Bulletin
Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper
I arrived at Nazareth by mistake in 2018. We rented a car and were driving up to Galilee to see Capernaum, but I took a wrong turn. So we ended up driving by Nazareth and stopped just in time to get in line of a tour that just started. A highly trained tour guide & one time girl scout, gave about 30 of us a great tour of the village. Recent excavations (2009 Dr. Yardenna Alexandre & Dr. Ken Dark’s more recent work), have added to our understanding of the first century village. Jesus and his step father (Joseph) were both carpenters (Mark 3:6, 13:55). But what does that first century word carpenter mean?
So let me edit and condense my $150 most up to date Greek Lexicon on this word. “(τέκτων)/Carpenter one who constructs, builder, carpenter… works with wood… signifies worker in stone.” So the word means “builder”, and this can be in either wood or stone. Recent archeological work in Nazareth tells us that this area, including Cana and Sepphoris, were busy at quarrying stone. Joseph nor Jesus would need to leave the local area to find work as builders.
Wouldn’t you like to possess something Jesus built, but not left in ruins, like 1st century Nazareth? Jesus gave us something more important and eternal than quarried stone. He built something that will last, because he is eternal. He built a community of people who see Jesus for who he was, is, and will be. Peter came to understand something about Jesus.
“Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (Matt. 16:18). The church built by Jesus endures beyond the grave.
The church is built to strengthen the character of Christ in each disciple. “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Cor. 3:11). What we see in Jesus, as we read the Bible, we struggle to put that into practice in our own lives. Becoming like Jesus is both the means and the goal. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). If we want to get to the Father in heaven, we get there becoming like Jesus “in truth”. It is time to self-reflect. How much of Jesus have I put in me? Do I love like he practiced? Do I put God first like he did? Is the Christ in me, like the ruins of first century Nazareth? Or is he building a better character in my life? Do I care more for people like he did? Let us dig deep, and build our lives on his words and his practice. Dan Peters
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