The Rhythm of Jesus’ Life

By Dean Collins

There is a rhythm to Jesus’ engagement with others and his time alone for grief, rest, fellowship with his friends, and time with his Father. We don't see this pattern by just reading one gospel account, but if you watch through all the gospel records the pattern emerges.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us of the death of John the Baptist. When Jesus learned of John's death, he withdrew to a desolate place by himself. Grief is a powerful and necessary experience. Sometimes we need others around us in our grief, and sometimes we need to be alone. Jesus needed to be alone, away from the demands and needs of others to feel and process his grief and undoubtably to cry out to his Father.

About the same time as Jesus had learned of the death of the Baptist, the disciples returned from their two-by-two missions’ trip. They had traveled from village to village sharing the good news of Jesus and performing miracles in Jesus’ name. They got a taste of the vast human needs that exist in the world around them. No doubt Jesus wanted them to see for themselves how lost and wounded his creation had become, and so he sent them out alone. And when they returned to share their stories, Jesus saw their need and told them they needed to find a place away from the crowds to rest. If the son of God needs to time alone, then certainly his followers do as well.

But you can't be alone for long before the needs of others emerge again. The crowds had intruded into the desolate retreat space where Jesus and his followers were resting, and it was dinner time. Counting the women and children, the likely crowd size was more like seven to eight thousand or more. It's fascinating to consider how Jesus was mentoring his disciples. Likely, Jesus had the power to feed them, but before he did, he engaged his disciples to participate. “You give them food,” he said. That had to create more than a little anxiety for the disciples. They knew they had no resources to feed that many, but Jesus kept them participating. “Have them sit in groups of 50,” he told them. Now Jesus takes one boy's lunch and prays to his Father and provides enough for everyone to have their needs met. I think Jesus was not just performing a miracle of a free meal for the crowd, but he was planting a seed in his disciples that one day when he was gone, it would be their Kingdom work to feed and provide for those in need as his hands and his feet.

Ministry time is over and Jesus again retreats for rest and prayer.

Grieve, rest, pray, serve others, rest, pray, repeat. There was a rhythm to Jesus’ life. To be effective, we must discover the same rhythm.

We have a generational problem, and it didn't start in our generation or that of our parents. It has been in every generation since the fall of man. We just can't seem to help ourselves. It doesn't seem to matter where you were born, and clearly it doesn't matter what political party you are a part of, or even if you claim to be independent. We just can't seem to stop our inclination to judge each other. Someone else's opinion or behavior is always worse than ours. And in the age of social media and instant news, this problem of ours is completely out of control.

People say and post and snap and tweet things that in previous generations no one would have considered saying out loud except behind closed doors and in their clubs where they knew there might be a similar opinion. I'm not sure we shouldn't just change the names of our social media apps. Maybe Facebook can be called “Judgebook,” Instagram “Instajudge,” and Snapchat “Snapjudge.” I'm basing my observation not just on what many commonly post or show in these social media apps, but also on the emotions and reactions we tend to have when we see and read them. We know it is true, or we wouldn't all feel the need from time to time to abstain from looking because we know we need our media palate cleansed.

As Jesus was wrapping up his longest teaching in the Gospels, he begins to summarize a bit as he closes his sermon, and when he does he gets to this very problem. We just can't help but judge each other. Our tendency is to rotate through all the roles in a courtroom. Sometimes we prefer to be the victim, sometimes the witness, and other times the judge. And yes, sometimes we act as the perpetrator, but we do this very cautiously because it is the most unacceptable to others.

The only cure to our generational problem is to let Jesus change our hearts. And the only way that can happen is if we are willing to get out of the judge’s chamber and let our Heavenly Father judge us. Here is the good news. When we surrender to Jesus he steps in and takes our place before the Judge and our verdict is based on Jesus and not on us. And when Jesus transforms our heart, then we can follow the instructions he gave us in his wonderful Sermon on the Mount. By his power now we are free to: not judge others, do for others what we want them to do for us, and choose the harder way and not the way of the crowd.

The best way to start today might be with the opening and closing line to the old familiar hymn:
“All to Jesus I surrender...
I surrender all.”

Father, forgive us for our harshness towards others. Soften our hearts that we might show to others the love, grace, and mercy you have shown us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Your Time with God’s Word
Matthew 7:1-5, 12-14, 28-29 ESV

Photo by Pexels
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