Jesus was a Workplace Minister
"Isn't this the carpenter ? Isn't this mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Mark. 6:3
In 2005, a movie entitled The passion was released that chronicled the last 24 hours of Jesus' life. During a flashback scene, Jesus was seen in His carpentry shop making a table as His mother stood by, playfully observing. It was a very beautiful scene that reminds us that Jesus was a carpenter for most of His adult life. In fact, most of the people in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth probabbly viewed Him as more qualified to be a carpenter than the Son of God, because that is the history they knew of this young working- class man.
Consider that in the New Testament, Jesus' 132 public appearances, 122 were in the marketplace. Of the 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. Of the 40 miracles recorded in the book of Acts, 39 occured in the marketplace. Jesus spent His Adult life as a carpenter until the age of 30, when He went into a preaching ministry in the workplace. And 54 percent of Jesus' reported teaching ministry arose out of issues posed by others within the scope of daily life experience . Saint Bonaventure said of Jesus, "His doing nothing wonderful (during His first 30 years) was in itself a kind of wonder."
Work, in its different forms, it mentioned more than 800 times in the Bible-more than all the words used to express worship, music, praise and singing combined. God created work, and he is worker. "My fahter is always at His work to this very day, and I too, am working" (John 5:17).
So the next time you are tempted to minimize your daily work as anything less than a holy calling, remember that Jesus was a workplace minister as a carpenter in His community. He has called you and me to likewise reflect His glory in our work.
-From TGIF.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment