[TheRealThing]

So, in consideration of the Lord's mission as stated in post #2 above, that being the fact that He (Jesus), had come to convince men to trust in Him for salvation, and not the Orthodoxy of the day. An Orthodoxy BTW, which began with Abraham, the nation of Israel. And God ordained that Jesus would come to Nazareth, not Rome or some other place of renown.
Quite a big deal if you ask me. One Man, known well by many of His peers, starts a ministry which continues to this day. The ministry whereby men are granted eternal life. Not by deed but by "Faith through grace."

Social stigma have always existed. So going in, the conditions for the success of His mission might have seemed impossible to overcome. The Lord was born in Bethlehem, but He was reared in Nazareth. Nazareth was a place of abject poverty and social lowliness. So much so that when Phillip spoke of Jesus being the Messiah to Nathaniel, he laughed at any prospect that the Messiah could come from such a slum. John 1:46 (KJV)
46 Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

Added to that was the fact that owing to the way the Lord came into this world... it was said that He was illegitimate. Which of course He was not.
Luke 1:35 (KJV)
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

But even Joseph, when he first learned that Mary was with child, (of the Holy Ghost, a fact of which at the time he was still ignorant) he was of a 'mind to put her away quietly.' Only after a visit from the angel of the Lord did Joseph change his mind to readily and willingly accept the situation in total obedience. Still, illegitimacy is a tremendous social shadow from which to emerge even in the America of our day, much less that of Israel where the whispers persisted.

Then there was the Orthodoxy itself. Establishment Jews of the Sadducee and Pharisee sects along with the Priestly line of Levites, held total sway over the hearts and minds of the citizens of Israel. As such, the theocratic authority of these men over the affairs of the Church and of state, had been in place for centuries. And as the Biblical accounts clearly depict, they were not about to give up power to anybody, much less agree to a complete surrender to this man from Nazareth Who to them, just dropped out of the blue. Luke 19:14 (KJV)
14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. <parable ref

The Lord was a Man of relatively few words. And of those He did speak, none were minced. When dealing with the religious establishment the Lord was very straight forward and rather heavy handed by the standards of many today, as His actions of 'cleansing' the temple of the money changers clearly demonstrate; Mark 11:17 (KJV)
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.

Remember, when the Lord spoke to the religious leaders of the day many times, He was less than complimentary, referring to them as a generation of snakes. Matthew 23:33 (KJV)
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Not exactly Emily Post if you ask me. And certainly not diplomatic.

We of today's true Church do not have leave to mince words either, much less compromise Scripture for the sake of any perceived cultural differences of the day. God is always the same Hebrews 13:7-9 (KJV)
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace;

We would do well to remember, though the Lord had been immensely popular with the common man during His ministry, the thousands who'd been following Him all departed when they learned what following Him would cost them. And after all of them had departed except the 12 Apostles, Jesus asked the twelve, "Will ye also go away?" Of course they didn't, but only after they'd been tested to extremes.


There is a dichotomy which exists today, in which Christian behavior seems to be defined as one's having a soft hearted and quiet 'Church mouse' demeanor. Complete with a placid and plastic smile. I don't hold with that representation, because though it is clear that no Christian is to feel in any way superior to others, we have a God given job to do. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. And we should state things clearly. To me, Christendom do themselves a severe disservice by crawling up on their bellies to squeak out the weakest of objections in the face of sin and disobedience. Not to confuse what I am saying, the Lord after all, could say things as He did because He is God. Nonetheless, as He has ordained, the Church does speak for Him. And in my mind, it would be impossible to overstate the importance of that charter. I liked the way Phillip handled things with Nathaniel above. When Nathaniel scoffed, Phillip didn't offer up any argument, he just said "Come and see." Jesus needs no defense, just an introduction. The Holy Spirit has already done His work in the heart of man.

One last point. If society slammed the Son of God the way they did, you can write it down. They WILL slam you. But where the Lord knew better than to let any form of 'imposed' shame slow Him down, we on the other hand who are guilty of certain trespass, are very susceptible to being sidelined by our mistakes. We have to get over it and remember, The Lord is the God of second chances and those who judge God's own are themselves not one iota better.


The Apostle Paul---
Philippians 3:13-14 (KJV)
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.