Is Not This?
Is not this the carpenter? (Mark 6:3)
Mark 6:1-6; John 1:11; John 12:48
What Is God Saying?
It was not strange that the people of His village did not accept Him. They knew Him so well that they didn't know Him. They said, ‘Anyone who grew up in our village and played with our children and worked in his father's woodshop can't be all that wise or have the power to work miracles. Something is wrong here. He is a carpenter. We've known him for years.’ Jesus Himself said, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his kin and in his own house’ (Mark 6:5). It is possible to know a multitude of facts about Jesus and miss the essential facts of who He is and why He came. The result of their knowing Him too well was that He could do no mighty work there. Unbelief is not a trivial weakness or a mild annoyance. It is powerful. Here, it stayed the hand of God. Never underestimate the power of unbelief. Nothing can subdue it, but faith in who Jesus is and what He can do.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Many people have attended Sunday School lessons, listened to sermons, and faithfully read their Bibles so often that they risk becoming overfamiliar with the Sublime. In prayer today, we need to ask the Spirit of God to keep us from knowing more about Jesus and less about why He came, who He is, and how much He can do for us and in us.
Pray With Me
Lord, keep me from knowing more about You if it keeps me from knowing You more. May You never become an object of academic interest or the subject of an interesting debate. Help me to go beyond such facts as Your earthly occupation, Your place of residence, and even the things You did. Lead me to the wonder of who You are and the discovery of what You want to accomplish in me.
The people of Your boyhood knew You only as a carpenter. Over familiarity kept them from the more significant discovery. The glory of Your divine perfection blinded them. God forbid I should ever come to know so much about You that I fail to worship what in You is beyond my comprehension. Yes, You were the Carpenter. You knew the stress of daily work. Yours was the calloused hand, molded to the plane handle and saw. You knew the ache of a long-bent back. You understood the importance of a straight line and a clean cut. You knew the strength of good wood and could bring out its beauty.
Carpenter of Nazareth, You are more. I pray that You will fashion my soul until it is fit for Your heavenly dwelling. By the miracle of Your forgiving and restoring grace, make my life useful to God and man.
In Your name, O Carpenter, Builder of life divine. Amen.
Moving On In The Life Of Prayer
We must never cease looking upon Jesus with breathless wonder. When John, in Revelation, saw Him "as the sun shining in full strength and fell at His feet as though dead," he was face to face with the very power and glory of God. He was not confronted by someone who was just one of us as if He were a well-known carpenter in the village. He was that but much more and other.
As one of us, He can do the compassi0nate thing. He understands. As the Son of God, He can do the impossible. Isn't that why we pray in His name? We pray to One who is forever beyond us and yet a very present help in trouble. We pray to One who not only cares but who also can.
