A carpenter is a master workman of wood. In Paul’s letter to what seems to be his favorite church, Ephesus, he writes that we are God’s workmanship, created in Him for good works which He prepared ahead of time for us to accomplish in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. The word that Paul uses for “workmanship” is where we get our word for “poem”. Jesus’ greatest poem was carved into the wood of Calvary as He released His Spirit into the atmosphere of the earth, birthing the New Creation Race who would flood the earth with the good works of His Kingdom. His poems release other poems.
Those who live as revolutionaries are etched into the annals of history because people follow and imitate them. Jesus is no different. The reason He is remembered is because He impacted the lives of 12 young men enough that they were willing to be killed after torture to spread His message of what He did. Who else can claim that people use their name as an expletive? No one! You don’t hear people going around “cussing” when they stub their toe saying “Oh, Hitler!” or “Michael Jordan, that hurt!” What you will find is that a movie loses its G-rating if just one time someone says “Jesus Christ!” Think about it, there is power in our words and people don’t know how to express themselves intelligently and so they use powerful words – a powerful Name in this case.
As the ultimate Revolutionary, Jesus’ followers were so enamored by His love for them that they rejoiced when they got to suffer for knowing Him. That is just plain odd, unless you know who this Brilliant wood poet was. His workmanship with the wood of the Cross so inspired a young man He nick-named “Rocky” (Simon Peter) that he was glad to also be crucified, but refused to do it in the same way and was thus crucified upside down. The Carpenter’s Cross-Poem inspired not dozens, not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of people to take up their cross daily. He daily inspires men to bare the momentary, light afflictions of life and share in His sufferings unto glory.
Far more glorious than His death is His resurrection. Jesus’ death was pointless apart from His rising from the grave. Why did the Father choose to raise Jesus from the dead? He did it because He was the perfect sacrifice, holy, blameless and unworthy of the wages of sin. He had not worked for sin, so sin could not pay Him any wages. Sin’s only resource with which to reward its servants is the currency of death. Jesus, had not worked for sin, but took sin’s money and bought back a bride. Jesus purchased for Himself the one thing that no one could give Him, a pure and spotless co-heir that He could love and cherish all the days of His eternal life. He had to go get her. He had to rescue her. He had to save her from the dragon. He had to show her who she truly is.
The carpenters in training found and find themselves now yearning to be and prepare this beloved bride for the Son of God. These apprentice carpenter poets make their lives love songs to their Carpenter King, purifying and sanctifying themselves not because He said they have to but because He released them to be able to. The apprentices lose their appetite for anything but that which makes them more like their King, the Master Wood-worker. As their hands are strengthened and they begin to bare the marks of their God, they find that the powerful works that the Nazarene did were their floor to build upon. They begin to step into the reality that they are to carve greater poems into the woodwork of their temple and that the reading of these would purify and multiply the Bride of their Beloved. And one day the Bride will be ready and she will sing a song with the Spirit, simply crying to Him, “Come!” And He will return, Kingdom in hand.
*Carpenter, carve Your Name on our hearts as You did our names on Your hands. Amen*
