How are such mighty works done by his hands? The folks who knew Jesus growing up in Nazareth seem to have been surprised by His teaching and mighty works. There are other Gospels telling us that Jesus did “mighty works” even as a boy: Jesus raised a boy from the dead whom he kind of accidentally killed; or Jesus made birds out of clay and then breathed on them and made them come to life. These are in the Gnostic Gospels. If those writings were historically true, then the Lord’s fellow congregants, seeing him do powerful deeds growing up, should have said, “Ahh, Jesus we always knew you are JUST divine. Up to your old tricks again?! Atta boy, JC.” No, just the opposite. Jesus growing up obviously did not manifest Himself to them as those other writings incorrectly portray. I think this comparison points us to the historical truthfulness of the four Gospels. Even His own brothers and sisters may not have known where He was truly from. Mary and Joseph knew. They kept the true Messianic secret till their Son’s public ministry, as the main theme was not the miracles but the message. (And Jesus’ fellow country men did not like what they were hearing: see St. Luke 4: 16-30) He did manifest Himself to Israel, when the time was right and He did do so not selfishly, not even turning a rock into bread when He was so hungry, but for the good of those He has come to save. He is the only un-self-ish man to ever walk on earth. The mighty deeds point to the Gospel/Word of the Kingdom. The four Gospels are true by the difficulty of the reading as those other writings are centered on his miracle working. And he went about among the villages teaching. This is the reason He came
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