Jesus and his thoughts

Jesus and his thoughts.                                                                                                                                    John 13 - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2013&version=N...  Luke 22.24 -

Hello.

I wonder what Jesus knew and when he knew it.  Think of it, we know that when Mary approached him back at the wedding at Cana, asking him to do a little miracle to help out the bridal family’s embarrassing predicament of running out of wine, Jesus said, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”¹ (Then he proceeded to do his first miracle, turning water to wine.) Another time, when the disciples asked Jesus to go and declare himself to the people, Jesus told them his time had not yet come.’²  Then when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he told his disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”³ Interesting how he knew when it was not yet time, and then when it clearly was God’s timing.  Jesus is always right on time—that, I have noticed.

So, on the night of Palm Sunday, no doubt tired from the crowds and all of the hubbub, when he lay down to sleep that night, did he know that the time of his death was just a few days’ away?  Then after righteous indignation and love for the Temple moved him to angrily drive the money changers out … that night, well did he look at his disciples and think, ‘only three more days with them’? Did he know the timetable? Just how much did he know, and when?  What does it matter? Well, I have just been thinking about what my Jesus thought about, that’s all … I have been wondering, concerned for his heartache.

And now Jesus and the disciples have just shared the first Lord's Supper--eleven of them at least, and Judas has been 'outed' as the Lord's betrayer, and fled the upper room.  It has been a solemn, intimate time, when just before dinner in the ultimate act of servitude, Jesus washed the dirty feet of his men.  Yes, he modeled the heart of a true servant, forever leaving us an example to follow--to take up the "towel and basin" and serve others. 

But then--the disciples start arguing about which of them is the greatest!  Don't you find that tragically ironic?  The Greatest among them--the Greatest of all--serves them in this last free night before his arrest.  Power dominates their thinking, humble service fills the mind of Jesus.  Here at the end of his ministry, these he had called, trained, loved, and lived life with, were so easily caught up with themselves that they forgot him.  It saddens me so to think how lonely Jesus felt right then.  Yes, there was Judas, but then the Eleven showed their weakness too.

Why do I describe Jesus as lonely?  Well, why is anybody lonely?  Loneliness is an absolutely foundational, fundamental human experience. Because we send out these little tendrils of ourselves and hope they grab onto something and grow and nothing happens. They reach only into air and so they wither.  The sense that I am never going to be really connected, at my deepest and most true point with another soul is one cause for loneliness but there is more.

How many people in Jesus' own life really understood him, what he was all about? No one.  Who understood Jesus' way of looking at the world, really? I think of Jesus’ reply to Philip, "Have I been with you all this time Philip and you still do not know me?"  How many people was Jesus able to share his vision of life with?   Nobody.   Was Jesus lonely?  I suspect an enormous part of his life was lived in a felt sense of isolation... and since he had taken on the form of being fully man, how much did the Father and Holy Spirit minister to him as they ordinarily did as components of the triune God?  I am not sure.

Jesus doesn't tell them how they made him feel--but they must have thought about it all later.  Instead, Jesus tells them that their faithfulness to him will one day be rewarded with authority in his coming kingdom.

All of us have felt lonely at times, or will--especially in different seasons of our lives.  I'm sure there is no greater loneliness than a wife losing a husband, a young child losing her mother . . . But, remember again that there is no pain you will ever experience that the Lord does not understand.  He has experienced it all. 

If you are there now, I offer this prayer for you-- 'Dear Father, would you comfort my sister, my aunt, my colleague, _____, and give them a sense of your presence, a knowing that you really do understand? Grant them your peace.  And, thank you for being willing to experience the incredible loneliness you endured for us.  Give us your strength.  Amen'

Christine

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