In some corporations today, executives are required to work for a time in some of the jobs occupied by their employees, giving them a sense of what their workers have to deal with. Christ knows and understands his children’s trials because he has experienced them himself. Earthly heirs to political kingdoms have often grown up as princes and princesses in protective cocoons shielding them from commoners. A king or queen rarely enjoyed friendship or contact with their subjects, but King Jesus knows what it is like to live in this world; his empathy is not artificial or contrived, but is instead based on experience.
Jesus’s patience had been put to the test for the thirty years leading up to his public ministry. When he called the twelve and taught them the ways of the Kingdom of God, his patience was tested in new ways. The disciples jostled for the head of the table competing among themselves; impulsive Peter offered some challenges when he shot from the hip in dialogue with the Master; and then there were the disciples who did not stay awake and pray in Gethsemane as the Lord had instructed them. Jesus’s life was a test of forbearance, and carpentry contributed to teaching him patience.
When Jesus was arrested, the events leading to crucifixion began. Following the scourging, beating, mocking, and forcing of the crown of thorns upon Christ’s head as the Romans and onlookers cursed him, he made the journey to Golgotha to be crucified. As the bleeding and exhausted Messiah struggled along the route, he carried the beam that would be placed on the stanchion permanently set in the ground for crucifixion. The beam borne by his wounded and bleeding shoulders increased his pain and weakness such that Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry it. Once at the place of crucifixion, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God was nailed to the cross. Jesus hung from the beam in agony as it was hoisted and mounted to the stanchion.[2]
He felt the roughness of the cross. Wood was a familiar material for Jesus. He had learned how to use it and respect it, but now the familiar material that Joseph and he had worked became the instrument of his death. As the Scripture tells us, just before Jesus died, he said, “It is finished!” (John 20:50). In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Leon Morris summed up what it was that Jesus finished: “He had taught and he had healed and he had set the example in his own life, and now he gave his life ‘a ransom for many’” (Eerdmans, 1992, p. 723).
Jesus the carpenter and son of a carpenter had died on a cross made by a carpenter.
Why was Jesus born the son of a carpenter to work as a carpenter? The question remains answered only in the mind of God. Yet it can be said that the Father’s plan to atone for sin through Christ was perfect, and carpentry provided the perfect home life and work for the Son of God who would take away the sins of his people.
Notes
[1] Opinions vary as to whether Joseph was a carpenter in the sense of actually working wood. An article by Ken M. Campbell, “What was Jesus’ Occupation,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48:3 (September 2006), 501-519, posits that Jesus was more of a general contractor and less hands-on in his work. Others say the word translated “carpenter,” τέκτων, could be used to describe other trades, specifically pottery, metal working, or even trades in general. In this article I used the word carpenter in its most general sense, including trades we see today such as jointer (finish carpenter), cabinet maker, framer, and other occupations which use wood for their primary raw material for construction. It is an old commentary but still helpful, see William Hendriksen on the Gospel of Mark (p. 222) regarding the Matthew and Mark passages speaking of carpentry and Jesus. Hendriksen refers to Justin Martyr’s comment that Jesus made yokes and plows, which means he would have used sharp edged tools to contour wood.
[2] A question I have about the cross is, how was the cross beam affixed to the stanchion? Note here that I believe the cross was shaped like an upper-case T rather than a lower case one. The sign describing Jesus’s supposed crime would have been nailed to one of the two vertical side surfaces of the cross beam so that it protruded above his head. The few publications that I have read about the construction of the cross are ambiguous about how the connection between the cross beam and stanchion was made. Probably further reading would answer the question, but I am guessing that the exposed end of the stanchion was tenoned. The tenon was fitted into a mortise at the center of the cross beam (some sources say the word “cross” refers only to the horizontal beam). Thus, the victim of crucifixion was put in position by sliding the loose-fitting mortise over the tenon of the stanchion. My guess is that the tenon would have been lubricated with animal fat to ease installation of the cross beam. When the victim was dead, the body and cross beam could be removed easily to allow for the next execution. The Romans would have found this design efficient for the horrible executions they so often practiced.
This article originally appeared here.
