The Master Carpenter

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131an Re-Written 04APR09

Save Me Today—Part Forty: The Master Carpenter

by rev dave c

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Mt 10:37&38). These passages from Matthew, combined with Luke 9:23 and 14:27, make it clear that if we are to be disciples of Christ, we must surrender our lives in, and to, the death that He died once for all. According to Romans 12:1 we join in the sufferings of our Savior by the daily offering of our lives to Him as a living sacrifice. This surrender to His death is not a symbolic act of ritual, nor is its reality like the substitution of bread and wine for Christ’s body and blood during Holy Communion. Rather, it is a literal submission to our own death as we daily carry the burden of the very instrument of our dying within full public view. This is the true confession of our faith and beliefs. All men are to die once, then face God’s righteous judgment (He 9:27). The difference in death for the Christian disciple is the willingness to give up life voluntarily today so that others might live (Jn 15:13).

Listen to Paul’s heart as expressed in Romans 9:3, ...I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race (NIV). Let the implication of what Paul is communicating really soak in—your hand has to go to your mouth as you shake your head in amazement. The Apostle to the Gentiles is saying that, if it were possible, he would accept eternal damnation if that meant Jews would recognize and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. These same Jews were out to silence Paul in any fashion at their disposal...including murder. God eventually approaches each of us with the question, “Are you willing to actually lay down your life for your family? For your friends? For the Kingdom?” At some point, however, I believe that we are also asked, “Are you willing to die for people you don’t like? People who have wronged you? For those who hate you? Are you willing to die for the wicked and truly evil?” This is the cross to which Jesus stumbled in unimaginable suffering and misery. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Ro 5:6-8; NIV).

In Second Corinthians 1:3-5 we read, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. Matthew 11:28-30 is a record of Jesus offering this assurance, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (ref. Je 6:16; NIV). As a friend of mine pointed out, there is at least a visual resemblance between the crossbeam carried by a person condemned to crucifixion, and the wooden yoke placed upon the shoulders of an animal used to plow the earth. The difference being that a yoke is generally shaped and smoothed to actually fit the shoulders of the ox consigned to pull the plow so that discomfort is minimized.

I see in this comparison at least two avenues of prayerful thought. Firstly, ever since the Fall, all of humanity must “work the ground” as a curse of painful toil (Ge 3); that is, life is full of struggles, and sin, and death. Along these lines, Jesus is saying, “Come, follow me. Although you will have to continue in the difficulties of this life for yet a while longer, know that the time is short and that I am with you always (Mt 28:20)—know that when the day comes to shed the earthen vessel of your body, you will be fully with Me and there will be no more trials, no more sufferings, and no more tears (Lu 23:43 & Ph 1:23).” This is both rest for our souls today in this life—and the promise of eternal rest from wearisome burdens in the next.

Secondly, as disciples are publicly marched toward death, the crossbeam that they are commanded to take up and carry through the streets of life has been shaped and smoothed by Jesus Christ, Himself, as He finished His earthly work of bearing our shame and transgressions upon the cross. If I am to be one of those disciples, if I am to live out the work of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, I must take up my cross daily and follow Him. This yoke is easy, and this burden is light because it has had the terrible weight of my sins and condemnation lovingly carved from it by the blood and the body of The Master Carpenter…Jesus of Nazareth.

Colossians 2:6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (NIV). Amen.