Christ as a Worker

God’s idea of Paradise included work. God created man with a view toward work (Genesis 2:15; 4:2). God never told man to do anything that was not best for him (Deuteronomy 6:24). Man needs meaningful work to complete his life (Ecclesiastes 2:24; 5:18-20). God didn’t need a gardener; man needed a garden to tend.

Jesus gave dignity to honest labor as He worked as a carpenter. Jesus was a carpenter, a son of a carpenter (see Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:55). The Greeks and Romans despised manual labor giving it to slaves. Carpentry was considered “demeaning” (Cicero, What Life Was Like When Rome Ruled The World: The Roman Empire 100 BC – 200 AD, p. 92). It was into this time and culture that God became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ, my all in all, “being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7-8).

Jesus knew how to rest and how to work. There must be a balance. Jesus was not a workaholic nor was he a slacker. The seriousness of work is described for us in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 in which those who will not work are to be withdrawn from because they are walking “disorderly.” Idleness results in waste, boredom and want, but the Lord is not calling us in 2 Thessalonians 3 to be “workaholics.” Vacation and rest refreshes us for the work God has given us. Jesus and the Apostles took rest: “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31; NKJV).

The great need of the hour: A rediscovery of the joy of the harvest! God would have us rejoice in our labor (Ecclesiastes 3:10-13)! Once a man has lost any sense of the meaningfulness of his work, he will not longer do good work. Perhaps there is nothing more meaningless than work done apart from the Lord (Ecclesiastes 2:17-23). Perhaps too much of a distinction is made between “secular” and “sacred” work. In his book, The God of the Towel, Jim McGuiggan expressed it this way: “A job isn’t secular because you do it with your hands. A ministry isn’t holy because you minister in holy things. A job is sacred or secular depending on the heart” (96). When “life under the sun” is lived in Him, in Christ, our all in all, labor is elevated from a position of senseless servility to a plateau of sacred service (Colossians 3:23-24; Ephesians 6:5-9)! Life in Him gives glory to the grind! The Disciple of Christ should be an exemplary worker because a disciple follows his master in every walk of life. If we can keep before our minds the constant conviction that the common work we do is being done to the glory of God, that which men call menial will continue to hold for us great meaning.

Jason Cicero