“Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Matthew 16:13-14

Perhaps the disciples were too polite to say and “your family think you are out of your mind.” Mark records this in his Gospel, “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21). Why wouldn’t his family at the very least think that Jesus was a prophet? They lived with him for 30 years, why didn’t they realize that there was something different about Jesus? Even those in his hometown didn’t notice. “‘Where did this man get these things?’ they asked. ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?’” (Mark 6:2-4).

When Jesus begins his public ministry no one says, “Oh, of course, Jesus, well he always was a little different from everyone else. Always was a bit of a goody-goody. Always was a bit too religious.”

For 30 years Jesus lived a sinless life and no one noticed. Jesus didn’t stand out as being different and no one suspected that he was the Son of God. This says something quite profound about our understanding of a sinless life. A sinless life could go unnoticed amongst people of God because most of our sins are to do with our attitudes, our motives and our thoughts more than our actions. Jesus was sinless in his attitudes, motives and thoughts as well as his actions.

Our challenge is to let God cleanse the unnoticed parts of our lives.