Thank Goodness It’s Monday!

"Is not this the carpenter?" (Mark 6:3).

Jesus spent three years in public ministry as the Messiah. He spent eighteen years in the carpentry shop as a manual laborer. Do the math. The Second Person of the Trinity spent six times more of his short life on earth sawing lumber, hammering nails, and sweeping sawdust than he did preaching sermons, healing the sick, and casting out demons. Go figure.

We know almost nothing about Jesus between his birth and his baptism, other than the glimpse we get of him as a 12-year-old boy with his parents celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem (see Luke 2:41-52). The New Testament, however, entices us with two snippets of information. We are told that Jesus was a carpenter (see Mark 6:3) and that he pleased his Father in heaven (see Matt. 3:17). In other words, from age 12 to 30, the only thing we know about the incarnate Son of God is that he worked in a woodshop and made God happy.

I wish we had more information about these years of Jesus’ life when he was a manual laborer. Did he learn the trade of carpentry from Joseph? And if Joseph died during this time period, was Jesus responsible for the family business? Did he provide for his mother and the other members of his family? Did he draw blueprints, fill contracts, meet deadlines, pay bills, hire help, manage projects, maintain facilities, and collect unpaid debts? Were his hands calloused and his fingernails dirty? Did he take vacations? Was he always covered in sawdust?

I like to try to imagine what it was like during those years when Jesus worked as a manual laborer at Joseph & Sons Woodshop, Inc. I have no Bible verses to prove it, but in my imagination:

• Jesus wasn’t wasting his time. I don’t believe Jesus divided life into that which was secular and that which was spiritual. I can’t imagine that, after a busy day at the shop, he mumbled to himself as he locked the door, “I can’t wait until I can get away from this stupid shop so that I can do something significant with my life.”

• Jesus was really good with project design and management. He loved his tools and took good care of them. And he was always coming up with new designs and fresh ways of doing things. It was obvious that he loved his work. Customers knew that products from Jesus’ shop were high quality. Tables didn’t wobble, cabinet doors shut perfectly, and yokes didn’t chafe.

• If you asked Jesus to explain the difference between a chair made of Acacia wood and one made of Cedar, his eyes would twinkle with delight as he talked on and on about their distinctive strengths, smells, grains, and textures.

• When Jesus designed a new chair, I imagine him having a flashback to when he designed the Milky Way.

• When he accidentally hit his thumb with a hammer, I think Jesus was tempted to let out a swear word—but didn’t.

• Jesus put as much artistic expression and creative design into fashioning a table as he did into fashioning the Sermon on the Mount, knowing that he was doing them both for the glory of his Father in heaven.

• When Jesus hammered nails into wood, oh my…. I think he wondered what it would feel like for those nails to be driven into his own hands and feet.

• I think Jesus knew how to keep the financial books in good order, but somehow I imagine that, with those who owed him money, he was reluctant to force them to pay.

• When Jesus sanded a piece of wood for a table, he worked just as hard on the underside as he did on the topside. Although humans would never see it, God would.

• When asked to make a crutch for the lame man down the street, I think Jesus must have looked up to heaven and asked, “Father, can’t I just heal him?”

I doubt that Jesus put a fish logo on his products or had a Bible verse printed on his business card. He didn’t need gimmicks and slogans to convince people that everything that came out of his shop was made for the glory of God. If someone asked him when he was going to give up his secular job so that he could “go into the ministry,” I think Jesus gave a quizzical look and said, “I have no idea what that question means.”

I’ve known a few men and women who lived their professions the way Jesus did. Some were doctors, some were teachers, some were engineers. One was actually a carpenter. He took me to see an impressive house that he had helped to build. As we walked up the beautiful stairway to the second story, he said, “You’ll notice that these steps don’t creak. When I build steps, they don’t creak.” I didn’t sense an ounce of carnal pride in what he said. He just wanted me to know that everything he built was for the glory of God.

Jesus was a carpenter who pleased God. I want to know more about how this applies to my own life. I confess that washing dishes and preparing a sermon still feel very different to me. But I’m asking God to help me be like his Son when I grow up.

One person who learned the sacredness of work was Brother Lawrence. A monk living in 17th-century France, he was the cook for the monastery where he lived. He discovered that he could serve God in the kitchen as well as in the sanctuary:

"I possess God as peacefully in the bustle of my kitchen, where sometimes several people are asking me for different things at the same time, as I do upon my knees before the Holy Sacrament…. I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God. When it is finished, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and worship God, who gave me the grace to make it, after which I arise happier than a king." (The Practice of the Presence of God, pp. 84f.).

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