The Inconceivable Patience of Jesus
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Next time you read the Gospels, pay attention to how often you see the phrase “came to him.” The phrase, or a derivative of it, appears over 100 times in the Gospels. Jesus could barely take a step without someone bringing a need to Him.
His disciples came to Him.
Lepers came to Him.
Scribes came to Him.
Women came to Him.
The crowds came to Him.
The hurting came to Him.
Fathers came to Him.
Mothers came to Him.
The impoverished came to Him.
The wealthy came to Him.
The sick came to Him.
His enemies came to Him.
And He turned away none who needed Him.
Over and over again, all the time, constantly. People walk up to Jesus with questions, needs, accusations . . . There are so many people. There is so much need.
Surveying the many passages of Scripture where Jesus addresses people, there seems, at times, to be significant tension.
Here is Jesus, the God-man, walking the earth in human form, fulfilling the Plan set forth before time. He was being and doing all that was intended for Him to do: preaching, teaching, healing, convicting . . . And yet, there were times when the constant pull on His time and faculties had to take its toll.
But even in this great tension between fulfilling His purpose on this earth and the nearly overwhelming demand on His time, Jesus never wavered in His commitment to be present, to be available, to meet the needs of those who earnestly sought Him out.
Jesus gave us one of the most important things anyone can give: His time and attention. He listened to people and addressed their individual needs.
He could have waived his hand and blessed the whole lot of them. But He didn’t. It seems He healed them individually, taking the time to heal, answer, and dialogue. His answers were different and individualized. He treated people not as the masses but as individuals.
This should floor us.
We look at the trials and murder of Jesus as His greatest sacrifice, and it surely is the most important sacrifice. But maybe the greatest sacrifice ever made was the initial decision to step out of heaven and to take on a body that needed food and sleep and water to function properly, and to place Himself within a community that was so needy, so misunderstanding, so greedy, so lost, so hateful . . .
I see myself in them, in these people who need, need, need Jesus. When you and I come to Jesus, we share a time-spanning connection with Nicodemus, with the paralytic, with the Centurion, with hundreds of other characters from the pages of the New Testament. Like the man who has had his ability to earn a living robbed by a warped and crippled hand, we come to Jesus seeking healing and seeking wholeness. And like Jesus did dozens of times, He obliges.
We cannot think of Jesus’ sacrifice and think only of the cross. We must think of every day Jesus spent between two eternities, cloaked in humanity, dealing with the ugly, messy, tiring work of “life-on-life” that defined His earthly ministry.
How can you honor Christ today by giving your time, even when it’s inconvenient?
Who needs to be listened to?
Who needs to be provided for?
Opportunities are all around us. We must look for them and be open when they look for us. When we encounter them, we must imitate Jesus, surrendering ourselves to those who ask.
This article originally appeared in Volume 24 of my free newsletter, Good For You.
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