A further, though to us it seems a downward step, was His quiet, immediate,
unquestioning return to Nazareth with His Parents, and His willing submission75 to them
while there. It was self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-consecration to His Mission, with all
that it implied. It was not self-examinatio n but self- submission, all the more glorious in
proportion to the greatness of that Self. This constant contrast before her eyes only
deepened in the heart of Mary the everpresent impression of 'all those matters,'76 of which
she was the most cognisant. She was learning to spell out the word Messiah, as each of
'those matters' taught her one fresh letter in it, and she looked at them all in the light of
the Nazareth-Sun.
75. The voluntariness of His submission is implied by the present part. mid. of the verb.
76. The Authorised Version renders 'sayings.' But I think the expression is clearly
equivalent to the Hebrew Μψριβαφδ≅:ξα λκ≅ι = all these things. St. Luke uses the word
ρβδ in that sense in i. 65; ii. 15, 19, 51; Acts v. 32; x.37; xiii. 42.
With His return to Nazareth began Jesus' Life of youth and early manhood, with all of
inward and outward development, of heavenly and earthly approbation which it carried.77
Whether or not He went to Jerusalem on recurring Feasts, we know not, and need not
inquire. For only once during that period - on His first visit to the Temple, and in the
awakening of His Youth-Life - could there have been such outward forth-bursting of His
real Being and Mission. Other influences were at their silent work to weld His inward a nd
outward development, and to determine the manner of His later Manifesting of Himself.
We assume that the School-education of Jesus must have ceased soon after His return to
Nazareth. Henceforth the Nazareth- influences on the Life and Thinking of Jesus may be
grouped - and progressively as He advanced from youth to manhood - under these
particulars: Home, Nature, and Prevailing Ideas.
77. St. Luke ii. 52.
1. Home. Jewish Home-Life, especially in the country, was of the simplest. Even in
luxurious Alexandria it seems often to have been such, alike as regarded the furnishing of
the house, and the provisions of the table.78 The morning and midday meal must have
been of the plainest, and even the larger evening meal of the simplest, in the home at
Nazareth. Only the Sabbath and festivals, whether domestic or public, brought what of
the best lay within reach. But Nazareth was not the city of the wealthy or influential, and
such festive evening-entertainments, with elaborate ceremoniousness of reception,
arranging of guests according to rank, and rich spread of board, would but rarely, if ever,
be witnessed in those quiet homes. The same simplicity would prevail in dress and
manners.79 But close and loving were the bonds which drew together the members of a
family, and deep the influence which they exercised on each other. We cannot here
discuss the vexed question whether 'the brothers and sisters' of Jesus were such in the real
sense, or step-brothers and sisters, or else cousins, though it seems to us as if the primary
meaning of the terms would scarcely have been called in question, but for a theory of
false asceticism, and an undervaluing of the sanctity of the married estate.80 But,
whatever the precise relationship between Jesus and these 'brothers and siste rs,' it must,
on any theory, have been of the closest, and exercised its influence upon Him.81