Dear Friends,
This year, the Feast of Saint Joseph will be celebrated on
Monday the 20th, since the 19th is a Sunday, and the
Sundays of Lent are not overridden by any other feast, showing how much Lent is
valued in our tradition. But Joseph’s feast is not skipped over, because he is likewise
valued – as the husband of Mary and in the eyes of the townspeople, the
acknowledged father of Jesus.
I’ve been looking for a fresh take on Joseph. The story of
his early years with Mary and Jesus is well known, told in Luke 1-2 and Matthew
1-2. The only other oblique references to Joseph are found in Mark 6.3 and Matthew 13.55: “Is he not the
carpenter’s son?”
The word “carpenter” is a later translation of the word used
to describe the work of Joseph. In Greek it was tekton and in Hebrew charash.
The word, in both languages, originally means fabricator of any material, a
craftsman or builder. Carpenters are a subset of this larger category. Scholars
of antiquity remind us that in the time of Jesus, there were few trees growing
in Galilee, but stone was plentiful. It’s more likely that Joseph the craftsman
was a stonemason.
About seven miles from Nazareth was the city of Sepphoris (today,
Zippori). Jesus was probably not quite a teenager when Herod Antipas began a
twenty-year project to build up Sepphoris into what would be called “the jewel
of all Galilee.” Halfway between Sepphoris and Nazareth was a stone quarry
which fed this project. Since craftsmen from the area did the construction,
it’s likely Joseph was one of these stonemasons, and over the years, Jesus, who
learned Joseph’s trade, worked there as well.
Later, in the New Testament, we find references to stones
that connect us with this theme. “The stone which the builder rejected has
become the cornerstone.” (Acts.4.11) “You are like living stones.” (1 Peter
2.5)
Joseph could have had a different trade. He could have been
a publican, a vineyard worker, a sandal maker, a fisherman, a priest. But he
was not. And because of Joseph, Professor David Naugle, of Dallas Baptist
University, offers us this way of looking at Jesus: “Jesus is in the human
being repair business. He made us. We are broken. Now He is fixing us.
Thankfully, He will faithfully complete the job He started in and among us.”
Thank God for Joseph, who worked with his hands and taught
Jesus who is “still shaping His followers, fitting them together into a
spiritual house, a temple that is built to bring glory to God.” (Robby Galatty,
The Forgotten Jesus.)
~Sister Joan Sobala
