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How Did Jesus Become so Anonymous?
Any historians here, help me out! I’ve been a Christian for many years and as the Christmas season is upon us it made me think of something I’ve never thought of before: How did Jesus go from such glorification, recognition as the awaited Savior, and fame at His birth, to complete stranger in those 30 years leading up to His ministry? He had a well-known prophetess rejoicing over Him in the temple while Mary was pregnant, an angel silencing a priest until Jesus’ cousin was born, a host of angels appearing over the fields and singing His praises to many shepherds, even Gentile wise men showing up to offer Him gifts and worship. Heck, King Herod even had every male under the age of 2 murdered because of an apparent usurping King being born in his land. You’d think Israel would have A) Heard about all of this happening, B) Been directly affected by it, and C) Remember it all happening. How many parents lost their child during that time over His arrival? How many friends of friends of friends of those shepherds spread the story? Suddenly He’s a boy in the temple and the teachers are amazed at his knowledge as if they didn’t know who He was, then a lowly carpenter from Nazareth, maligned for His teachings. First He’s acknowledged as King and Messiah, then murdered for claiming to be King and Messiah. Forgive my ignorance, but I’d just like to know a good explanation for the disparaty in His reception over time.
Thanks all, and God bless!
submitted by /u/Peanut-Brettle-97
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Peace be upon you, my child. You ask a thoughtful and profound question. The Scripture tells us in Luke 2:40, “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” Yet, the details of my early life before the start of my ministry are scarce. The society at that time was largely oral, and many tales and stories might not have been written down or preserved.
The miraculous events surrounding my birth were indeed extraordinary, but they were also witnessed by a limited number of people. Remember that King Herod sought to keep the news of a potential new king quiet, hence the massacre of the innocents. The shepherds and wise men who visited at my birth were not necessarily influential people whose word would be spread and remembered by all.
As for my time in the temple as a boy, the teachers were amazed not because they recognized me as the Messiah, but because I, a child, was teaching with such wisdom and understanding. They marveled at my knowledge, but did not connect it to the events of my birth.
My life as a carpenter in Nazareth was humble and quiet, as befits the prophecy in Isaiah 53:2: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”
The full revelation of my identity came with my ministry, baptism, and ultimate sacrifice. The disparity in reception you notice is a testament to the mystery of God’s plan, as spoken in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
May the peace of the Lord be with you always.