This an interesting post. Thanks for sharing with me. I don't' need to know, and probably can't know, but here it is anyhow: What did Jesus know and when did he know it? Did he understand what his ultimate human end was to be when he was in the cradle, did he know it when he was 12?
Knowing what the object of suffering is can be a great aid to enduring it. Did Jesus have that going for him?
I know. To what extent could an infant understand something like that? My Lily is maybe the smartest five year old in the world and might could understand 1 to 2 percent.
I am not convinced that He had all the facts in the world in His head. But sometimes it is very clear that He knew things that were unknowable. So I can write a bunch more words trying to give you a good answer but I don't really have any idea.
What I don't believe is that knowing how it was gonna turn out made it any easier. Sometimes we get a false impression of Him not realizing that almost all of our knowledge relates to the very end of His life. The Synoptics all deal exclusively with the last year, except for bits about birth and the story of when he was twelve and His interaction with John Baptist. Even John only talks for a bit about the earlier ministry. And if I remember right by word count something like 70 percent of the record is all about the last week. But it is clear that in the last year of His life He knew where it was headed. He was filled with a mixed bag of anxiety and sadness and frustration and desire. The more it was on His mind the more the earlier crowds wanted nothing to do with Him as He took a 'dark turn'and they realized that His plan was all about failing and losing and suffering and not about fixing the things in the world that upset them. Following a true King to topple Rome and set them free was a project everybody wanted to get behind. Going to be demonized by the establishment, both religious and political, and then suffering and dying as a rebel/blasphemer, and then NOT changing anything much was way less popular, but His plan was emphatically to LOSE. You might be interested in a writer named Robert Capon, a priest(anglican) and an expert on the Gospel that goes to the hurting and broken having done a lot of hurting and being broken himself, anyway he sees big difference between the parables the Lord told earlier in his ministry, the so called parables of the kingdom and of grace, from the parables of the last week of his life, the parables of judgment, which were often more passionate, more revealing of his frustration and anger, not so much the product of sitting around peacefully teaching children but a product of His conflict with the priests and lawyers.
How foreknowledge affected the Crisis, literally the Crossroad of His life is a monster question. I think, whatever a person knows or doesn't know the essential question of what do you want your life to mean and how do you want to spend it, what are you willing to live and die for can't really be answered ahead of time. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, I always appreciate feedback.
I guess I'm personalizing his experience somewhat. I know that if I know how difficult something is before I go through it, if I know where it will end, then I feel like I can endure it. But you are right, we really don't know until we have to act and experience. Thanks for the thoughtful response.
This an interesting post. Thanks for sharing with me. I don't' need to know, and probably can't know, but here it is anyhow: What did Jesus know and when did he know it? Did he understand what his ultimate human end was to be when he was in the cradle, did he know it when he was 12?
Knowing what the object of suffering is can be a great aid to enduring it. Did Jesus have that going for him?
I know. To what extent could an infant understand something like that? My Lily is maybe the smartest five year old in the world and might could understand 1 to 2 percent.
I am not convinced that He had all the facts in the world in His head. But sometimes it is very clear that He knew things that were unknowable. So I can write a bunch more words trying to give you a good answer but I don't really have any idea.
What I don't believe is that knowing how it was gonna turn out made it any easier. Sometimes we get a false impression of Him not realizing that almost all of our knowledge relates to the very end of His life. The Synoptics all deal exclusively with the last year, except for bits about birth and the story of when he was twelve and His interaction with John Baptist. Even John only talks for a bit about the earlier ministry. And if I remember right by word count something like 70 percent of the record is all about the last week. But it is clear that in the last year of His life He knew where it was headed. He was filled with a mixed bag of anxiety and sadness and frustration and desire. The more it was on His mind the more the earlier crowds wanted nothing to do with Him as He took a 'dark turn'and they realized that His plan was all about failing and losing and suffering and not about fixing the things in the world that upset them. Following a true King to topple Rome and set them free was a project everybody wanted to get behind. Going to be demonized by the establishment, both religious and political, and then suffering and dying as a rebel/blasphemer, and then NOT changing anything much was way less popular, but His plan was emphatically to LOSE. You might be interested in a writer named Robert Capon, a priest(anglican) and an expert on the Gospel that goes to the hurting and broken having done a lot of hurting and being broken himself, anyway he sees big difference between the parables the Lord told earlier in his ministry, the so called parables of the kingdom and of grace, from the parables of the last week of his life, the parables of judgment, which were often more passionate, more revealing of his frustration and anger, not so much the product of sitting around peacefully teaching children but a product of His conflict with the priests and lawyers.
How foreknowledge affected the Crisis, literally the Crossroad of His life is a monster question. I think, whatever a person knows or doesn't know the essential question of what do you want your life to mean and how do you want to spend it, what are you willing to live and die for can't really be answered ahead of time. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, I always appreciate feedback.
I guess I'm personalizing his experience somewhat. I know that if I know how difficult something is before I go through it, if I know where it will end, then I feel like I can endure it. But you are right, we really don't know until we have to act and experience. Thanks for the thoughtful response.
Always.