Is not this the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him. Mark 6:3
In 1975, Judy and I built a house in Fredericton, doing most of the work ourselves. I did not consider myself a carpenter before I started, and I don’t consider myself a carpenter today. But Jesus was known in His home town as a carpenter. It was not just something He had dabbled in, or a reference to a project that He had been involved in. No, He had an earthly trade, resulting from being brought up in a carpenter’s home. He knew how to swing a hammer, sharpen a saw, frame a door, and all the many and varied skills that went with being a carpenter in His day and city. His hands no doubt bore the marks of the usage of the tools of His trade. We can’t know, obviously, how long He made His earthly living from His trade, but it may have been as much as 15 to 18 years. There was a big family to support after Joseph died, and His was a large responsibility. His was also a marvellous example for us.
In all of Scripture, we never find God calling His servants from among the lazy or careless; He always called workers, people who were busily committed to some important endeavour. We can’t always see a relationship between what they were working at and what God called them to do, any more than we can see much of a relationship between Jesus’ work in the carpenter shop and His ministry of teaching, preaching, healing, suffering, and redemption. God is always far more interested in our attitude than our aptitude. He values our will more highly than our skill, because a will in tune with His can accomplish far more than a skill in tune with the world. There is no doubt that Jesus was a diligent son to Mary and a faithful brother to His siblings in the flesh. Faithfulness to our earthly responsibilities is a requirement for a faithful child of God. There is never an excuse for us to neglect the responsibilities that God has given us, even for what we may think are the most noble and holy pursuits. We should never be like the evil Karl Marx, who allowed his wife and children to starve while he went about teaching and promoting his communistic doctrine.
Those who knew the Lord Jesus before He began His ministry would never have listened to Him if He was a lazy or sloppy carpenter. No, they had to respect Him for what He was outside His ministry. Those around us must also respect us for our diligence and honest labour. Otherwise, it is pointless to try to serve our Lord before them. -Jim MacIntosh