A Little Holiday Sermon

A Man Called Jesus…..

With Christmas right around the corner and most of the holiday remembers Jesus as the Christ, the Savoir in Christian beliefs. A symbol, of one of the two Persons, that is a part of the Holiday celebration. Christmas has a double meaning in Christian religion.

For now, lets leave the religious part of Christmas aside and look to just the person that was known as Jesus of Nazareth, as just a Man. An every day average person of his time in the world.

For Jesus, in the Roman times of his upbringing, lived the simple life of a Carpenters son, that as an adult, after the passing of Joseph, the man chosen by God to be his earthly father, he too worked as a Carpenter. Skilled in the teachings of the Hebrew religion, the Torah, also known as The Law, Jesus was a kind and hard working Man. At times, others mocked Jesus for the contract of making cross top portions of the Crosses the Romans used for their punishment of Crucifixion. As well as the skilled Craftsman he was in the contracts for other items for him to build. Through his passive and compassionate life, Jesus did not let it be personal to him, when others where he lived would mock him. It was a hard time in those days to earn a living that could take care of your family with the constant increases of Taxes, imposed by the Romans. Nazareth was a Farming and fishing community, farming of grains and olives, fishing from the Galilean Sea. We know from the Bible that Jesus, after his birth until age 12 lived with his parents in Egypt. Then from age 12 to 30, called the missing years, today’s scholars are now trying to piece the life of Jesus during those years. Jesus would have seen atrocities committed by the Romans during those years.

It has been taught that Jesus, a skilled Carpenter, took his work with care and sincerity. He would not allow one piece of what he built with his hand’s leave his shop until he was satisfied that he would provide the best made product he could build. He strove for satisfaction over pride in his work. Though Jesus was not of a poor family, in today’s world, a blue-collar family. And the Bible mentions that he has siblings, at least 4 named brothers and 2 unnamed sisters. The bible also speaks of Joseph at least up to age 12 and then he is no longer mentioned. So, Scholars are in thought that Joseph died sometime after Jesus taught, or one could say debated or spoke with learned members of the Synagogue when he was 12 year old. If so, Jesus became the Man of the House and the caretaker of his family with his mother. This could be why we know very little of those years, but, we can look at what today’s scholars believe may be, those years are filled with the need to take care of his family as he prepares for his later life as Teacher, Rabbi. Beginning the process of withdrawing from his family to begin his preaching and travels. Preparing his brothers to take over the family business in the craft of Carpentry.

We should not only look at what is taught about Jesus and Christmas during this Holiday season, but to look at the Man that Jesus was as well. If there were no religious factors of such great importance for us to remember about him, what about the Man himself. What we do know of him still has the basics of a good man, a loving man. A Man who loved his family and stepped up at a time when needed for his family with the loss of his earthly father.

Let this thought go to heart that Jesus, not just Christ the Savior for the Christian beliefs and the significance of his birth but also the man Jesus was before he began his ministry, be looked at as how just one man lived his life for the service of others.