My Boss Is a Carpenter?

First of all I hope all have had a great Memorial Day weekend. During my travels this weekend I happen to see a bumper sticker that said "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter."

I am not sure if it bothers others as much as it bothers me to see this bumper sticker or other versions of it that attempt to elude to the idea that the Messiah was both Jewish and a Carpenter. It's not just because I have never heard of a Jewish Carpenter ever in my life at all, but is because the Messiah was not Jewish by religion, nor Jewish by race as we know it today, or even a carpenter. Both of these facts can be proven by the bible and by history quite easily.

However, today I am only going to concentrate on the carpenter portion of this sticker for simplicity and brevity's sake.
The word carpenter according to the Strong's Concordance is "Tekton" #5045 which means an artificer, craftsman, one that makes things, or repairs things. The bible does not mention that he was a craftsman of wood working at all. It is quite probable he was a craftsman of stone, or we may call today a stone mason, as most things then were made of stone. Wood was a very rare commodity at that time. To say he worked with wood would be similar to saying he was a goldsmith.

Looking at it from the point of view that carpenter means craftsman we then look to the bible for more information. The only places in the bible that would even suggest that the Messiah was a carpenter is in a couple of verses that remotely suggest this when he was scoffed at and ridiculed by crowds of people. They are Mark 6:3 "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, an Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him." 
Also he was scoffed at by unbelievers in Matthew 13:55 "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?" There is no place that mentions carpenter without demeaning or scoffing the Messiah.

Putting this in proper context they were mocking and scoffing the Messiah by calling him the son of a carpenter. I know some will say that Joseph was his father and he was a carpenter. This would show their ignorance to think he was the Messiahs biological father. This fact is brought to light when the Mary and Joseph were looking for him when he was only 12. They found him in the synagogue talking to the elders in Luke 2:49 "And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" They did not understand that he was conducting his fathers business when they found him. His Fathers business was not carpentry, but rather his business was to be a kinsman redeemer for all of Israel.

One thing I wish all would take away from this is that if you call the Messiah a carpenter you are siding with the scoffers of that time.

Instead of being some random Jewish carpenter, what he really is is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that came to be the Kinsman redeemer of all Israel! Praise the Lord!