As Jesus gradually grew to manhood he worked at his trade as a master.
For Joseph was old and feeble, and could only sit by the bench,
overlook the carpenters and tell them what it would be best to do.
They had a young apprentice, a near relation, named John, who helped
Jesus with the carpentering and building. When they built a cottage in
Nazareth, or roofed a house, he was severe and strict with the youth.
But when on the Sabbath day they wandered together through the country
between the vines, over the meadows with the stones and herds,
sometimes through the dark cedar forests to the lower slopes of
Lebanon, they said not a word about the work. They watched the
animals, the plants, the streams, the heavens, and their everlasting
lights, and rejoiced exceedingly. Sometimes they assisted poor
gardeners and shepherds, and did them trifling services. They taught
John to blow the horn, and Jesus sang joyful psalms with a clear voice.
But Joseph's death was approaching.
He lay half-blind on his bed, and asked Mary how she would manage when
he was gone. Then he felt with his cold hand for Jesus.
"My son, my son!"
Jesus wiped the dying man's brow with the hem of his garment.
"I had hoped," said Joseph softly, "but it is not to be. I must depart
in darkness."
"Father," said Jesus, and tenderly stroked his head.
"It is hard, my child. Stay beside me. I had hoped to see the Messiah
and his light. But I must be gathered to my fathers in darkness."
"He will soon come and lead you to paradise."
The old man grasped his hand convulsively. "It is quite dark. I am
afraid. Stay with me, my Jesus."
And so he fell asleep for ever.
They buried him outside the city under the walls. Jesus planted the
staff which Joseph had cut during the flight into Egypt, and had always
carried with him, on the mound. And no sooner was it planted in the
earth than it began to bear young shoots. And when Mary went the next
day to pray there, behold the grave was surrounded with white lilies,
which grew from the stick and spread themselves in rows over the mound.
After the old master's death trouble befell the family. People began
to take their orders for work elsewhere, for they found it difficult to
get on with the young master. A man who went against the Scriptures
and traditional custom in so many things could not do his work
properly. He seldom attended public worship in the Temple, and was
never seen to give alms. In the morning he went down to the spring and
washed himself, but otherwise he omitted all the prescribed ablutions.
When the Rabbi of Nazareth reproached him for such conduct, he replied;
"Who ought to wash, the clean or the unclean? Moses knew this people
when he made washing a law for them. Does uncleanness come from within
or without? It is not the dust of the street that soils a man, but the
evil thoughts of his heart. Is it unseemly to eat honest bread with
dusty hands? Is it not more unseemly to take away your brother's bread
with clean hands?"
The Rabbi considered that it would be foolish to waste more words on
this transgressor of the law, and went his way. But next day he
informed the carpenter that he was to stand on the Sabbath behind the
poor-box, in order to see whether the well-washed hands of believing
Jews took the bread away from their brothers, or, rather, did not
bestow it liberally upon them. And as Jesus stood in the Temple, he
observed the well-to-do Nazarenes dip their hands into the basin, with
pious air throw large pieces of money into the poor-box, and then look
round to see if their good example was observed. When it grew dark, a
poor woman came and with her lean fingers put a farthing into the
poor-box.
"Well, what do you say now?" asked the Rabbi of the carpenter.
Jesus answered: "I think the haughty rich people have washed
themselves, and that still they give with unclean hands. They give
away a small part of what they have taken from others, and give from
their superabundance. The poor woman gave the largest gift in God's
eyes. She gave all that she possessed."
And so it happened that Jesus became more and more estranged from
Nazareth. Only poor folk and little children were attracted to him: he
cheered the former and played with the latter. But otherwise men drew
apart from him, considering him an eccentric creature and perhaps a
little dangerous. His mother sometimes tried to defend him: he had
grown up in a foreign land among strange customs and ways of thought.
At bottom he had the best of natures, so kind and helpful to others and
so severe towards himself. How like a mother! What mother has not had
the best of children? They despised her remarks and pitied her because
her son was so unlike other boys and caused her anxiety. There was
nothing to complain of in his work when he stuck to it. What a
carpenter he might be with such aptness! Only he should not interfere
in things he could not understand, and should not disturb people's
belief in the religion of their fathers.
One day there was a marriage in the neighbouring town of Cana. Mary
and her relatives were invited, for the bridegroom was a distant
cousin. So far as Jesus was concerned, there would have been no great
grief had he stayed away. Possibly he would not take any pleasure in
the old marriage customs and the traditions to which they still held.
Jesus understood the irony, but it did not hurt him, and so he went to
the marriage in order to rejoice with the joyful. When the merriment
was at its height, Mary drew her son aside and said: "I think it would
be well if we went home now; we are not regarded with favour here.
They would be glad of fewer guests, for I hear the wine has given out."
"What matters it to me if there's no more wine," answered Jesus, almost
roughly. "I do not want any."
"But the other guests do. The host is greatly embarrassed. I wish
someone could help him."
"If they are thirsty, have the water jugs brought in," he said. "If
the drinker has faith in his God then the water will be wine. He will
be well content."
The host, in fact, saw no other way of satisfying his guests' thirst
than in ordering large stone pitchers of water to be brought in from
the well. He was vastly amazed when the guests found it delicious, and
praised the wine that had just been poured out for them. "Usually,"
they said, "the host produces his best wine first, and when the
carousers have drunk freely, he brings in worse. Our good host thinks
differently, and to the best food adds the best wine."
But Jesus and his relations saw how the pitchers were filled at the
well, and when they tasted their contents, some declared that things
could not be all right here. Jesus himself drank, and saw that it was
wine. Much moved, he went out into the starry night. "Oh, Father!" he
said in his heart, "what dost thou intend with regard to this son of
man? If it is thy will that water shall be turned into wine, it may
then be possible to pour new wine into the old skins, the spirit and
strength of God into the dead letter!"
John went out into the night to seek his master. "Sir," said the
youth, when he stood before him, "what does it mean? They say that you
have turned water into wine. I have often thought that you were
different from all of us. You must be from Heaven."
"And why not you also, John, who look up to it? Can anyone attain the
height who has not come from it?"
John remained standing by his side for a while. It was not always easy
to grasp what he meant.
On their homeward way by night, the mother unburdened her anxious heart
to her son. "You are so good, my child, and help people wherever you
can. Why are you often so rough of speech?"
"Because they do not understand me," he replied; "because you, none of
you, understand me. You think that if a man works at his wood in the
carpenter's shop, then he's doing all that is necessary."
"Wood? Of course a carpenter has to work with wood. Do you want to be
a stonemason? Think, stones are harder than wood."
"But they give fire when struck together. Wood gives no sparks, nor
would the Nazarenes yield any sparks, even if lightning struck them.
They are like earth and damp straw. They are incapable of enthusiasm:
they are only capable of languid irritation. But you'll not build a
kingdom of heaven with irritation. I despise the wood that always
smokes and never burns."
"My son, I fear you will make such enemies of them that----"
"That I shall not be able to stay in Nazareth. Isn't that what you
mean, mother?"
"I am anxious about you, my son."
"Happy the mother who is nothing worse. I am quite safe." He stopped
and took her hand. "Mother, I'm no longer a child or a boy. Do not
trouble about me. Let me be as I am, and go where I will. There are
other tasks to be fulfilled than building Jonas a cottage or Sarah a
sheep-pen. The old world is breaking up, and the old heaven is falling
into ruin. Let me go, mother; let me be the carpenter who shall build
up the kingdom of heaven."
The constellations spread themselves across the sky. Mary let her son
go on before, down to the little town; she walked slowly behind and
wept. She stood alone and had no influence with him. Every day he
became more incomprehensible.
To what would it lead?