Jesus Was a Man's Man

I believe there are some misconceptions about the kind of man Jesus was during his ministry here on earth. I believe the fault for these misconceptions lies in Hollywood movies and their portrayal of Jesus as an effeminate, blonde, blue-eyed man who spoke in a meek, effeminate manner. But I believe just the opposite is true, that Jesus was a man's man.

That's why rugged fishermen were drawn to him initially and why many hypocrite religious leaders were intimidated by him and afraid to face him one-on-one. They had to have a crowd to back them up. I believe I can back up my theory about Jesus being a man's man in two ways, friends.

First was his physical appearance. He wasn't the slender, shouldered, weak messiah from Hollywood movies. But in reality, because of his trade, he was physically a strong man.

We have to go back to the description of Jesus as the carpenter's son, as seen in Matthew's gospel, where Joseph's trade was referred to as a carpenter. The breakdown, I believe, is found in the Greek word for carpenter because that translation is missing the truer meaning of what that word really means, which is a craftsman. And a study of ancient Jewish history will demonstrate that the majority of homes in Israel were constructed of stone.

Could it be that Joseph was more of a stonemason more than a wood carpenter? For just three miles from Nazareth was a stone quarry used for building stones. I believe Jesus built houses with Joseph out of these stones. And Jesus, as a young teenager, would have carried these heavy stones on his shoulders to lay them like building blocks for foundations.

His shoulders would become broad and his back and chest strong from all that hard physical labor. He had muscular arms from heavy lifting. Now if you hold that thought in mind and turn to your Bibles to John's gospel in chapter two, I'll give you my second reason for this theory that Jesus was a man's man.

In John 2, verses 13 through 16, we read, And the Jews' Passover was at hand, And Jesus went up to Jerusalem, And found in the temple Those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, And the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple. Let me pause here, friends, to say, Jesus just plum-whipped up on a bunch of men.

He must have been intimidating, For a slender effeminate man would have gotten beaten up by that crowd of greedy Jews. The verse goes on to say, He drove them all out of the temple, And the sheep, and the oxen, And poured out the changers' money, And overthrew the tables. These are the actions of a physically strong man, A man to be feared.

I believe this was why the rugged fishermen of his disciples were so drawn to him. He had the appeal of a man's man. Now you can accept my theory or not, for there is no way for me to prove any of this biblically, but I would tend to see Jesus more along those lines than the effeminate character portrayed in Hollywood movies.

I believe Jesus was a man's man, who died for man, so men could be reconciled back to the Father. Let us pray.