Almost certainly Jesus didn’t play soccer! According to Richard Prabhakar about the time of Jesus ‘They used to play outdoor games, mainly with stones, pebbles and ropes, Plus in some of the words in the scripture I have seen them play sophisticated games like chess and chinese checkers on the ground by drawing the boards on the sand.’ Apart from that very little is known about what they used to play in those times. But Jesus would have had work and family responsibilities. Mark 6: 2-3 reads “Many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.” This was when He was teaching and being a Rabbi (teacher) in His home area. They knew Jesus from His ‘silent years’ and couldn’t believe or didn’t want to accept that with His background that He could be whom He claimed to be! Matthew uses a different Greek word ‘tekton‘ which means something like ‘artisan’, which has caused some to suggest that Jesus may have also been a stone mason.
There is a passage in John’s gospel where the Jewish leaders are, in a not very nice way calling Jesus a “bastard’. John 8; 39-42 –“They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”Kids being kids, hearing what they are not meant to here and then spill it at inappropriate times, I am pretty certain that Jesus would have had a not so easy time occasionally when His mates repeated what they had heard their parents say about Mary’s unexpected pregnancy and His delivery not adding to exactly nine months and a week after the wedding!
Luke 2: 52 – And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man. If we had to chose 3 concepts to state how Jesus passed through these ‘silent years’, I think that I would choose the following – wisely mature; fully developed physically and mentally; socially integrated in both the seen and the unseen worlds! He is ready to tread onto the World Scene!
Proverb 16: 5-6 – Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD;
be assured, he will not go unpunished. By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.
Prayer: I’m only a man, Lord, please help me to be integrated and godly, please.
As I read it! 