Our jobs play an important role in our lives. After all, our jobs and the work we do take up at least a third of our lives.
Thus, we need God to teach us how to work. Today, we want to ask ourselves about the work of Jesus, the carpenter and Saviour of the world.
(A) Jesus dignifies humble work (Matt 13:53-58)
In Matthew 13:53-58, we see Jesus teaching in the synagogues. The people who heard Jesus’ teachings did not believe Him and were not impressed by Him. Sometimes, we think that if we heard Jesus, we would be able to believe Him immediately and all would go well but this shows us that this is not quite the case.
The Nazarites did not believe that Jesus was anything more that what they already knew Him to be. After all, they already knew so much about Him — He’s the carpenter’s son whose mother is Mary and his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas (Matt 13:55). They assumed that carpenters are not versed in the Scriptures, unlike rabbis who are trained in them.
Therefore, what were they assuming about the prophet of God and the work of God? What assumptions are being unearthed here? They had expectations of pedigree, status of this Messiah. And did they not expect anything good to come out of Nazareth, even the people of Nazareth.
Notice that they were astonished at his teaching (Matt 13:54). They therefore acknowledge that His teaching was good, but they could not square it with His background. As Mark 6:3 also tells us, Jesus was a carpenter. How can one who is a carpenter teach like Him? The mistake they made was to think that carpentry is not the work of God. Why else would a carpenter be disqualified from speaking on behalf of the Almighty.
What are your assumptions about the Jesus you claim to follow and worship? Is the Jesus you worship too philosophical? Is He not as He actually is? Is He not blue-collar enough? Is your idea of a Saviour too white-collar, too PMET, too achievement-defined? Would it be ok with you to think for a moment that when we kneel before Him, we kneel before one who may not even have our equivalent of an ITE certification? Can you worship Him?
From the opening verses, we are reminded that we should not overlook the dignity and goodness of humble work. Jesus, after all, worked quietly for 30 years, in what theologians called “the hidden years” because we have nothing recorded for us. All we know is that He worked as a carpenter! Our Saviour worked for more years as a carpenter than as an “itinerant teacher”. God thought that that was right and saw it fit, to fulfil all righteousness, that Jesus would do vocational work with HIs hands in repetitive, unimpressive, localised, non-globally distributed, non-optimised work. That pleased HIs Father.
Christianity is not a religion of spirit. The Ancient Greeks taught through Plato and other philosophers that the body is corrupt and deficient and the life of the mind, spirit, thought, philosophy, art, politics is better than the life of the body. Christianity is not like that. When God made all things, He declared it all very good.
In 1 Timothy 4:3-5, we read of Paul speaking against those who advocated for abstaining from foods and forbidding marriage. Paul says that God created these things to be received with thanksgiving, as “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim 4:4-5).
Thus, in the Christian faith, we ought not to think that material things and the work of our hands are somehow deficient, corrupt and should be avoided. Christianity also does not teach that life of the mind is superior above all other things. The Saviour of Christianity came and was a carpenter. In so doing, He dignifies humble work. Let us not be like the Nazerites who made this basic mistake and thought that the work of God only consists of spiritual things, or is only for those of certain standing.
Do we think that some types of work are inherently better? If you are a nurse, or an artisanal craftsman, or involved in manufacturing, there is dignity in basic work because Jesus worked through His hands.
(B) Jesus’ work truly redeems and restores (Jn 5:1-18)
In this next part of our study, we turn to an account in Jesus’ ministry in John 5:1-18. We are told that he has been there for a long time (“thirty-eight years”, Jn 5:5) but that’s about it. We know more about the place that he was found. He was at a pool that seemed to be like a healing pool. Healing happens when they are put into the pool when water is stirred (Jn 5:7). Yet, for this man, he thinks he’s too slow and didn’t have anyone to help him. No one is going to work for him to get healed. He sees the pool and its opportunity, but he can’t get served to get healed.
Jesus consciously acts on behalf of the man (Jn 5:8-18). First, notice what Jesus does not do. He does not do anything with the pool This is the startling thing. This man thinks he understands what he needs — to be put into the pool to get well. Jesus knows his real need and comes asking if he wants to get well (Jn 5:6). And He doesn’t give it to him in the way the man expects to be healed. Jesus has no interest in reinforcing this man’s understanding of what he thinks he need. We think we know what we need in our lives and we go to Him with our lists and requests. And Jesus says none of that, and gives us what we really need.
What does Jesus tell him? Jesus tells him to get up, take his bed and walk (Jn 5:8). It’s such a straightforward and direct imperative, as if he could always do it.
Think about the dignity of those words. Who is doing it? The man! He could because he trusts the man who commands him. There is an act of faith that’s reflected in the dignity of the compliance of the person who is doing it.
Notice also that after he does that, Jesus disappears (Jn 5:1-13). This might surprise us! Friends, let’s also remember that when we read we may be surprised by Jesus and His actions! He doesn’t always act in the way we think He will!
Yet, Jesus is not done with this man because He finds him in the temple later and draws his attention to why everything is broken in the first place — because of sin (Jn 5:14). What is the implication here? Christianity is never just about the material. It is so much more than just the material. If we walk away thinking that Jesus is the great Healer to allow us to live the full life on earth, we would have missed the point of His ministry. Jesus dies at the end of His ministry. The healing that Jesus performs is to reinforce the message He is proclaiming. The works of Jesus is meant to confirm the words of Jesus. The healings and miracles of the New Testament are not very impressive. They are impressive only insofar as they bear witness to the teachings of Jesus. Sin has wrecked our world as we read in the previous study on Genesis 3. Just open the newspapers and we see it played out at all levels of our lives as we seek to be God in place of God.
Jesus points out to the man that his biggest need is his debt before God and calls him to pay attention to where he stands before a holy God. Our greatest need is not that we are invalids by a pool. The brokenness of our body, relationships, and even our jobs, are reminders that all is not well in this broken world and we are not yet at peace with God.
Do you have a sin debt that we need to deal with tonight? Do you know peace with a holy God? If not, hear these words: sin no more, turn from sin and turn to God!
There is also another problem. Jesus healed on the Sabbath (Jn 5:10) The lawfulness of the healing is being called into question here. The Sabbath was commanded by God as day of rest, since God also rested. God’s people were to live out a pattern of work and rest too, and in doing so, lived distinctly from those around them. If you keep and working and never rest, you are living in the opposite design of the Sabbath principle. Young people live with the illusion that we can live on and on. We may be afraid to sleep because we fear that when we sleep, the world will fall apart. Sleep can feel like a bad use of time. The God of the Bible tells us that we are never designed to keep working, and rest is important. It is our holy duty as a creature to rest! Do you rest? Are you living as the Creator, and not the Creature?
But in Jesus’ day, the religious teachers were trying to enforce a certain idea of rest. They were upset with the man for picking up his bed (Jn 5:11). The Sabbath principle was originally meant for our good, but in the hands of the religious leaders, it became something that it was not meant to be! John 5:10 implies that they wanted him to get back down, never mind that he was healed!
The religious leaders were not aware of the basic intent of Jesus’ work. Jesus’ work was the work of the Son to redeem and restore. We see it in John 5:17 from Jesus’ own mouth. In the healing of this man, the work of Jesus was to restore him to fullness and to restore him to God. The religious leaders failed to see and understand it.
(C) Jesus is achieving God’s plan to renew all things (Jn 5:19-29)
Jesus explains the Father and Son’s relationship in John 5:19-20. The Father and the Son are both working. Sometimes, we tend to think of God as just sitting in the sky as a “do-nothing” God. Do you think of God at work, even now? John 5:17 insists that the Father is working now, and that is why Jesus is working!
In John 5:19, we see that there’s some synchrony and correspondence between the work of the Father and Son. This work is not done by instruction but by imitation. In fact, in some societies, the family name is a reflection of their work — “Cook”, “Smith” etc. Jesus describes His own work in relation to the Father’s in this way.
What is their relationship like? It is not a cold apprenticeship. Jesus doesn’t do things just because He has too. From John 5:20, we see that the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that needs to be done. The work of the Son is imitating the Father, who teaches, revealed and blessed by the Father. The Father has a lot of stake in the work of the Son! The work of the Father, revealed to the Son is performed by the Son in obedience. We should not think that the “do nothing” God does not care about His work. God is the God who works actively, the Father and the Son in great synchrony, intention, purpose, blessing, joy and hope. God is so invested in His work that He wants to do good work! Have you considered that the things that God sets Himself to will not only not fail, but will never be bad?
Jesus goes on to speak about “greater work” in John 5:21-29. The Father has revealed some things for the Son to do, and the Father and Son are working to do these things. We can pick out four things from John 5:24-29:
Speaking words of life
Resurrection
Judgment
Honour
The authority to bring forth life and to sustain life that never ends has been given to the Son to discharge. The Son has the ability to speak and give life, just like in Genesis 1. This life is salvation life, resurrection life that comes from raising the dead (Jn 5:25-26). When the dead face judgment, the Son will be the one who judges on behalf of the Father (Jn 5:28). The Son receives honour as a result of the work.
Now, this narrative began with the healing of the invalid. He wasn’t supposed to be healed on the Sabbath and this provoked a discussion about whether work on the Sabbath is allowed. Jesus goes on to say that God is at work on the Sabbath, therefore, He is at work too, bringing about healing and to restore people to the fullness of life. This is what Jesus is about.
Do you see the healing and salvation as the same work or different works? Put another way, Jesus is a carpenter who works with His hands and then also heals Him. Yet in the cosmic sense, Jesus also says that He will save. Is it one work or multiple works? What kind of a worker is Jesus? Perhaps, it is all one work? Jesus has been doing one thing the entire time! He is making all things new.
We have tended to cut up Christianity into bits that are relevant to us and ignore some of the other bits that we don’t think are relevant. We like salvation and the idea of heaven, but think of it as some form of escape. But this is the view that gives us a “do-nothing” God who does nothing and is not interested in this world. In this view, work is undignified and we may not believe that God is here to restore and renew this world!
But this is not the Jesus that we see here, who heals the invalid but also calls forth the dead to life. When we trust in Him, eternal life is not life later, but right now, as Jesus Himself says in John 17:3. Jesus desires that we know God that we may enter into life and the fullness of life that God desires. He is making all things new right now, beginning with you and I, so that our hopes will not be in pools, but that we will really experience Sabbath rest. Jesus’ work is finished, so we can rest.
The good news of Jesus is that He comes to deal with our sins. In living and dying on the cross and being raised, we too, might have a way back to God. Christian, your hope today is not to be beamed up to heaven. Your hope, right now, is that you have a restored relationship with God that is true when you go back to your workplace and whatever difficult situation He has placed you in. You don’t go back alone, but with the assurance and presence of God Himself! If you trust HIm, you are the vessel in which Jesus lives out this resurrection life in your workplace. How does this change the way you write the email or tackle the projects? How does it change the way you fear your boss or not? How about being a blessing to that difficult colleague? Can your hands be the hands of Jesus, or your voice be the voice of Jesus, doing God?
Jesus is achieving God’s plan to renew all things through His people, in our workplaces. The challenge now is whether or not instead of this, we will ask Him to let us get in the pool. Friends, we have a God who works for our good and the work of the world. His work is redemption and restoration. Will we be a part of God’s plan to renew all things or are we just hoping for our personal self-gain, out of all the good He has promised?