Jesus and the 12 Clay Sparrows

The stories about Jesus’ life from the age of five, to age 12 were removed from the Bible, as we read it today. In this apocryphal text, Jesus is caught making clay sparrows down by the river bank on the Sabbath.

The story says that a neighbor went and told Jesus’ step-daddy, Joseph, that Jesus was ‘working’ on the Sabbath. Joseph, mortified, runs to the river bank to find that Jesus had dammed up the water with fallen trees, creating pools—that he had made clear with a spoken word.

As Jesus was harvesting mud for his creations, Joseph came and scolded Jesus saying:

Why do you do on the Sabbath what it is not lawful to do? And Jesus clapped His hands, and cried out to the sparrows, and said to them: Off you go! And the sparrows flew, and went off crying. And the Jews seeing this were amazed, and went away and reported to their chief men what they had seen Jesus doing.

Do you think those 'chief men,' that the neighbors ran to, believed them about Jesus' birds? I mean, was animating clay sparrows like a playdough kit you could buy, back then?

Hang on, because this story is not over. There was a boy whom took a willow branch and let out the pools of water that Jesus had gathered. Apparently this made Jesus furious, because he scolded the boy and said to him:

O wicked, impious, and foolish! What harm did the pools and the waters do to you? Behold, even now you shall be dried up like a tree, and you shall not bring forth either leaves, or root, or fruit.

And straightway that boy was quite dried up.

And Jesus departed, and went to Joseph’s house.

The town was mad at Jesus! This withered boy's parents were blaming his stepdaddy for Jesus' bad behavior. He made a boy wither up, dry, like he would later do to the fig tree. Not only that, once he cursed this boy, he just walked home. Like nothing happened! The Infancy Gospel of Thomas further discusses the raw power contained in young Jesus with this next passage, saying;

After that He was again passing through the village; and a boy ran up against Him, and struck His shoulder. And Jesus was angry, and said to him: You shall not go back the way you came.

And immediately he fell down dead.

And the parents of the dead boy went away to Joseph, and blamed him, saying: Since you have such a child, it is impossible for you to live with us in the village; or else teach him to bless, and not to curse: for he is killing our children.

These omitted texts offer a different perspective of Jesus than what the accepted canon of the Bible teaches. Jesus’ pre-pubescent years were marked by him opening and unlocking the understanding of his parents, teachers and even church leaders. He had to learn to temper his judgement with compassion.

Jesus had to learn his own strength. He had to reign in his impulsivity. Jesus was not always properly aligned. And this feels like a relief. Even the Messiah had a process of maturation to complete. It is reassuring. This revelation—that Jesus was more like me, more like you than we ever realized. This has helped me to further integrate this Christ archetype, one whom I have come to know and love. The Christ of whom, you and I are fractals.