What was a day like in the life of Jesus during ordinary times?
KirklandI have thought about that often through the years. It has especially been on my mind lately. I’m teaching an eight-session survey of the New Testament in my church’s Discipleship Training Center. We’ve just completed our examination of the writings of the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
It’s a formidable assignment. Eight 45-minute classes don’t allow opportunity for as much in-depth study as I prefer. This is particularly daunting because the documents we’re dealing with are primary to our faith.
As challenging as the assignment is, however, I still would like to have in hand a full-blown biography of Jesus. The Gospel writers selected events in the life of our Lord to convince selected audiences that he was, and is, the Son of God, the Messiah, our Savior. To say more did not suit their purposes. Inspired to write, they preserved what is necessary for us to know to believe in the Christ.
Jesus lived for approximately 33 years. Three of those years were given to his public ministry. It’s further estimated that the Gospels account for only a few months, at most, of the ministry of our Master.
The Christian liturgical calendar followed by many congregations lists what are called the “strong seasons” of the church year. These are Advent leading to Christmas and Lent leading to Easter.
There also is something termed “ordinary time,” which commonly consumes 33 weeks, or about eight months, of the church year. These weeks are distinguished by what they are not about. They do not include celebration by the church of the birth of Jesus or his death and resurrection, for example.
It is easier for many to be followers of Jesus during the “strong seasons.” There is that amazing star. There is that amazing empty tomb.
We, however, spend the majority of our days in “ordinary time.”
And so, I believe, did Jesus.
The ministry of Jesus grew, in large part, out of the ordinary circumstances of his life. The Scriptures give evidence of both the consistency and the method of the ministry of Jesus in five words: “He went about doing good.”
He drew from the common elements of life to teach – yokes, salt, yeast, bread, fish, sheep, grapes, coins, candles, houses, water.
It was out of life’s daily routine that Jesus summoned Peter and Andrew from their fishing with ordinary words: “Follow me.”
It is out of the ordinary places of life and out of the ordinary relationships of life that Jesus calls his followers. And the lives of disciples of Christ can remain very ordinary most of the time.
Andrew Overman is a professor specializing in religion at Macalester College in Minnesota. He has written, “Given the relatively small size of Lower Galilee and the close proximity of the Galilean places named in the Gospels, there is no need to assume that those who followed Jesus never returned home again.”
He suggested what he considers a far more likely scenario: The disciples ventured out on the road for a day or two and then returned to their homes and towns. “Jesus,” he said, “retained ties with his mother and his village, and Peter did the same with his home and village. The group was never more than a half-day to a day’s walk from their traditional homes.”
Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Jesus went to Peter’s home in Capernaum and, finding the apostle’s mother-in-law sick with a fever, healed her. Peter was the acknowledged leader of the disciples. He also was a husband with responsibilities at home.
What did Jesus do every day? We know he did much. Most of it is lost to history. John and Matthew were the only Gospel writers who knew Jesus personally. Matthew wrote primarily to convince a Jewish audience that Jesus was the promised Messiah. John wrote to convince his audience that Jesus is the Son of God, the Word that became a human being and lived with mortal man.
John wrote that if all the things Jesus did were written down one by one, “I suppose that the whole world could not hold the books that would be written.”
Though I know it’s not possible, I still long to know more about the life of Jesus that was fleshed out daily with people not so different from you and me. It was out of that setting that he called his disciples then. It’s no different now except for the passage of time.
We are summoned to follow Jesus in the everyday circumstances of our lives. We are ordinary people doing ordinary things most of the time. To the early disciples of our Lord, the invitation to “Follow me” was enough.
In seeking followers, Jesus didn’t call the qualified; he qualified the called. They received on-the-job training as they walked with him. So it is with us. As we walk with our Lord through the presence of the Holy Spirit, we deepen our relationship with him and with others.
“Follow me.” Ordinary words said in ordinary time to ordinary people – but with extraordinary results. There’s nothing ordinary about that.