The closing words of the gospel of John declare:

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

That is a huge statement—and one that has found validation in the ensuing centuries as countless words have been written to offer insight into the life and work of Jesus Christ on this earth. A brief article such as this could never replicate what is provided in the volumes of material readily available to help people in considering the Christ, but perhaps a brief article can focus on one particular aspect of Jesus’ life upon this earth.

Not one time in the gospels is Jesus ever described as being in a hurry.

That is fascinating to me. Everything that Jesus did was purposeful, yet even those purposes did not drive him to rush about. Those purposes were aligned with a keen awareness of both time and the times. For instance, his awareness of the times is seen in his repeated assertion, “My hour/time has not yet come”—a statement that Jesus made or is made of Jesus four times in John’s gospel alone (2:4; 7:8, 30; 8:20). Then, upon the arrival of passion week, Jesus suddenly declared:

And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit…” (John 12:23–24)

From “my hour has not come” to “the hour has come” shows a significant understanding in Jesus’ heart and mind that the purposes of God, forestalled during the years of his incarnation, were now fully upon him.

In terms of time itself, a good example of Jesus’ lack of hurry is found in John 11. Jesus receives a message from his friends Martha and Mary that his friend Lazarus is seriously ill. It is almost shocking to us that, far from rushing to Lazarus’ side, Jesus actually delays his arrival at their Bethany home by several days (John 11:6). When Jesus does arrive, Lazarus is now dead, and the sisters confront Jesus with the fact that, had he been there, Lazarus would not have died (John 11:21,32). Important questions roll out of their grief:

Why did Jesus not come?
Even more, why did he delay?
Did he not understand that the time was short?

Yet, the fact is that Jesus’ arrival was not to be determined by the tyranny of the urgent or by the immediacy of the moment. His timing was submitted to his ultimate purpose, which he had shared with his disciples upon hearing of Lazarus’ illness:

“This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” (John 11:4)

Had Jesus hurried to Bethany, Lazarus’ recovery would have been but one in the pantheon of Jesus’ healing miracles. But raising Lazarus from the dead to foreshadow his own coming resurrection would accomplish higher purpose—again, Jesus’ awareness of time aligning perfectly with God’s ultimate purposes.

In our own experience, how much of the time (pun intended) are we driven by the clock or the calendar? That is not always bad or sinful, but it can be destructive. Of the many myriads of things we can learn from the example of our Lord, perhaps one of the most practical of lessons could be how we view time and God’s timing. After all, only he truly knows the times of our lives.

Bill Crowder