Jesus the Sower – part 2

Ancient Israelite winepress

In addition to our fields, over many generations we have terraced the sides of the hills, and we grow our grapes there, facing the sun. Many families have used the rocks that they have had to remove to plant the vines, to build a wall around their plot, and sometimes even a little house where they can store tools, or where they can come in the evenings to tend the vines and eat and drink their evening meal. In places families have got together and have hollowed out the rocks into large flat tank with a run off spout. When the grapes are ready they are put in the tank, and then they are trampled to get all the juice out. The juice is then siphoned off into wine skins to store and mature.

Jesus works Joseph’s ancestral lands. As he is also the village carpenter, he has to hire in workers to do much of the routine work. He is known as a generous employer, and the men waiting in the market place, ready to hire themselves out for the day, are always happy to work for him, and work hard for him. Nathan has chastised Jesus on more than one occasion for paying more than other men, but Jesus just says that these labourers have to live and feed their families. Why should he get rich, while these men and their families starve? It went round the town one day that Jesus had paid a whole day’s wages to all of the men he had employed that day, even those who had not started work until the 11^th hour. No wonder all of those who began work at daybreak and worked through the heat of the day were really angry. He nearly started a rebellion!

It is important to all of us that we should get the maximum amount of crops off our land. We need them to feed our families. Things would be a lot easier for us were it not for the crippling taxes that we have to pay. First the Roman tax collectors come around and inspect our crops and take a hefty percentage, which varies from year to year, and appears to be at the whim of the tax collector. This is to be sent to Rome to feed the citizens there. Then they add on a bit for themselves. I have never yet seen a thin tax collector. Then the tax collectors from Herod’s Jewish authorities come around and take their cut, and a bit for themselves, and then there is the one shekel, which is about four days wages, that every Jewish adult male has to pay for the upkeep of the Temple. There are some years when the crop is not particularly heavy, when we end up starving or nearly starving because so much of the food we grew to feed ourselves has gone to feed someone else. The tax collectors are less likely to take the fruit and vegetables we grow on the plots of land beside our houses, as they would have to go straight to market and be sold, unless they were for immediate consumption. Of course if it is a bad year, they will look anywhere and everywhere to get the money they want, and if we starve, they just don’t care.

Jesus looked moodily at the plants growing along the edge of his field. “We had such a bad harvest last year that I really needed to get the best crop possible this year. I kept just enough seed to cover my field, and we are really having to ration what we eat until the wheat harvest comes in.” He sat back on his heels. “Well look at the birds. They haven’t ploughed or sown, and still God is feeding them, through me. They won’t starve this year. If I get labourers to pull out the thorns, then these plants at the edges might produce at least some crop, but it is going to cost me. Look at those plants growing over there where the path started to be widened this year, because we found so many stones. The seeds which are in among those stones will just wither in the sun because stone does not hold water. Oh well. I will just have to trust that God will send water and sunshine in enough abundance to feed not only me and mine, but the labourers who will help get this crop in and the birds, the tax collectors, the Sanhedrin and the citizens of Rome as well. What a big responsibility I have on my shoulders! ”

Jesus the Sower – part 1

Galilee landscape

Matthew 13:3-8

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown”.

When I came across Jesus that day, he was crouched down at the edge of his field of wheat staring moodily at the plants growing there. When he saw me, he looked up. “Every year this happens. Every year I try to get all of the seed on the good soil, and every year I waste some of it by being careless. These plants will never grow and produce wheat that we can eat.” I looked down at the poor plants growing at the edge of his portion of land, and pulled a face. I had to agree with him. As a carpenter he was very skilled, but when he went out to sow seeds, he seemed to go into a trance, and far too much of his seed ended up on the path or in patches of thorns.

Most people in Nazareth have land to work. Even those of us who have a craft need to grow at least some of our own food. Most of the villagers own our own land, land that has been in our families since the time of Joshua. Some of those few who do not own land work for their relatives and a few hire themselves out as labourers to earn a wage to buy food. I am told that this is not the case outside of Galilee. In much of the country a few rich landowners, many of them Romans or part of King Herod’s court, or members of the Sanhedrin own the land and have tenant farmers. We are very lucky here. The land around Nazareth, is very fertile. Most of us will grow wheat to make into bread, barley to feed our animals, or if times are hard we will eat it ourselves. Importantly we grow flax to make linen, for which we are famous across the land.

Nathan and I share a plough with Jesus, and a couple of other families. As Jesus is the village carpenter, our plough is always in good working order. We borrow oxen and hitch them to the plough, then we plough in rows across the land. Where there are thistles or thorns, we dig them out with a mattock. When the plough moves on to the next piece of land, we need to sow the seeds. We all keep seed from the last crop we harvested. We spend hours going through them searching the best and fattest from what we have grown, to give us the best crop next year. To sow, we put the seeds into a basket strung around the neck on a leather thong, and then step out to sow the seed; right foot forward, broadcast to the left, left foot forward, broadcast to the right, right foot, left hand, left hand, right foot, up and down the plot until the soil is evenly scattered with seeds. It is hypnotic work, and it is not at all surprising that some, more than any of us would like, ends up where it does not or cannot grow.

Each of our plots of land on the flat valley floor are marked by a path of stones around them. As we are ploughing, stones are brought to the surface, and it is the job of the children going behind and before the ploughman to pick up the stones and carry them to the path and add them to it. It saves breaking the plough. Sometimes if the stones are big the plough has to stop while they are removed. Once the sowing is done, the land must be ploughed again, crosswise to bury the seeds to stop them from being blown away or eaten by the birds. To finish off the children pull branches of trees up and down the land to level the soil off.

Jesus the Sewer – part 2

Clothes in biblical times

They love nothing better than to go and watch him work, and if they get to help man the bellows, or help build a fire to hold the crucible, then they are in seventh heaven. Jonathan was no exception. He did have more excuse than many, as his friend Jesus was often sent to help, when Joseph and Simeon were making something together. If I told him once, I told him a thousand times that if he was going to go into the workshop, he had to take off his simlāh, his heavy woolen over tunic and gird up his kethōneth into his belt, so that as little material as possible got holes burnt in it. Sometimes he remembered, mostly he didn’t until he got hot, when he would take it off and throw it into a corner of the smithy where it would still get showered in sparks.

It got to a point that his simlah was almost more holes than material. I really needed to weave him a new one, but I didn’t want to make a new one for it to rapidly look as holey as the old one. He was promised that if it didn’t get any more holes in it for a month, I would start on a new one for him. For a while it seemed as if he had kept his promise, but then I noticed that there were parts of the simlah that I was never being allowed to see, so one day I just grabbed Jonathan and turned him around. I was delighted to see that there were apparently no new burn holes in the back. I was astonished to see a crudely placed patch of brilliantly coloured new material near the hem, that appeared to be barely hanging on to the surrounding material.

I turned Jonathan around and gave him my best mother-wants-to-know-all look. He managed to keep my eye defiantly for quite a while before a blush appeared and he dropped his eyes. I find silence works much better than words when you want a confession! It appeared that contrary to my instructions, Jonathan had gone to the forge in his simlah, and had as usual taken it off and thrown it into a dirty corner, where as usual a spark had burned a little hole in it. It appears that my threat not to make a new one if the current simlah appeared holey again, was now taken very seriously by Jonathan and Jesus, who was with him at the time. After a quick discussion Jesus took Jonathan home with him, and cut a piece out of his own new simlah, and having borrowed a needle and thread from Mary’s needle case, he did his first bit of sewing, and patched Jonathan’s simlah for him, but they hadn’t really taken into account the differences in colour. After another hurried discussion, they headed to the village well, where they apparently tried to wash Jonathan’s simlah, lots of times, to make the colour fade quickly. All they had managed to do was make the patch shrink in the wash and almost pull it off the original material. The only remaining thing Jonathan could think of doing was try and hide the whole sorry mess from me!

I had a great deal of difficulty in stopping myself from laughing. I would love to have seen Jesus sewing the patch on. I would love to have seen Mary’s face when she found the hole in Jesus’ simlah. I would really like to have seen them washing the simlah over and over again, and then seen their faces as the material dried and the patch, still bright and shiny shrunk and almost pulled itself off the simlah, after all they had done.

Jonathan did get a new simlah, but in between the time I found out about the repair and when I finished the new one, I took the old one away from him. He was forced to go around in just his kethōneth. It is a garment which covers everything, but it is only the poor who go around without one, unless one is working doing manual labour when the simlah gets in the way. Jonathan found himself being pointed at and laughed at. It was a bitter lesson that he learned; that ones belongings need to be looked after properly. Mary turned a hem on Jesus simlah, so it was too short. He got laughed at as well. I think that neither of them will ever forget the lesson they have been taught by the problem of the patched simlah.

Jesus the Sewer – part 1

Clothes in biblical times

(Matthew 9:16 – ‘And no one puts a patch of unfinished cloth on an old torn garment, because the patch will weaken the garment and the tear will be made worse)

In Nazareth, the market square is the place where people come to shop for things they cannot make or grow for themselves. Nathan’s and my basket weaving workshop faces onto the square, with Joseph’s carpenter’s shop next door. Around the rest of the square there is Ezra the Mat maker and Joash the Potter. We all live in simple houses we have built ourselves, with help from our families and friends. The walls of the houses are made from mud bricks, just as our ancestors made generations ago for Pharaoh, in Egypt. Inside the houses we have just a single room, with a platform about 18 inches high covering one half. Our animals; sheep, goats, donkey and chickens live in the lower part of the house at night, so that we can watch over them and protect them. Around the walls are a few niches where we can burn rush lights, but mostly we go to bed when it is dark and get up when it is light. During the cold months the whole family sleep in the house on mats with just our cloaks pulled around us. In the summer we climb up onto the roof via the staircase on the side of the house, and sleep there under an awning, or just under the stars.

There are two houses on the market square which are built in stone. The biggest belongs to Marco the Merchant. His house is not only built of stone, but it has a wooden door with metal hinges and a metal bolt. Our door is wood with leather hinges and a wooden bar to keep it closed. Marco has his goods to protect, which he keeps in two wooden chests. Pretty materials and jewels from foreign lands. Exotic spices and herbs from the East and the money he makes from trading these things all across the length and breadth of the country.

The other stone house belongs to Simeon the Smith. His workshop is opposite that of Joseph, as the two of them collaborate on many items. The door of Marco’s house was made by the two of them. Every plough that ploughs the land outside the village, which grows the crops we all feed on, was made by them. Every knife has a metal blade and a wooden handle, every spade that digs and every hoe that we use to weed between our crops is made by them.

Smithing is a magical art. Lumps of dark heavy stone are delivered to the back of Simeon’s house. He heats it up until the rock itself melts then out pours molten metal. He heats and cools, hammers and shapes and makes for us perfectly crafted metal items. Sometimes lumps of special metals; gold and silver are delivered to him, and he fashions bracelets with coloured stones he has picked up and shaped. His work is dangerous as well as clever. He gets burned by the sparks which fly from his fires and scorched by the heat of the flames – and he is the idol of all of the older boys in the village.

The House of the Potter – part 2

Household pottery

One day, not long before he departed to begin his ministry, I saw Jesus sitting watching Joash work as I was passing by to get water from the well. He had obviously been doing something strenuous in his workshop as he was just in his kethonneth, which he had girded out of the way. He held a pottery beaker in his hand, and he was gulping down water as if his life depended on it. On my way back from the well with my jar of water, I sat down beside him, and offered to fill his beaker again, which he gratefully accepted. Neither of us said anything as we watched Joash skillfully turn the potters wheel with his feet and gently with his hands cause a beautiful small amphora to rise from the lump of clay. As we watched he stretched the clay to its fullest limit, and suddenly something happened and the thin sides of the amphora began to wobble, and then collapse. Joash straightened up, and stretched his back, then began to pound on the clay to produce a lump again. He added a bit more clay, wetted the whole lot with more water, and began again to make an amphora rise from the lump.

Beside me Jesus began to softly quote from Torah:

“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, ‘Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?’ declares the Lord. ‘Like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.’

When he had finished he turned to me. “That is from the book of the prophet Jeremiah. I remember the Rabbi teaching me those verses. I think that they are some of the most beautiful written in the books of the prophets. I am always reminded of it when I take the time to sit here and watch Joash work. In my workshop I create tools and practical items like doors. If I make a mistake then either I have to begin again or the mistake remains. The customer might not see the mistake, but I know that it is there. Joash, if he makes a mistake, gathers everything back up again, and has another go. Jeremiah says that God is continually making and remaking us, until we are made in his image, then and only then are we ready to be brought before God, and fired in the heat of his love for us. Soon, very soon, I shall need to go, and begin my part in the remaking of God’s people, and I shall remember Joash and his pots.”

Jesus got up to go, ‘I had better go and start finding some wood for Joash. He has a lot of pots of all shapes and sizes drying in the sun, so he must be about ready to make a kiln and fire them all. It will be a good place to get rid of all my mistakes’. He gave me a hand to pull me to my feet.

‘Don’t tell mother yet about what I said about leaving. She knows that I have to leave, to be about my father’s business. I don’t want her to worry until I know the time is right.’

I looked into his face, and saw there something I had not seen before, a determination, and something more I could not define, maybe a bit of sadness, but then he smiled, and again he was just Mary’s son, the carpenter of Nazareth.

The House of the Potter – part 1

Household pottery

In Nazareth the market square is the place where people come to shop for things they cannot make or grow for themselves. Nathan’s and my basket weaving workshop faces onto the square, with Joseph’s carpenter’s shop next door. Opposite Joseph is Simeon the Smith. Around the rest of the square there is Ezra the Mat maker, Marco the merchant and Joash the Potter. The house of Joash the potter is opposite our house, and between our house and the well. I regularly have to pass by it to fetch water.

Joash creates the most wonderful bits of pottery, which he sells not just in Nazareth, but across the whole area. He makes everything from beakers to drink out of, to plates and bowls of all sizes, to pitchers for the oil and milk we have with our meals and decanters to serve wine at the table. There are ampohora to store wine and large jars with lids to store grain and oil for our daily use. Then there are the lamps to light our houses. He makes our cooking pots in which we cook our soups and stews, some of which he makes pottery stands for, so that we can light a fire under them, others he takes to Simeon the smith who makes a metal stand for them so that they can be suspended over a fire.

Joash needs to be near the well, as he uses a lot of water to make his pots. Every few weeks a big cart arrives up in Nazareth from the Plain of Esdralon. Joash has a series of three stone troughs, behind his workshop, each with an exit channel, the biggest leading to the next in size, which leads in turn to the smallest. The load of clay is tipped from the cart into the largest trough. Joash and his assistant then have to make lots of trips to the well and fill his trough with water.

The children in the village love to help him with the next stage.They gird up their loins and then jump into the trough and start making mudpies with their feet. As they jump up and down the mud begins to separate out, and the muddy water begins to flow out through the chanel at one end, and into the second trough. At least that is what is supposed to happen. Joash looses a lot of his clay due to the enthusiasm of his ‘helpers’. When the children stop jumping up and down because all they are jumping on is little stones, and the second trough is full of muddy water, Joash sluices off the mud covered objects standing in his trough, and sends them home.

Over the next day or so, the muddy water in the second trough gradually dries leaving a muddy sludge in the bottom. Then Joash and his ‘helpers’ start again. The mothers of Nazareth really love mud stomping days. Especially as it has to happen for a third time. By the time the third trough dries out, Joash is left with a lovely smooth brown/grey clay ready to make his wares.