The Blue-Collar Bible: Blue-Collar in the New Testament (Jesus’ Teaching), Excerpt from My Book

Blue-Collar in the New Testament (Jesus’ Teaching)

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Jesus, the carpenter that He is, keeps the blue-collar trend moving in the New Testament. Early in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount and makes this point: don’t try to remove the speck from your brother's eye without first removing the board from your own eye.1 Any carpenter easily understands the situation and application. You can almost see young Jesus and James having this exact scenario happen in Joseph’s shop.

[This is an excerpt from my book, The Blue-Collar Blindspot in it I dig deep into how Christian Media tacitly ignores blue-collar workers and the dignity of human work. I’ll be posting more each week till I’m through the whole book.]

Jesus then pivots in the same chapter to another blue-collar metaphor. He says that following His teachings is just like building a house on a solid foundation.2 Anyone who lives in a house can understand the importance of having a good foundation, but anyone who builds houses will take this language to heart. Someone who has experienced the pain of having to deal with crooked walls from a bad foundation will really internalize this teaching in a powerful way.

It’s the same with the parable of the sower and the seed.3 Jesus’s method of preaching was to provide the example of a sower going out to sow his field, not to give some grand dissertation. He uses the parable of the sower to liken a farmer to a preacher and the word of God to a seed. You have to know about farming to "get" this imagery. How much better must an actual farmer relate to this parable. He’d have the experience of sowing, knowing that it's done by throwing seeds everywhere, hoping any and all of it takes root so his family can eat. That’s why some seeds wind up on the road.

Pastors tend to rush through the parable of the wheat and the tares4, because few people farm anymore. Only a farmer who plants wheat will have a visceral understanding of how frustrating tares can be. They look just like wheat until fully grown, meaning a farmer can’t weed them out until it's time to harvest. Every single tare is a poisonous waste; one less stalk of wheat for his family. Starvation is the risk his family faces if he doesn’t grow enough food. A farmer would know immediately how God waits for the wicked to reveal their nature in the fullness of time. All because he works with his hands in a way that prepares him for God's message.

Likewise, fishermen are in the best position to connect with the parable of the net.5 A fisherman casts his net and catches all kinds of fish. Then, after pulling his net back to shore, he sorts out the good fish and throws out the bad fish. At the end of everything, God’s judgement will be complete. The good will be kept and the wicked will be thrown into fire. Jesus uses the common fisherman to explain part of His eschatology.

Jesus explains rewards in the afterlife by using the parable of the laborers.6 People stand around in the market waiting for work while the master keeps giving chances to come work. Everyone gets the same wages for a day. This provides a common day laborer with the ability to understand some heavy concepts. Jesus preached in a way that would reach the guy waiting outside of Home Depot.

[This is an excerpt from my book, The Blue-Collar Blindspot in it I dig deep into how Christian Media tacitly ignores blue-collar workers and the dignity of human work. I’ll be posting more each week till I’m through the whole book.]

If you’re interested in assessing your ministry or outreach, to know how blue-collar friendly it is, just pick up my free Ministry Assessment Tool it will allow you gauge what color your collar is and give tailored advice based on your score. Sign up for my Monthly Newsletter and it’s yours.

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1Matthew 7:3, Luke 6:41

2Matthew 7:24, Luke 6:48

3Mark 4:3, Luke 8:5

4Matthew 13:3

5Matthew 13:47

6Matthew 20:1