“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mark 6:3)
It makes sense Jesus was a carpenter (or construction worker or craftsman) before beginning his public ministry.
As the eternal Word, Jesus is the one through whom the world was made as a house for God.
As the incarnate Word, he made houses for people.
As God-man, he does at a micro level what he did as God at a macro level. What he did at the cosmic level as God he did in miniature as the God-man. The eternal Son of God was a homebuilder; the incarnate Son of God worked for several years as a homebuilder.
But we can go further with this. It’s as if the Son of God made the universe as a toy house to play with. But then in the incarnation, he made himself miniature so he could enter into that house and join his creatures within it. And now as God-man he rules over that house and invites us into the “family business” of ruling over it with him. God made the universe for us, as creatures made in his image, to dwell in. Then he joined us inside the house as one of us.
We burned the house to the ground, so to speak, by sinning. We vandalized and marred his beautiful house. In the incarnation, he entered into the house to repair it and rebuild it. At the last day, the whole creation will be a splendid palace for God and man to dwell in together for all eternity – and all because the God-man undertook the work of restoration and recreation through his death and resurrection. When he was nailed to a tree, he refashioned the house of creation. Yes, Jesus is a carpenter indeed.
[Note: The gist of this illustration was borrowed from somewhere, but I have lost the source so I can’t give credit. I’ve tried to flesh it out more fully here.]
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