his money. He went to Vegas, and as the story is, the money stayed in Vegas. What happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas. The money, in this case. All the friends that he thought he had left him, and he was out back slopping it with the pigs. And he came to himself and he says, I will return to my father. He came to that because he knew how near his father really was at that point. Just as we should know how near our spiritual father is at any time when we need him and we come to ourselves, that we would return to him. And so he went home, had a little bit of the other. The good son didn't like it so much, and the father had to talk to the good son. But in the end, they killed the fatted calf. They had a big banquet. Everybody was back together. End of story. What happened? In the end, the wise father had both of his sons.

So I conclude that he knew what his son needed when he made the decision to give him his inheritance and let him go, knowing that that's what he needed in order to return. And in a sense, it was a form of correction. Maybe the son, you would think that the son, if he continued to live and be productive, that he paid back and built back what he had wasted and wound up with a portion of the family enterprise. Years later, it's likely to realize. But in the end, the wise father had both sons. God deals with us as the wisest father. And so he works with us, reveals things to us, gives us what we need, even in terms of chasing. At the time of our examination, this is very, very important for us to understand. He gives us what we need at the right time to encourage us to overcome. Because in the end, it's going to help us build holy, righteous character, holiness, and righteousness, and peace. Peace, ultimately, with God and with Christ. Certainly peace among ourselves as well as we are exemplifying that type of behavior and character. So as we examine ourselves at this time of year, that's what we should look for. And whatever we learn, that's the approach that we take. It can be exhausting, it can be a bit discouraging, it should never devastate us. It is very sobering. Examining for sin requires that we admit that we have sin. We never want to get to the point of mind where we think we're A-OK, nothing to examine ourselves. That's why you don't just slide into Passover, Days of Love and Bread. It's a very serious approach that we should have to it. But serious with the intent of drawing closer to God and looking at Him in the manner that we have here, so we really understand what we are dealing with. In 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, it says, Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. For you are truly, since you truly are, unleavened. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

So we purge out the old leaven, and we literally do that as we clean our homes of the leaven, the products, the baking soda, the yeast, and the bread, and the crackers, and all the leaven products that we have. To show us and to understand the physical type that that is, that you may be a new lump, since you're truly unleavened. We are unleavened through Christ's sacrifice as our Passover. That's what cleanses us from sin. That's what's important there. We always have an advocate through Christ to the Father when we do sin. We're not condemned. We're not put off into some type of situation where we cannot access God. In Romans 8, verse 34, a very encouraging Scripture to understand as we go through this process. Romans 8, verse 34.

Paul writes, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us. So the point is, nobody can condemn us. Christ died for us, and he's risen. And so who will separate us from the love of Christ? Well, no one can do that. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, For your sake were killed all day long, were counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things were more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The point is, there is nothing, no human being, no event, no situation, that can separate us from the love of God. In the end only we can do that, by a choice we would make, by turning from God. There is no one, no situation, that can do that. God's love for us is all-encompassing. God's relationship with us is all-encompassing in that sense. Christ has died and he makes intercession for us. Verse 34 shows. That is a very, very important principle to understand. In Hebrews 4, that's brought out again in Hebrews 4. Verse 14. As we prepare to take the symbols of Christ's death, our Passover, it's important to understand what led up to that and why he was then our Passover. Verse 14 of Hebrews 4 says, Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

In all points tempted as we are. Now, how did that take place? You know, in the Gospel accounts, we essentially have a record of just the last three and a half years of Christ's life, his ministry. As a fully grown man, engaged in the ministry that he was, and we just have snippets of his earlier life. You have the account of his birth, Luke, and those early weeks, months. Luke's account, there's a little story of Jesus at age 12, going to the Passover, or Passover, or the 9-11 red period with his parents in Jerusalem, staying behind, and then they come back for him, you know, and they find him in the temple. That's at age 12. But then next, boom, curtain falls, comes up again, he's a full grown man.

It's those intervening years that we would love to know, what did he do?

What was he like? From age 12 to age 30?

As a teenager, as a young man, what did he do? And in that you can only speculate, because the Scripture is really silent. But I was reading something the other day about, actually kind of written as a biography of Jesus, and just going through the Gospel stories, and the author made an interesting point that I'll share with you.

It's assumed that at some point Joseph, Mary's husband, died. Because he doesn't show up in any of the Gospel accounts later on, and Mary is there with her other sons, but there's no other mention of Joseph. When he died, how old Jesus was when he died, we don't know. He was a carpenter's son, Joseph was a carpenter, we know that. And it's reasonable to assume that Jesus grew up as the oldest son in the family business, and learning at his dad's feet in the carpentry shop that he had there in Nazareth, learning that tree.

Did he just continue as a carpenter until he decided one day to go preach the Gospel?

Or did he do something else?

It's reasonable to assume, and this is in the realm of speculation, but it might help us at least to flesh out and to understand what Hebrews 4 is talking about, as to how Jesus was tempted in all things. Let's think for a moment, a little badger of thinking, that at some point, maybe age 18, 19, Jesus left the family home. There were other sons to care for the matters around the home, and he lived apart, not in some monastic community with the Essenes, like some speculate, but just as a man, the son of man.

Maybe he was a shepherd. Maybe he sat out on the hills with sheep.

Maybe he did some farming. Maybe he sold some wheat, as it would have been sold on terraced hillsides that you have in that part of the land.

Because look at the parables that he talked about. Look at the stories by which he taught the principles, the sower and the seed. Did he get that just by observing? Could have. But did he really understand the intricacies of what that meant, because he had been engaged in sowing and seeing tares grow up within the wheat? Did he spend some time on a fishing boat in the Sea of Galilee, or maybe even off the coast in the Mediterranean Ocean, so that he learned some of the things that he later talked about being a fisher of men? And even to tell him, cast down your net on this side. When he talked about being the good shepherd, my sheep know my voice. Did he speak of that from the experience of having been a shepherd for a period of time? It's interesting just to think about, because it can help us at least appreciate a verse like this in Hebrews, that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, without yet without sin. Now, we read about a temptation that Satan put him through, and that's certainly applicable to a verse like this. But I think there's more to what he learned as a man about us, about our condition, about human beings to be this type of high priest, to make intercession for us.