Jesus 'Lost Years' Far From a Teenage Wasteland

Approximately 2,000 years ago today, Jesus Christ was alive and walking the earth - and he was becoming a teenager! Wrap your mind around that one.

What must life have been like for, and with, a teenage Jesus? The last thing that we know for sure about him is just before this period, and comes from Luke's Gospel.

At age 12, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem during the Passover festival. When the festival was over they left, and at some point realized that Jesus was not with their traveling party.

The worried parents returned to the city and searched for three days. Finally they found him, sitting in the courtyards at the Temple, questioning the teachers.

It was at this point, if they didn't already have an idea, that Mary and Joseph got some sense of what was in store for the family. Jesus was amazing the teachers with both his questions and with his own comments in his understanding.

But while they were themselves impressed to hear their pre-teen son, they were also worried parents. Have you ever lost a child, even for a moment? Remember how frantic those few moments were? How about three days lost?

Mel's Masterpiece

On February 25th, 2004, Ash Wednesday, actor/director Mel Gibson released what would prove to be one of the greatest and most popular motion pictures of all-time.

"The Passion of the Christ" depicts the final twelve hours in the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in a story based on a compilation of the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

Gibson's telling of this story was made even more interesting and relevant with his decision to have all of the actors speak their parts in the genuine language of the times, with the Jews, including Christ, speaking their lines in Aramaic, while the Romans speak 'street' Latin.

Sub-titles allow viewers to follow along with the content of the lines, but the fact is that they are not necessary, especially for anyone who is already familiar with the details of the story.

Language was not the only spark of genius exhibited by Gibson, who according to the film's official website shot 40% of the scenes either at night or indoors under wraps in order to get an effect of light fighting its way out of darkness. Caleb Deschanel, who also did tremendous work previously on Gibson's film 'The Patriot' as well as 'The Right Stuff', was chosen as the cinematographer because Gibson felt his work was "violent, it's dark, it's spiritual".

These are some of the defining features of the film: violence, darkness, and spirituality. This is no touchy-feely effort that waters down the events involved in Christ's betrayal by one of his own closest chosen disciples, Judas Iscariot, his sham of a trial, and his persecution and death on the cross.

A brilliant cast of international actors was selected for the crucial roles. Jesus himself is played in a legendary performance by American actor James Caviezel, who had to endure 7-hour makeup days while filming the scenes of that persecution and death. This was the easiest of Caviezel's personal and professional sacrifices in making the film.

He was selected specifically because he was willing to make these sacrifices which included the difficult process of learning Aramaic, his hanging on the cross in freezing temperatures for hours over numerous days, and pre-filming months of other physical, emotional, and spiritual preparations.

Conquering Fear

Just one week until Palm Sunday, and just two until the glory of Easter Sunday. For those Christians who go to church next weekend and receive their palm branches, do you know what it is that they are supposed to help you recall and what they represent?

The palm branches are representative of those waved by the adoring crowds at Jesus Christ during his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem in the days prior to his arrest, persecution, sacrificial death, and His rising from the tomb.

Before any of these events had taken place, there was a true sense of excitement and urgency among many of the people as the sacred occasion of the Passover approached.

Passover itself is the perhaps the single most important event on the Jewish calendar. It is a remembrance of the night that God struck down the first-born of Egypt in a show of power that led directly to the deliverance of the Jewish people out of the bondage of centuries of slavery.

As the angel of death moved about the nation taking the lives of those Egyptian first-born, it passed over those houses whose doors were marked with blood. This was a sign that God had told Moses to pass along among his chosen people so that they might be distinguished and saved.

It became a great custom among the Jews to travel to the great city of Jerusalem in order to celebrate this day, and in fact an entire great festival had been set up around the feast.

Conspiracy, Betrayal, Denial

We are now just three weeks away from Easter Sunday, which along with Christmas Day is the celebration of one of the two greatest events in the history of mankind.

On that day of Easter we will celebrate the great victory of Jesus Christ over death, his rising from the grave into which he entered as a repentance for the sins of man.

But besides that sin for which his death was payment, there was a human process of actual conspiracy and betrayal that served as the mechanization leading to his crucifixion. And near that end there were a series of denials from his most beloved and respected friend and follower.

As the Bible tells it in the New Testament gospel of Luke, with the Passover festival about to begin the chief priests and scribes were looking for a way to put him to death. They feared Jesus' popularity among the people, and that many of his teachings were outside the bounds, some directly in conflict with, the tenets of the Jewish faith.

The Gospel of Matthew tells that they assembled in the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas, and consulted on how best to effect his arrest and eventual execution. Their initial plan was to have this plot carried out after the festival was over, because as both Matthew and Mark tell us, they feared "a riot among the people", such was Jesus' popularity.

Their plots against him came together more suddenly than they wanted because, the fact is, they were not in charge of things. As Luke tells it, Satan "entered into" one of Jesus' twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot, who approached the temple guards and the chief priests with an offer to betray Jesus and turn him over to them in exchange for money.