Read 1 Peter 2:4-8 and Ephesians 2:19-22
Prior to the Roman occupation, Israel was a rural culture. They were farmers, shepherds, vinedressers, cultivated olive groves and made things to be sold in the local markets. Their wealth was in their land. However, with the Romans came high taxes, which necessitated many having to sell land that had been in the family for generations, develop marketable skills and move to where the work was.
Jesus’s family had its ancestral roots in Bethlehem, the City of David. However, by his birth Joseph and Mary had moved north to Nazareth where in the nearby city of Sepphoris, Rome was building a modern city with a theater and gymnasium. Most likely both Joseph and Jesus worked construction to pay taxes and support the family.
Mark 6:3 tells us that Jesus was a tekton. In our English Bibles this is translated “carpenter,” however, it actually means “a skilled builder or craftsman.” In Israel, the primary building of homes and structures was not wood, but rocks and stones. Jesus was most likely a stonemason.
As a stonemason, Jesus was skilled in how to shape rocks so they would fit together to become something functional. He could look at a rock and see what needed to be done to make it fit. Everything was aligned and united with the building’s cornerstone so it stood straight and strong. With strength and skill, He created an inhabitable structure with the very rocks He created.
In Matthew 16:18, when Jesus called Simon, “Peter,” which means “rock,” He knew exactly what He could do in Peter’s life to shape him to perfectly fit the anchoring cornerstone of His own life and purpose. He was intent on building a temple and a kingdom fitting God Almighty. According to Ephesians 2:20, Peter and the other early believers became the foundational layer on which other living stones have been added. Jesus is still shaping “rocks” - hard hearts and hard heads. He shapes each of us not to stand alone, but to fit together in harmony as one in Christ. “Joined together and rising to become a holy temple in the Lord ... being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Stonemasons didn’t just construct buildings. They were also employed to fit stones together to make roads that united the Roman Empire. 2000 years later some of those roads still exist. Jesus is laying an even more important road: one that transverses the entire world to bring mankind to the Father. Jesus extends to us the opportunity to be a part of creating “a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3
Making It Personal
How does thinking of Jesus as a stonemason give you a fresh perspective on Jesus?
The world is full of uncut stones: many caked with dirt and all different shapes and sizes.
What does it mean to you to look at people as Christ sees them?
What Jesus builds always fits together. If it stands alone, it not His workmanship! How might He be shaping your life to fit more graciously with others so together you serve and glorify the Father?
Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6). What does it mean to you that He may be using you as a strategically cut and placed stone in “a highway for our God”?
Through the Day Challenge
Pay attention to how the Lord is shaping you today, as well as how you saw others being shaped by Him.
