11 July 2010
A Blue Collar Man
07/11/10 08:23 PM Filed in: From the Pastor
“Jesus was a blue-collar man. He was born in a dung-infested sheep shed to peasant parents, and he grew up in his father’s carpenter shop.
As a consequence, he talked the language of common men, understood the life they lived, their little hardships, the things they had to contend with day after day.
He knew what it was like to struggle to make ends meet. He was old beyond his years, of necessity, for as the firstborn, he became the head of the family at an early age following his father’s untimely death.
Life wasn’t easy, the days were long, the work hard, and he learned to get by on meager fare.
On top of everything else, there was the prejudice – whispers about the legitimacy of his birth. He was a Jew is a Roman world, and a carpenter before it was recognized as a viable trade.
Granted there was royalty in his family tree, way back – and long since forgotten, of no interest now, except to the genealogists.
He was a blue-collar man, not a blue-blood. His hands were rough and calloused, familiar with hard work. He was a common man among common men. He lived where they lived…fishermen, tax collectors, shepherds, street vendors…and he loved them all, everyone, outcasts of all kinds…the untouchables…lepers, lunatics, Samaritans, street people, and women taken in adultery.
He was concerned about the kinds of things that concern common people – children, paying taxes, bread and fish when you’re hungry, running out of wine at your daughter’s wedding.
Other things too, that concern us all – like learning how to pray, not just words, but really communicating with God. And he talked a lot about loving each other, turning the other cheek, going the second mile.
He loved kids and crowds, celebrations and solitude, miracles and quiet meals with old friends. He was a blue-collar man, and he calls us to be blue-collar people too.
Not pseudo-intellectuals theorizing about human need. Not bleeding hearts trapped in sentimentality, but real, honest-to-goodness people, resolving human conflict, restoring shattered self-esteem, loving the loveless, and washing tired feet – even when there’s not one to watch.
Jesus was a blue collar man.”
As a consequence, he talked the language of common men, understood the life they lived, their little hardships, the things they had to contend with day after day.
He knew what it was like to struggle to make ends meet. He was old beyond his years, of necessity, for as the firstborn, he became the head of the family at an early age following his father’s untimely death.
Life wasn’t easy, the days were long, the work hard, and he learned to get by on meager fare.
On top of everything else, there was the prejudice – whispers about the legitimacy of his birth. He was a Jew is a Roman world, and a carpenter before it was recognized as a viable trade.
Granted there was royalty in his family tree, way back – and long since forgotten, of no interest now, except to the genealogists.
He was a blue-collar man, not a blue-blood. His hands were rough and calloused, familiar with hard work. He was a common man among common men. He lived where they lived…fishermen, tax collectors, shepherds, street vendors…and he loved them all, everyone, outcasts of all kinds…the untouchables…lepers, lunatics, Samaritans, street people, and women taken in adultery.
He was concerned about the kinds of things that concern common people – children, paying taxes, bread and fish when you’re hungry, running out of wine at your daughter’s wedding.
Other things too, that concern us all – like learning how to pray, not just words, but really communicating with God. And he talked a lot about loving each other, turning the other cheek, going the second mile.
He loved kids and crowds, celebrations and solitude, miracles and quiet meals with old friends. He was a blue-collar man, and he calls us to be blue-collar people too.
Not pseudo-intellectuals theorizing about human need. Not bleeding hearts trapped in sentimentality, but real, honest-to-goodness people, resolving human conflict, restoring shattered self-esteem, loving the loveless, and washing tired feet – even when there’s not one to watch.
Jesus was a blue collar man.”