Church Hopping

For many years I wanted to be a spy. I even interviewed with the CIA. When I imagine a spy, I want to think James Bond and I can assure you that the reality is much different. The reality is that you live in a foreign country with a regular job, but while you are performing that job you are also performing the duties of a spy which may include networking or monitoring people. In a very similar way Christians are spies. Their main goal is to glorify God and fulfill the Great Commission, yet this is to be done under the title of accountant, consultant or teacher. Even Jesus led a double life here on earth, but was it as a carpenter?

You are familiar with the idea that Jesus was “more than a carpenter”, but I wonder was He ever really a carpenter? We know that His father Joseph was a carpenter from Matthew 13:55. This section of Matthew, where Jesus is rejected by Nazareth, parallels Mark’s account in Mark 6:1-6. In Mark 6:3 we find the only time in the New Testament that Jesus is called a carpenter. Since Mark’s carpenter remark is different from Matthew’s, the two thoughts are that Mark and Matthew may be recording separate sayings in Nazareth or they are recording the same saying using slightly different grammar. It is possible that the people just assumed He was a carpenter or should have been since His father was. Jesus is called rabbi or teacher about 60 times in the New Testament and He never corrects anyone. So maybe He was a carpenter before His ministry or maybe He went to full-time ministry from the start. Either way your theology probably stands unchanged.

I said before though that Jesus did live a “double life” and it may or may not have been as a carpenter, but He did have another secret. The most notable instance of what is called the Messianic Secret is found in Mark 8:27-30. Jesus instructs His disciples not to reveal to anyone that He is the Messiah. Jesus also requests this occasionally from people He heals such as in Mark 1:43-44 or Mark 5:43. He also commands demons to be quiet and not speak His name in Mark 1:34 and in Mark 3:12. Almost every instance of Jesus requesting secrecy is found in the Gospel of Mark, though Matthew and Luke both mention it at least once.

In the early 1900s, Wilhelm Wrede wrote a book about the Messianic Secret and claimed that it was added by Mark after the fact. He claims that Jesus did not ever think He was the Messiah and that Mark (and the rest of the NT authors) sensationalized Jesus and made Him into Messiah. Wrede claims Mark added the Messianic Secret in an attempt to give a reason for why Jesus was not accepted by many as Messiah until after His death. I do not believe that any legitimate Biblical scholars hold to this idea, but it was a very popular idea amongst critics. There seem to be a plethora of explanations for why Jesus would desire secrecy. I’ll attempt to list a few in a follow-up article.