Encounter Christianity: In Words about Jesus lesson plan 3

3. Jesus the carpenter (pages 6-7)

Text from the book

'Is not this the carpenter, son of Mary?'

When Jesus came back to his home town of Nazareth, he was already well-known as a teacher and as a healer. People were amazed at how wise he was, but some were suspicious of him. Do you sometimes surprise your family and friends by what you say and do?

Aims of the book

Pupils will:

explore some of the key sayings of Jesus;
be aware of what friends and enemies said about him;
reflect on the layers of meanings in the words.

Learning Objectives

Pupils will:

become aware of the problems Jesus had with people who had known him all his life;
explore the issues of being well known in a community;
reflect on how we make judgements about other people out of prejudice.

Background

Carpentry was the family trade and a skilled and respected occupation. Jesus would have been raised in the family business. Mary, his mother, would also have been known in the community. The crowd found it difficult to believe that Jesus had become such a well-known figure. Jesus couldn’t be seen as special because everyone knew him and his family so well. They had watched him grow up! Jesus’ trade was not the trade of the unskilled; the carpenter would have been very important in a community and respected because of his skills, as indeed carpenters are today. Why was Jesus going off and doing these things when he should have been developing his skills in the family business? Was he getting ideas above his station? Jesus must have been hurt by these comments from people he knew well; so would his mother and father. And so would the rest of his family. No matter how famous you become or what wonderful deeds you might do you will still be the girl/boy who lived in our street/went to our school, etc.

Ways of using the picture

Are you surprised when someone you know well does or says something remarkable?

Think of a very famous person. How do you think they are remembered by people who knew them when they were young?

Why was it so difficult for the people of Nazareth to believe that Jesus was a remarkable figure? Does familiarity breed contempt? What does this well-known saying mean?

Bible reference: Mark 6.3

Key words

Puzzlement
Jeering
Questioning
Sneering
Astonishment
Jealousy
Contempt
Envy

Activity

You will need:

Resources on a variety of people, dead and alive
A diary/journal
Imagination

In groups make a list of six famous people. Three should be alive now and three should be dead. When the pupils have agreed on their list the names of all the people suggested can be put on the wall. Not every one will agree with the collection of names

In new groups the pupils choose one living and one dead person from the collection and find out as much as possible about them.

When this is complete, the class can hold a debate/discussion on what they like or don’t like about the living and the dead. What is history’s comment on the dead person who could not answer back? And what about the living person. What things do they like or dislike? What are the reasons for their opinion? They can add to the Key Words.

Armed with this information and having discussed attitudes to people, pupils can write a diary entry describing and commenting on the event as if they were:

Jesus;
Mary his mother;
One of the crowd who so disliked Jesus;
One of Jesus’ friends.

Learning outcomes

Pupils will have:

reflected on differing attitudes and the reasons behind them;
developed their verbal and listening skills;
improved their research methods;
explored some of the reasons for Jesus’ unpopularity in his home town.

Extension work

Pupils can create their own drama of the event using music, dance and drama, choosing music that suggests noise, rejection etc and using the whole class as the crowd.

Web sites

http://www.biography.com/

The activity for this lesson plan asks pupils to select famous people from over 25,000 well-known names. There is an easy-to-use search feature. The web site also has a 'top ten biographies' and 'born on this day' section.

http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/

Another site with information on famous people, though a little harder for pupils to find their way around. Other sites on a similar theme are http://www.famouspeople.com/famouspeople.html and http://www.famousbirthdays.com/ This last one is particularly interesting, as pupils can look up famous people born on their own birthday.

Top of the page