
Ask anybody what Jesus of Nazareth did for a living, and nearly all of us will say, “Oh, he was a carpenter.”
More precisely Jesus was a
So he was what we’d nowadays call a contractor.
Yeah, most of you already knew Jesus was a rabbi. Even those of who who responded, “He’s a carpenter.”
So why is everyone’s first response typically, “Ooh! Ooh! Carpenter!” Because it’s kinda obvious he’s a teacher, but “carpenter” feels like more of a trivia question—“Okay, what was Jesus of Nazareth’s little-known vocation? What’d he do for a living? ’Cause the teaching didn’t pay.” Actually it did pay: Rabbis took donations. Usually of food; sometimes of money, sometimes free labor. Some of Jesus’s followers included the women who financially contributed to his teaching,
But “Jesus was a carpenter” actually comes from the statement the folks of his hometown made to belittle him: “Hey, why’re we even listening to this guy? Isn’t he just the handyman?” It’s exactly the same as if the pastor of your church invites a guest speaker to preach, and instead of it being some famous bible scholar it’s the janitor… and the janitor presents you with a truth so challenging, so contrary to your beliefs (yet entirely biblical!), your knee-jerk response is to find any excuse at all to demean him, so you pick on his blue-collar job. “Who’s this guy? Who does he think he is?”
Subtly, a lot of
Regardless, “rabbi” is maybe the second thing we list on Jesus’s résumé. Sometimes we remember “king”—when we’ve not presumed that’s merely his future job, and doesn’t apply yet.
Well. I use this example of “Jesus was a carpenter” to point out how frequently
Ironically this is exactly what a rabbi does for a living: Train students to ask such questions. And we, Jesus’s present-day students, need to ask these questions.
Jesus our rabbi.
Christians tend to think of rabbis as the Jewish equivalent of pastors or
Hold the phone:
No. If you think so, you’re kinda proving the point of this article. Here’s what Jesus himself says.
Matthew 5.17-20 KJV - 17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Yeah, various Christians and churches claim “till all be fulfilled” happened when Jesus died for our sins. Again, not so. ’Cause Jesus ordered his followers to teach everything he commanded them,
Yes,
No, this isn’t what a lot of Christians teach either! Again, that’s the problem. People don’t know what Jesus teaches. Nor do they care. They just wanna do their own thing
If we’re gonna call ourselves Jesus’s followers, if we’re gonna deem ourselves his current students, we need to know this sort of stuff. We need to know what Jesus really teaches. Not assume we know it ’cause we grew up Christian. Or ’cause we read the gospels once. We gotta look at his teachings. Study ’em. Study ’em again. And again and again and again. We’ve gotta let him correct our thinking. ’Cause we’re wrong and he’s right.
Read the gospels.
In 1900, editor Louis Klopsch published an edition of the bible where Jesus’s every direct quote was in red ink. Since
We Christians need to get particularly familiar with these “red letters.”
Not that the rest of the bible is unimportant! It is; direct quotes from our L
(Yeah, there’s a Christian Left group with that title. You don’t have to join them if you’d rather not. Just follow Jesus.)
There are a lot of things Christians claim are Jesus’s priorities. But if we wanna learn his true priorities, we’re gonna have to read the gospels. And follow them. (Spoiler: Jesus talks about God’s kingdom an awful lot. Turns out it’s a massive priority for him. He is its king after all.)
On a frequent basis, I post articles about the gospels on TXAB. Usually weekly. Sometimes more often. In fact it’d be ridiculously easy to turn TXAB into gospel blog, where all I post is bible passages with commentary. Jesus’s teachings should be just that central to our lives. But there are a lot of other subjects meant to facilitate following Jesus, so I gotta get to them too. Bear with me.
But let’s start with those red letters. ’Cause it makes no sense to “follow” Jesus, yet know neither what he said nor meant.

