Who Am I?
Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? Mark 6:3
Carpenter – Are you saddled with a history? Jesus was. It is quite common among human beings to refuse to believe any claim that stretches our past experience. This is particularly true when it comes to people. Once a felon, always a criminal. Once a bigot, always prejudiced.
In ancient near-eastern civilizations, a murderer was punished by strapping the dead body of his victim to his back. He had to carry the rotting corpse until it fully disintegrated. Needless to say, the punishment was very effective. That’s a good picture of most of us. We are strapped with this old man on our backs. We pass through life carrying a rotting corpse, the person we used to be. What the world sees is not the reborn believer, but the old dead corpse. So, the world does not believe. After all, those people you knew before your life in Christ still regard you as the person you once were. You were the joker, the jock, the princess, the prude, the nerd, the never-do-well, the prig or the pig. “Isn’t this the carpenter?” they proclaimed. Why should we listen to Him. We know all about Him. They didn’t believe Jesus and they won’t believe you. Until the resurrection.
The Greek word translated “carpenter” is broader than a man with a saw and hammer. Tekton is someone who is a craftsman, skilled in producing works of art from other materials. The same word is used for an artisan, a builder and an iron-worker. In this context, we discover another human identification assumption – you are what you do. How many times have you been identified with your work, as though that is all that really matters about you? Jesus knows what that feels like too. Once you have been pigeon-holed, it’s unlikely that anyone will think of you differently, especially if the difference is radical and redemptive.
In Nazareth, the crowd was convinced that Jesus was nothing more than that boy they used to see around the wood shop. Even His brothers and His mother (who should have known better) succumbed to this assumption. The people of your home town will have the same difficulties seeing the truth. They will want to keep you in their place, neatly labeled for convenient use. Only one thing will change their minds – resurrection.
Death is expected. Resurrection is not. A man reborn is overwhelming evidence of change. They didn’t believe Jesus until they saw Him on the other side of the grave. Keep that in mind when you are faced with skepticism. Dying to self is the necessary prerequisite to a change in identification – for you and for them.
