Was Jesus physically strong? Most of the images we have of Jesus are of a white limp-wristed hippie-like character roaming the countryside and spreading a message of love and acceptance. He was also not like any of the five people you'll normally find at the gym and in life.
In this post, we’re going to crush that myth and show you the real Jesus.
He was an example for us in all areas of life. He modeled not only spiritual strength, and mental acuity, but also physical strength.
Here are seven reasons why Jesus was a physically strong man even though there are more than just seven reasons.
1. He was a Worker
Think about it: Jesus could have entered our atmosphere in any class of people, in any sect of society, and even at any specific time in human history, yet he came as a blue-collar worker.
He did not show up as one of the Pharisees. He did not necessarily get the same education the rabbis got in formal religious training. Instead, the Father's will for him is that he will embrace a blue-collar work ethic, running a business with his earthly father, Joseph, as they built, constructed, and served their local community.
Most people think Jesus was a carpenter, but the word in the Greek is tekton, and it's more accurately translated as builder.
I'm confident telling you that he was a builder, while I'm not so comfortable saying he was a carpenter for a few reasons. In the region he grew up in, there was not a lot of wood, but it was mostly stone.
If we look further in the Bible, the analogies and the metaphors used, refer to Jesus as the chief cornerstone. When he speaks to Peter, he calls him out as a stone or a rock coming from the big rock, which represents Him. As Christians we’re referred to as living stones (1 Peter 2:5). Stones represent organic material, something not formed by human hands.
It’s highly likely Jesus was a stone mason, but even if we go with just a builder, he absolutely worked with stone, and probably with wood and other building materials as well.
We can also assume he knew how to swing a hammer and use a chisel, engage in manual labor with the corresponding tools, which obviously would have built up his physical body.
He was building and constructing objects to serve his community and his customers, and this would also mean he had the physical endurance, and the capacity and strength to build with these resources.
2. His Diet
When we look at the average diet of the people living in that day and age, they don't have to deal with what we have to deal with. They're eating fully organic bread with no preservatives or GMO's. He would have been eating a clean diet of fish and lean meats as he's fulfilling his mission. This is the food that everyone had access to.
It’s hard to imagine Christ having access to excess calories, like sugar and the things that we have to deal with in modern society.
3. He Fasted Often
Before fasting became the latest biohack, Jesus could be found fasting. I believe he had a lifestyle of it. We know for sure that he fasted for 40 days at the start of his ministry and a case could be made that this most likely was a practice in his life.
Fasting would not only keep him mentally clear and strong, it also takes extreme discipline and diligence to live a fasted lifestyle.
4. He Walked a lot
Our bodies are made for movement and walking is one of the best exercises you can do. And Jesus did a lot of it. If we look at his ministry journeys, he can be found all over the region of Israel.
As an itinerant minister, he went from town to town, completing his missions, reaching the lost and speaking truth to the people of his day. This would have been physically exhausting because of the stamina, the endurance and the emotional pull that the people would have had on him as well. But we can say without a doubt that he got a lot of physical exercise through walking the region of Galilee.
As we get into Jesus's ministry, there is a point in time where he even is walking on the water, and one of his disciples, Peter, sees him and wants to come out and walk on the water with him. Jesus invites him out.
If you know the story, you know that Peter starts to lose faith when he takes his eyes off Jesus and focuses on his circumstances and he starts to fall into the water. Jesus physically grabs Peter's hand and pulls him up.
Now you might think that's a supernatural act, but this was human flesh touching human flesh. Jesus lived and walked the earth in a human flesh-and-blood body. And when he pulls Peter up out of the water, he is using his strength, his physical capacity and that endurance that he developed in his blue collar work to yank a full grown man out of the water and pull him up!
5. He Often Prayed All Night
We have multiple references of Jesus praying all night, being found early in the morning in solitude, in secluded places of prayer. This takes extreme mental, emotional and spiritual discipline, but also physical discipline.
Later in his life when the religious crowd was blocking the entrance to the temple by selling their goods and holding business in the sacred temple courts, which was actually blocking the poor, the sick and the afflicted from entering the temple. He shows up and uses his physical strength to physically flip tables. Keep in mind, these tables were not light and they also were stacked with the goods of the money changers. There also would have been animals and other items they were selling as well as the physical coins.
6. He Carried That Cross
We know that Jesus carried a cross after having endured a Roman scourging, which was very intense. Afterward, he was forced to carry his own cross and then hang on that cross for hours.
If we look at the other thieves that were next to him and that were crucified, they did not go through the same beating and scourging that Jesus had to endure.
On top of that, Jesus in the spiritual realm is carrying the sins of the world which is something else to consider and meditate on.
7. He Rejected Pain-Numbing Wine on The Cross
As he’s hanging there on the cross, absorbing that pain while every breath is effort causing extreme work to just lift up his diaphragm while hanging there, he was offered a drink; wine mixed with gall, which is a painkiller. The purpose of this was its numbing effect, and he rejected it.
Again, we see the physical, emotional and spiritual fortitude to refuse anything that would take him out of the moment.
Jesus exhibits discipline in the spiritual realm with his prayer and in the physical realm with his fasting, his ministry, his giving and his sacrificial living.
Jesus is the model, the blueprint, the template for true masculinity. If you want to learn more, you can check out The Standard, Discovering Jesus as the Standard for Masculinity.
Remember, Jesus is physically strong and he models that strength for us as men.
What's Going to Be Different For You This Year?
In conclusion, being physically strong is important but so is being strong in every area of life. Maybe you have some patterns, some cycles, some things you need to shift away from and change and get stronger in.
That's my prayer for you. That's what I'm believing for you, and to support you and that's why I've created the Unfair Advantage email challenge.
There's no better way right now than to start this year with God and discover internal as well as external strength by accessing your unfair advantage, grow deeper roots and become stronger in every area, including mental, spiritual and physical.
IF you do what you learn in these email challenges.
Check out this link to get started.
