Carpenters?

The Readings for 15th Tuesday after Pentecost (5 Sept)

• Galatians 2:21-3:7 (Liturgy)
• Mark 6:1-7 (Liturgy)

IC XC
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NI KA

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?

Matthew 22:11

FROM THE FOLKS WHO DO “The Jesus Seminar” I’ve head they Craftsmen – that is men who worked with their hands – had no honor in Israel. I find this hard to believe. Men who worked with their hands were honored under the Law of Moses – the craftsmen who built the Tabernacle and later the Temple were divinely inspired. One might say (using Christian terminology) that there are charisms of craftiness. Addtionally, Jews of all classes were expected to know the Torah and how to live righteous lives – even fishermen and carpenters. To be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah was to exercise one’s right as a Jewish Man to comment on and teach the Torah. One may not have been a Rabbi, but even the son of a cleaning woman would have some education.

Now… Romans had no love for the lower classes. You can imagine a bunch of patricians saying this as their servants all joined the Church. “Plebs! Who wants to follow a carpenter?” It is assumed that Mark was writing for Gentile Converts. They would have understood class biases differently than the Jewish followers of the Messiah. Perhaps, in that light, we can better hear these comments about uneducated workmen.

Galatians 3:6 gives us one of Paul’s primary arguments, citing Genesis 15:6. It’s Abram’s trust in God – not anything that he does – that is accounted to him as Righteousness. Protestants would later turn this into “doing anything doesn’t matter at all”. Of course, Abram (later, Abraham) did a lot of things while holding this trustful stance. In fact, most things he did after this were in faith. But a couple of times he pulled away from God and did things out of fear or trying to maintain his own sense of control and security. Yes, even being accounted righteous, it is possible to act outside of the Trust in God. This is what I said in an earlier post. There is only one sin – a lack of faith, a lack of connection with God.

And so Jesus, confronted with the lack of faith in his townsmen, can do no deeds of power there: their lack of faith prevents God from acting. This is also curious. God certainly acts in the scriptures in many places where the people are showing a lack of faith. But, really, those actions are perceived as acts of judgment against the lack of faith. So Jesus is not prevented from doing something by the lack of faith, but rather because of the lack of faith he knows if he acts, it will be perceived as Judgement and Justice rather than love. The divine fire always burns – but in faith we welcome it. In a lack of faith we run away.

Jesus is not powerless – as if faithlessness is Kryptonite. Rather, Jesus holds back the divine presence because, without faith, the fire of God is terrifying. This is an act of mercy.

More, as Pope St John Paul II points out in Laborem Exercens (especially in section 26), God has had a job, a regular Job, doing things. When we do things in our job it’s possible to enter into a deeper communion with God, as we do what he does. The Builder of the Universe is a builder of houses. He pitched his tent among us and built us an eternal home. Doing our job, honestly and fully, is an action as full of faith as Peter’s walk. Keep your eyes on Jesus. In the end, since God has done it, even our death is only a further union with him.

Glory to Jesus Christ forever.