What kind of a construction worker was Jesus?

Sir John Everett Millais' Christ in the house of his parents, 1850

-

Just about everything you have read and believed about Christianity has been revised, and I might talk about that from time to time here.
One thing that has changed is Jesus’ occupation. I’m not sure what the truth is now. I grew up hearing that he was a carpenter, and the stories and illustrations that I heard in Sunday School as a child indicated that  Our Lord and Savior grew up working with his earthly father, really step-father, I guess, as his Father was Jehovah, in a woodworking shop. I always imagined them making furniture, like baby cradles and such.
Then I was watching  The History Channel a few years ago and there was a show on there that claimed Jesus was actually something called a “tekton,” which is the Greek word for a laborer, very likely helping the Romans build a new city close to Nazareth, a city called Sepphoris.
The show said he likely was a stone-cutter or a stone carrier or someone doing a lot of work with stones. The show pointed out that there was not a whole lot of wood over there, as there is here, so Jesus probably was not a woodworker, certainly not a carpenter, but probably a stone worker of some sort.
Well, boy howdy, that sure changes the picture.
I thought Jesus grew up quietly in Nazareth, him and Joseph working together sawing and planing and sanding all those baby cradles. Ever now and again, Mother Mary would bring out a cup of coffee or a glass of sweet tea to the workshop and say something like, “How are my boys doing?’ and then give them each a peck on the cheek.
At lunch time, she’d holler out the back door of the house, “Come and get it, but wash your hands first,” and Jesus and Joseph would go to the bucket of water at the back door and pour some in a pan and wash their hands and face and then go into the house and eat themselves a bowl of soup or a grilled cheese sandwich or something. Then they’d thank Mary for lunch and go back to the workshop and spend the afternoon making some more baby cradles before heading back to the house for supper and then an evening of study of the scriptures.
And I figured that went on from the time Jesus was 12 and got left at the Temple until the time he was 30 and headed to Capernaum and beyond to go into business for himself as a rabbi, or teacher, having done all that scriptural study.
But, according to The History Channel, the incarnate Word was actually a construction worker, and he and Joseph probably spent a good many years on a work crew in Sepphoris building the city.
What was Jesus like as a construction worker around all those other construction workers? That can be a rough crowd. They tell dirty jokes, talk about getting drunk and getting laid. When a good-looking woman walks by they stop and stare, maybe make a comment, hoping  she’ll stop and flirt a little while.
What did Our Lord and Savior, who was sinless, do while all that tomfoolery was going on? What is a sinless person supposed to do around that kind of baloney? Ignore it? Say nothing? Say “tut-tut” or “tsk-tsk” and keep on working? Preach about the sins of the flesh? What if someone tells a dirty joke and it is really funny? How does a human, and Jesus was 100 percent human as well as 100 percent divine, not laugh at a funny joke, even if it is off-color?
I got reported at my day job for telling an inappropriate joke in the break room. The HR manager called me into the office and told me a complaint by a female worker had been filed for an inappropriate joke. I said, “The only joke I know I told recently was this one“ and then I told her this joke: Old boy goes into a bar and there is a big, fat girl in Daisy Duke shorts dancing on the table. Guy watches a while and then says, “Great legs.” The fat girl giggles and says, “Really? You think so?” And the guy says, “Sure, most tables would have collapsed under the weight by now.” The HR manager laughed out loud, told me to get out of her office and quit telling jokes in the employee break room.
Jesus would not have told a joke like that, nor would he have laughed. He is probably pissed off at me now for telling it again. No, wait, he doesn’t get pissed off. I get pissed off, because getting pissed off is a sin, and I am a sinner, but Jesus is not.
Wow, it must have been difficult being The Word Made Flesh, Divinity living amongst us sinful humans, and going to the cross to die for us, because we all deserve death, but he wants us to have eternal life.
I guess I don’t care whether he was a woodworker, a rough-in carpenter, a hod carrier or a skilled stone cutter.
I know that he was the Word of God to us, God in the flesh, who came to teach us and to die for us to atone for our sins. Because of him, we can live eternally, if we recognize our inability to save ourselves, recognize that he alone is the way to God, believe he died for us to cleanse us of our sins. He rose from the grave and now he offers us grace, mercy and peace. All we must do is receive him into our daily lives and worship him and follow him as the true expression of the Father.
That is truth that has not changed.

Now that was a strong case of faith

The other day while driving home from work, I saw a case of extreme faith.
It was on old Route 66, coming into Rolla from the west.
I drive to work in St. Robert on Interstate 44 early in the morning when there is little traffic, but I come home in mid-afternoon on Historic Route 66 to avoid the out-of-staters and the locals in the big pick-ups, all of whom are in a hurry.
Historic Route 66 is a nice, peaceful drive. I have to get off it and back on the interstate briefly to get across the Little Piney Creek at Arlington. I get back on the interestate at the exit with a name, Jerome Dixon, and then get off at the exit with another great name, Sugar Tree.
Then I head east on old 66, travel through Doolittle, named for the World War II aviator for some reason that I know not why, and then into Rolla. It was right in there on that portion that they call Martin Spring Drive that I witnessed the extreme faith.
From a distance I saw a figure on the side of the road, my side. As I neared, I saw it was a man walking. At least he was walking on the correct side of the road, although at that point there is a sidewalk, so I don't know why he wasn't on it. There are businesses on this stretch, and many driveways that draw traffic and dump traffic back out onto Old 66. The peaceful old Mother Road becomes pretty hectic up in this stretch.
Then as I got nearer, I noticed his head was down and his arms were up at chest level
As I drove past him, I saw that he was a Millennial Snowflake wearing a backpack and holding a cellphone in his hands and his eyes fixed on the little screen. He wsa obviously thumbing a message, completely unaware of the traffic passing by him.
A young man, likely one of the young scientists in our scientific community that is home to Missouri's technological university that promotes itself as on a par with MIT, he probably does not believe in God and pooh-poohs putting all his trust in anything but science. He might claim to have no faith.
But I believe what I witnessed was pure, unadulterated faith. Faith in the wrong things, himself, me as a safe driver, other motorists following the traffic laws, but faith nonetheless.

I look forward to Sunday School

It is Saturday morning, and the temperature is below freezing. Snow and ice are reportedly on the way. It looks like I might miss Sunday School tomorrow. If it is too bad, they will cancel the service, but if it looks the least bit hazadous, I will stay home and read the Bible and listen to bluegrass gospel.
I hope to get to Sunday School and church service, though, for in many ways and for many reasons, my favorite day of the week is Sunday, and Sunday School is about my favorite hour of the week.
"Adult Men" is the name of the Sunday School class. We are all older adult men. At 63, I think I am the youngest. The others are even more wizened. They are farmers who are still farming or ranching, retired mechanics and other men who have worked, and worked hard. One is a retired engineer who was a general in the National Guard. They are all veterans of the military. They are all patriots. They all love and take care of their families. They all love their church.
To my way of thinking, they are the perfect examples of Christian men. I've run across some teaching and preaching on the Internet, though, that would disqualify them from heaven.
They new Christianity is pacificism, and the new teaching is that anyone who has served in the military has put empire before Jesus. That is error, in my opinion.
Men, and now women, who serve in the military do so to protect liberty, so we can continue to serve Jesus, tell others about him, and preach about Him and his principles and share our interpretation of His principles, even when we are wrong.
Because of people who serve in the military, these new-age teachers have the liberty to preach against the military.
The new preachers and teachers apparently believe they are today's best examples of Christ-like living. I prefer the good men who are in my Sunday School class.

Solemn gratitude for Christ's sacrifice

The front of today's church service bulletin.

Although our pastor died a couple of weeks ago, our church met today and joyfully worshipped our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our associate pastor said that we know by faith our Brother Larry is with Jesus in the heavenly realm, worshipping Him there as we were here.
We had our observance of The Lord's Supper, also known by some churches as Holy Communion. We have that ordinance observation (it is not a sacrament for our congregation) quarterly, and at Easter and Christmas.
Our call to worship was "Grace, Love, and Fellowship." Other hymns we sang were "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" and "The Solid Rock." A women's trio sang "Jesus, at Your Holy Table."
Our associate pastor preached from I Corinthians 11:23-28. It is a passage Paul wrote about the proper observance of The Lord's Supper. The Corinth church members were having rollicking good times for the rich Christians, who brought lavish meals to church and got drunk on the wine, while the poor Christians sat with little or nothing to eat in observance of the Lord's sacrifice of his body and blood.
Paul laid down rules for observing The Lord's Supper with the admonition that you must not do it in an unworthy manner. The whole idea is to do it in remembrance of the Savior, so you must be someone who recognizes your need for His salvation and you have prayed to receive it.
Later, during our actual partaking of the unleavened bread and the grape juice (we are Baptists, so not real wine), the preacher drove home the point that although these are symbols of His body and blood, our partaking of them is serious, and by doing so, we are sharing in His sacrifice for us, somehow. It was a solemn and sobering observance of the Lord's table. We are grateful He has provided a way for us to live with Him for eternity.
We closed by singing "Blest Be the TieThat Binds" and then leaving quietly.

Put your faith into Someone eternal

NPR'sMorning Edition, which I listen to on KMST in Rolla, had an interesting story about the burst of the housing market bubble. Lots of people have lost and are continuing to lose money in that fiasco. NPR's David Kastenbaum asked "Where did the money go?" and got a couple of experts to help him explain. You can read about it by clicking here. There's also a way to listen to the report.
What I found especially interesting was this passage (the boldfaced type is mine):

The financial world was particularly vulnerable to the drop in housing prices because of something that doesn't show up in our little game. That something is a factor economists call "leverage." Remember, we borrow money to buy houses. Lenders count on us to pay off our mortgages. The property serves as collateral, to back up the loan. When the bubble burst, that property was suddenly worth less than the amount of the loan — the backup failed.
But why can't we all just go back to believing the houses are worth more? Wouldn't that actually increase their value?
(Russ) Roberts, the economist in the group, is skeptical. "Isn't that how we got into this problem to start with?" he asks. "We all kind of pretended these prices were going to go up and up and up. And that encouraged a whole set of behavior that turned out to be dysfunctional.
"You know, it's a funny thing," he continues. "When the bubble pops, everybody says, 'Where did the money go?' ... It didn't come from anywhere other than the belief that [prices were] going to keep going up. And when that belief didn't turn out to be true, the prices came down to their original level. So in that sense, there was no harm done. The problem was a lot of people made bets along the way. And when those bets didn't pay out, the ramifications of all that money not getting paid out like it was promised to be turned out to be very destructive."

In other words, the market was built on faith--misplaced faith it turns out. Now why is it that people are so eager to put their faith into property or material goods, but not in the Lord Jesus Christ?

He is far more worthy of your belief, faith and trust than anything or anyone else. Don't take my word for it, though, for I'm just a dumb old country boy from the Ozarks. Do your own investigation by reading the Bible and looking into the Resurrection.