Just a Carpenter

Meditation
Mark 6:2,3—When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom given to Him, and how are these miracles performed by His hands?  Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t His sisters here with us?” So they were offended by Him.
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Sometimes the obvious is what keeps us oblivious.  We are astonished because our minds cannot comprehend how normal transforms to supernatural.  Wisdom offends us because our own understanding is somehow insufficient.  A man who by occupation is justa carpenter with normal brothers and sisters certainly cannot be the Messiah.  Therefore, what offends us we crucify with gusto easily mustered when our conventional reasoning is threatened.

·  In our community the son of a carpenter became a carpenter; we watched him grow up therefore, he cannotbe the Son of God.
·   A carpenter cannotredeem anything beyond wood.
·  A carpenter has no businessdebating theology with religious leaders and certainly lacks the credentials one should have before teaching in the synagogue. 
·   A carpenter should not be ableto perform miracles—he must be tricking us.

Rationalism is “the principle or habit of accepting reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief, or conduct.”[1]  When we determine our theology on the basis of rational thought immediately we have replaced God as the Supreme Authority with our minds. To do so is to deify the god of obvious and by so doing we miss the Savior because He was in our minds just a carpenter.

What makes the resurrection of One who was just a carpenter so incredible is that it is so inexplicable.  Jesus told His followers what would happen to Him and they still did not believe it or understand when it came to pass.  Their reasoning was clouded until confronted with His resurrected body.  This ought to help us understand why salvation is only possible as the Holy Spirit opens the minds of people and convicts them of sin as we see in John 16:8. 

Paul wrote, “I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). Today let us pray thatour Father will always protect us from what seems obvious so that we might know and communicate clearly with others the miraculous . . . something to think about . . . in reveration!
 
Inspiration
There is only one place where we are right, and that is in Christ Jesus.--Oswald Chambers inMy Utmost For His Highest
 


[1]http://www.dictionary.com/browse/rationalism?s=t