Why Was Jesus a Carpenter?

This is a question you probably haven't thought too much about.  If we give it some thought, however, I believe the reasons Jesus was a carpenter might teach us something.

There's a very good reason you didn't think about it.  Its barely talked about by Christians, and its barely written about by gospel writers.  The fact is only mentioned.  But for almost two decades Jesus was a carpenter as His profession.  He spent more time building houses than preaching, healing, prophesying and saving the whole world from sin.  That could be because He is Son of God, and He could do all of the latter with ease.  Being the world's Savior is no problem, considering who He is.  Let us think a little, while we're at it, why Jesus was a carpenter.

Joseph was a carpenter.  It certainly is no coincidence that Joseph, being the earthly adoptive father of Jesus, was a carpenter, and Jesus was a carpenter.  There is something to the fact that Jesus chose to do what his earthly father did.  I can come up with three general reasons a person does what their father does as a profession.  1) A person really loves the profession of their father.  2) A person does not have the ability to venture outside of the family business; either doesn't have the courage, or the know-how, or the means.  3) A person is indifferent to their profession, and chooses to do what their father does as a sort of default profession.  In other words, venturing outside of the family business is too much of a bother and not worth the trouble.  Which of the three do you think describes Jesus?  We can say pretty certainly that Jesus could have done anything He wanted to.  He did not choose to not venture outside the family business for lack of ability; He is the Son of God, afterall.  And I think its very unlikely that Jesus was passionate about carpentry.  No where in the gospels does He speak about it.  His apostles only mention it once.  There doesn't seem to be much passion about carpentry; and why would there be, when you have to compare it to changing water into wine?  That leaves indifference as the final option, and I believe this is the reason Jesus was a carpenter.  He was indifferent to His choice of profession.

You may wonder why I'm writing about this, but there really is something to learn from this.  I already said that Jesus was probably indifferent to His choice of profession.  In other words, He didn't care what He did, so He simply did what His father did.  Why does that matter?  Well, it is the opposite of almost everybody today.  Think about the average person in America.  How often do you hear people talk about what they "want to do with their life"?  The implication is always some kind of profession.  Do I want to be a painter, a plumber, or a pilot?  Do I want to push a pencil, wear a hardhat, or enlist in the Navy?  That sort of thing.  To so many people, it seems the most important thing in life is profession.  But was His profession the most important thing in Jesus' life?  Of course not.  Quite the opposite.  His profession was very far down the list; so hardly important, it got only one verse (Mark 6:3) in the New Testament.  As Christians, what does this teach us?  To not be like the world.  The world puts emphasis on "what you do".  It is the world that tries to demean your life to the level of profession, as if you have nothing more important to be ambitious for.  Really, think about it: how pathetic is it for a person's highest ambition to be a certain profession?  I don't mean to insult anyone, and I'm sorry if it comes across that way.  But we really must understand just how unimportant a job or profession is.  The apostles hardly ever talked about what they did to sustain themselves.  Paul built tents, and it certainly wasn't because Paul loved tents.  He only built tents to provide himself with income, and he provided himself with income because he really wanted to be spreading the gospel.  So Paul might have said, in response to the question, "what do you do?", "I build tents, but that's not what I really do.  What I really do is spread the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus, and build churches all over the Roman Empire."

Now, someone might say, "what if God decided to have Joseph be a carpenter, and so He really did choose to be a carpenter afterall."  That very well could be the case.  Jesus might have been indifferent to His profession and simply did what Joseph did, but since God is in control of everything, including the profession of Joseph, God may have predestined the fact that Jesus was a carpenter.  What then could be the reason for Jesus being a carpenter and not something else?  Let your imagination run wild.  I can't give a definite answer as to why God might have specifically chosen carpentry.  I've done a little carpentry, and I don't see anything special about it.  However, I do see good reason in God choosing a profession that was common, dirty, and hard work.  Jesus is the man that we can all relate to.  What good would it be if Jesus was a lawyer?  How easy is it to relate to lawyers?  Or if Jesus was one of the religious elite, or even a member of the Sanhedrin, how would that jive with His teaching of an upside-down world - the first will be last, and the last will be first?  Jesus blessed the poor.  He blessed the meek.  And His being a carpenter, both poor and meek Himself, was a blessing to the poor, the meek, the common man.  His teaching is the kind of teaching that can only be given by a humble carpenter.  Imagine a wealthy and powerful Pharisee saying, "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your reward" (Luke 6:24).  Or, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24).  That just would not work; it would make Jesus a hypocrite.  And could you imagine Jesus calling out the Pharisees and teachers of the law, like He did in Matthew 23, if He were of a similar status as them?  Certainly not.  There is much to be said of the fact that Jesus came as a humble carpenter.  And you might draw some analogies there too.