T(r)oy's Marbles

Indeed, there are a lot of things that could be said concerning this. I’ll note just a few thoughts, but perhaps you can think of more. If so, feel free to share those with me, okay?

The texts that we’ve already noted make clear that the relative "silence" of the gospels (about Jesus' claims to divinity while he was still a child) is not because Jesus wasn’t aware of his divinity; rather, it is because Jesus has an impeccable sense of timing. He suits the right words to the right occasion at the right time. He knows just what to say and when to say it. He’s never too early, and never too late.

Besides, who listens to what a kid has to say anyway? The reason Luke 2 is recorded for us is because of the unique age and experience at that time…Also, it may very well be that Jesus regularly claimed to be God when He was a kid but that it just wasn’t recorded. John 21:25 hints at this: “Jesus did many other things…If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

The Scriptures highlight this idea in many places (that is, that Jesus selected his words and works carefully). He tried to match what he did and what he said to the right time and place and occasion. This could be why he wasn’t more explicit about his identity when he was a kid, even though he was aware of it when he was a kid.

Look at John 2:1-11 as an example of Jesus’ sense of “timing.” Note, in particular, that Jesus had a good reason for changing the water into wine (this reason is highlighted in the last verse):

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

(See the reason? When Jesus performs a miracle it is always aimed at trying to provoke faith.)

Getting back to the issue of “timing” (or “why wasn’t Jesus clearer when He was a kid about His divinity?”), we can see that here Jesus says in verse 4: “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” (Do you ever wonder why Jesus speaks in riddles sometimes?)

The reason Jesus does this is because, this text tells us “there is a time for everything.” Read the gospels and you’ll see that Jesus measures carefully if and when He should say something. As the end of Jesus’ life approaches, we find Him making more and more overt statements about his divinity. This is not because He was becoming more aware of his divinity, it was because he was (in a sense) becoming more "aware" that the end was near. It was a question of timing, not a question of self-awareness.

This solidifies even more the idea that Jesus was always fully God and fully man and he was always fully aware of that. Does this all make sense?

I hope this helps. Please forgive me for the length of these “letters” and this discussion but I thought this might be a good opportunity to “dig in” to the Scriptures a bit with you. Hopefully, this will serve as a catalyst for you to dig in even more on your own.

Let me know what you think, okay?

Love,
Troy