When Jesus Got Distracted

I grew up with the idea that Jesus was all about the cross. Somehow I got the impression that the events of Holy Week the only real priorities for him. It never really occurred to me to wonder what He'd been up to for the three years of his public ministry before that week, or even the thirty years of his life, for that matter. Seems like a long ramp-up process, especially for the Son of God.

Actually, if you read the Gospel accounts you begin to get the sense that Jesus got off-task quite a bit. He almost comes off as having a little bit of redemptive A.D.D: just when he's working up a good head of steam about our sins...HEY LOOK GUYS, A LEPER! And off He'd go, getting all caught up healing some disabled person or talking about giving a cup of cold water to some poor kid. Fortunately the Apostle Paul was able to cut through these distractions and lay things out decently and in good order in books like Romans and Galatians.

Unless...maybe Jesus wasn't distracted. Maybe He took three years to start rocking things with a quake whose epicenter was located by that empty tomb outside Jerusalem. Maybe He was actually demonstrating exactly what He was doing during His time on earth with us. Making all things new, wiping away every tear from our eyes, letting the dumb start scat-singing with pleasure and the lame start breaking out in some celebrative dance steps. Maybe we needed to see how "distracted" He could get so we didn't freeze-dry His gospel down to four spiritual laws through which we could calculate our salvation. In fact, the Apostle Paul himself did all his theologizing against a backdrop of all creation "groaning as in the pangs of childbirth" waiting for Christ's redemption to be completed.

You know, maybe we don't get distracted enough.

In Step?

I wonder if Jesus became easy to overlook after a while. Maybe that's why He spent so much time in the gospels trying to help his disciples get at least a little clue.

To cut to the chase, I suspect I overlook him. Not in a larger cosmic sense, so much. My belief in Christ is pretty settled and I've arranged a lot of my life's furniture around Him being in the house. But sometimes I wonder how much I still miss.

For this week's sermon I've been thinking about Galatians 5:25: "since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." That comes at the end of the passage listing the whole cornucopia known as the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, and a number of other traits I'd like to see more of. Ever since Jesus returned to the Father, he deputized the Spirit to be His presence. And it sounds like that Presence is planning on being present every step of the way, like He's planning on walking me through the various experiences each day brings.

As much as I'd like folks to think that I live in constant communion with my Savior, I have to admit that His interventions still tend to catch me by surprise. You know, since I'm periodically straightened out by the Spirit, maybe I should try to periodically stay straight with Him.

So...makes me wonder how much more easily all this love-joy-peace etc. might come if I were to check in every step or so. I'd probably stumble a lot less.