Jesus Was A Workplace Minister
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
"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?" And they took
offense at him (Mark 6:3).
In 2005, a movie entitled The Passion was released that chronicled
the last twenty-four hours of Jesus' life. During a flashback scene,
Jesus was seen in his carpentry shop making a table with his mother
standing by playfully observing. It was a very beautiful scene that
reminds us that Jesus was a carpenter for most of his adult life. In
fact, Jesus was more qualified to be a carpenter than the Son of God in
the eyes of the people because that is the history they knew of this
young working class man from Nazareth.
Consider that in the New Testament of Jesus' 132 public
appearances, 122 were in the marketplace. Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45
had a workplace context. Of 40 miracles in the book of Acts, 39 were in
the marketplace. Jesus spent his adult life as a carpenter until age 30
before he went into a preaching ministry in the workplace. And, 54% of
Jesus' reported teaching ministry arose out of issues posed by others in
the scope of daily life experience. Saint Bonaventure said, "His doing
nothing 'wonderful' (his first 30-years) was in itself a kind of
wonder."
Work, in its different forms, is mentioned more than 800 times in
the Bible -more than all the words used to express worship, music,
praise, and singing combined. God created work and He is a worker. "My
father is always at his work to this very day, and I too, am working"
(John 5:17).
So, the next time you are tempted to minimize your daily work as
anything less than a holy calling, remember that Jesus was a workplace
minister as a carpenter in his community. He has called you and I to
reflect His glory in our work.
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