What does Joseph have to teach Jesus?

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“And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom.
And the favor of God was upon him.”
Luke 2:40 English Standard Version

Whereas it seems that mothering comes easy for many women (I know there are those of you who will dispute this statement), for the majority of us guys, fatherhood does not come quite so easily.

We could probably argue the various reasons for this phenomenon. It might be the confusing role of dad in today’s culture (disciplinarian, buddy, chief homework guy), or laziness (“Hey! Mom is better at changing diapers than I am.”). Joseph’s struggles were unique.

How do you father the Son of God?  

Joseph had something to teach his Son. He taught him how to be a carpenter. Because of the scarcity of trees in and around Nazareth there are those who believe that Joseph’s skill was being a stone mason. And it is this skill that he passed on to Jesus.

Being the sinless Son of God didn’t mean that he knew how to do everything. There is nothing sinful about cutting a rock incorrectly (at least I don’t think so).

If Jesus learned the skill of carpentry from his father, are we willing to learn the skill of life from Jesus?

No one can teach us what it means to truly live as Jesus can teach us. There might have been a few painful lessons for Jesus to learn from his stepdad about carpentry. There are painful things that we need to learn about life (like picking up our cross and following Jesus). But who better to teach us than Jesus himself.

And where do we learn about life? We learn about life from the book that, from beginning to end, points to the baby born for us.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner