The Forgotten Priorities of Jesus
Jesus is, and has been, the most momentous figure in the history of man kind. No one person has had the level of continuous, life-changing influence that Jesus has. His teaching has changed hearts and guided His people through many trials and tribulations. However, over the tumultuous years, much of Jesus’ character seems to have been “lost in translation.” Across the country in Christian churches of various denominations, Jesus is often taught as though He were a static character. Some attributes of Jesus are emphasized; others are tossed away or ignored. However, a closer observation of the Gospels reveals that He is anything but static and is actually very dynamic. He has many sides and expresses many emotions. If Jesus were not multi-dimensional, He would not have accurately represented the Father, and He would not have completely fulfilled His role as the Son of Man and Messiah. If Jesus were static, Christians wouldn’t be able to connect with Him on the same level that they can. As dynamic, three dimensional beings, believers need a multi-dimensional Messiah and Teacher to follow. However, Christians and their churches need to recognize that Jesus was multi-dimensional, and to do so, they need to rediscover many of the priorities He had here on earth that have been commonly overlooked since He has returned to the Father.
Something Christ’s fervent followers tend to forget is that He carefully balanced His time. He recognized the need for time away from ministry. Jesus was both fully God and fully man, and He made sure to spend time to Himself. All of the Gospels contain instances when Jesus went off to be with Himself, but Luke, who was very thorough and careful with his details, contains some of the most interesting instances of this (Strauss, 289). One significant moment where Jesus left for personal time was right before He chose the twelve apostles. In Luke 6:12 it says, “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God” (NASB). It was good and important to Him to spend personal time with God in prayer. It is also crucial to see that this personal time did not last for just a few minutes but for the entire night. This was no small matter to Him. Also, readers should be careful to notice that Jesus spent this intense time in prayer with God right before making a significant and important decision–choosing the twelve.
Later, Luke records another instance that is really important to the idea of spending time alone, “When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida” (Luke 9:10). Again, we see that it was important to Jesus to get away from His ministerial duties for a time to recover and to spend personal time with God. This is described several times in the Gospels, yet this still seems to be one aspect of Jesus’ life that is mostly ignored in churches today. So often, based on personal observation, passionate people in ministry burn themselves out by simply taking on too much and not balancing their ministry duties with personal recovery time and prayer spent with God. I saw this a lot among the interns and youth pastors at Central Christian Church when I was a high school student. It was visibly clear that they were weary and burned out. Luke's record of this instance of Jesus withdrawing for personal time is really important for one particular reason; He takes the twelve with Him, whom he had just sent out on their first journey to share the gospel and to heal the people. We see that Jesus recognized this importance of personal time not only for Himself but also for His followers. This did not simply apply to Jesus and His immediate followers but to modern-day Christians as well. However, this should never be an excuse to avoid ministry opportunities. On the other hand, energetic followers too often swing to the other side of the spectrum and simply devote themselves to too much. Before long, they burn out and are no longer effective in their ministry duties. It is very important to have regular “escapes” for mental, spiritual, and physical recovery. This idea is again echoed in Mark 6:31 when Jesus requests His disciples to come with Him, “to a secluded place and rest a while.”
Jesus took time alone for reasons reaching beyond rest and personal prayer with God. The same scene mentioned in Mark 6:31 is also recorded in Matthew 14:12-13 with some interesting surrounding context. Matthew records Jesus withdrawing with His disciples after news had reached Him that John the Baptist was beheaded. John MacArthur raised an interesting point in his New Testament Commentary on this issue when he said, “John was deeply loved by Jesus, and when Jesus heard it, He withdrew from there in a boat, to a lonely place by Himself” (428). It is very plausible that Jesus withdrew to mourn the death of John. We can draw this conclusion based on further knowledge of Jesus as both fully God but also fully man–a man who experienced the strong emotions that come with being human. MacArthur, however, expands on the significance of the scene saying, “... it seems certain that Jesus [also] took this opportunity to further prepare His disciples for what lay ahead for them. Christ Himself would be the next to die” (428).
Again and again, it can be seen that Jesus withdraws by Himself during ministry. In Luke 5:16, Luke specifically mentions that, “Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” The Word Biblical Commentary had more to say on this particular passage making the point that, “… while Jesus teaches and heals the crowds he will not be at their disposal and be taken possession of by them. To be a successful preacher and healer does not achieve the goal of Jesus’ ministry: he must continue to move on” (Nolland, 228). He would not always perform ministry or stay in the same place.
Thus, it is inescapably clear that Jesus consistently and methodically took time to withdraw from ministry and to spend personal time for numerous reasons including rest, prayer to God, praying about big decisions, mourning loved ones, and more. If these weren’t important aspects of Jesus’ life, they would not be mentioned so often in the Gospels. Yet, as mentioned before, so often leaders at Central Christian neglect to slow down and comprehend why Jesus did this. I wanted to express my heart on this issue because I’ve seen many pastors and leaders at my church fail so often in this area. They wrap themselves up so tightly in ministry that they neglect their own spiritual lives, and they neglect to give their minds and bodies the proper rest they need. I struggle with this; it is so easy to get excited and want to get involved in everything. It’s so easy to let our hearts carry us into more than we can handle. When I am busy with school, involved in the college community on campus, serving in youth ministry at one church, attending service at another, helping support friends in their current struggles, driving back and forth from Mesa and Phoenix to maintain a good relationship with family, and also working on starting and running an online movement/outreach to those who don’t know Christ, it is very easy to get overwhelmed. I’ve learned that no matter what, though, I cannot neglect my own spiritual life; I cannot neglect my own relationship with God, and I cannot neglect the restoration that my body needs. When I do, everything starts to crumble, and suddenly I begin to become ineffective in serving God in the ministries that I am so passionate about.
In response to this, I have tried to change how I organize my time this semester. Last year, I often neglected to get the proper amount of sleep. This semester, I set up my schedule to allow for more rest. I also make sure to spend time in prayer and in God’s Word each day. My goal has been to tend to my own spiritual condition and relationship with God while also serving and interacting with others through ministry. I have had to learn to say ‘no’ because from time to time, I am unable to take on more than I already have going on, but ultimately I have felt closer to God and have had more energy for outreach.
Christians often forget more about Jesus than simply how He managed His time, though. They forget what is important to Jesus. Time and time again, we see that Jesus was concerned with matters of the heart. Unlike the Pharisees at the time, who were concerned more with works and external “righteousness,” Jesus was concerned with the health and humility that can only come from one whose heart was in the proper place. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is filled with this idea. For instance, in Matthew 6:1, Jesus warned His disciples to, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; other wise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” It is clear that, “the Sermon’s demands do not nor did they ever intend to express a new legalism by which one was guaranteed entrance into the Kingdom” (Guelich, 30-31). Jesus was trying to teach His disciples not what they were supposed to do, but where their heart should be. Robert A. Guelich explained this well in his book on the Sermon on the Mount, “Jesus does not pronounce as blessed those who obey his words or do the will of the Father but those who stand as empty-handed, desperate, those hungering and thirsting for a right relationship with the Father and others. Acompanying that blessing comes God's response with the enablement to live accordingly” (30-31).
This theme of Jesus' teaching permeates all of the Gospels. Gutzke said, “People apart from God may be doing the best they can, working through life as well as they know how, but that is not good enough. Jesus did not show them a better way to work. He did not show them better or wiser methods, or exhort and admonish them to try harder” (91). Jesus was not teaching people to do, but rather to live. He was not concerned with actions or appearances but instead with the heart and how we lived through that right motivation of humility and service. In Matthew 18:1, Jesus talks to His disciples about how they should become like children and to humble themselves as children. In Jewish culture, children did not have any social status; they were not looked up to nor were they revered. “Christians should be like little children in several respects. First, children are more innocent and guileless by nature than older people. The only way an elder person can become childlike in the true sense is to be converted; he must have a change of heart...” (Rice, 269). It all comes down to the humility of the heart.
The best examples of those with prideful hearts in the New Testament are the Pharisees. In Matthew 23, when Jesus was challenging the Pharisees with His eight woes, He said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” (vs. 7) Though the Pharisees tried very hard to be religious and to please God, they failed to attend to the condition of their hearts; they did not understand what it meant to be a follower of God. John Rice had this comment about Matt 23:27, “you may be sure that however moral and beautiful the outward life, unregenerated hearts ‘are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness’” (360-361). The Pharisees simply didn’t understand what Jesus was teaching.
Yet, I think even though we have the teachings of Jesus recorded for us, we often don’t understand either. Having been involved in the youth ministry at Central Christian and having seen all of the leaders behind the scenes, I can honestly say that we sometimes get caught up in doing and looking good in front of the youth so much so that we neglect our own hearts. So easily we forget that it is about the genuineness and condition of the heart. Often, those of us in ministry get caught doing it for the wrong reasons. So often we do things out of either a desire to earn God’s approval or because we feel like we are greater people for doing what we do. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and believing that puts us in a very stressful position because at some point we will fail and our pride will be hurt. We then become susceptible to believing that God is greatly disappointed with us and, in response, we will simply try to make ourselves more holy and spiritual to please Him. That simply is not what it is all about. Again and again, I find myself wrestling with this. Constantly I have to ask myself why I am living the life I live and why I am doing what I am doing. Am I doing it to boost my opinion of myself, to please God, or simply out of a loving desire to serve God and others? I have to ask myself where my heart is at. By constantly exercising inner reflection, I can evaluate the condition of my heart.
Unfortunately, it can be so easy for Christians to disregard some of the most important priorities of Jesus. Christians must continually delve into the Word to refresh themselves with what God is calling them to do and what Jesus taught His disciples both through spoken word and action. Personal experience and observation of those at my church, Central Christian, has shown me that Christians commonly forget how Jesus managed His life and made sure to rest and spend personal time with God. Experience at my church also leads me to believe that Christians commonly struggle with keeping their hearts in the right place. It is so easy for us to become like the Pharisees and often without even knowing it. We need to recognize Jesus’ priorities so that we can start living a more truly multi-dimensional faith like the one that He lived. Truly, if Christians made it a point to focus more on these two priorities of Jesus, the churches and individual believers of today would be radically different and have a greater impact on society for God’s Kingdom.
Works Cited
Guelich, Robert A. The Sermon on the Mount - A Foundation For Understanding. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1982. 30-31. Print.
Gutzke, Manfor George. Plain Talk on Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1966. 91. Print.
MacArthur, John F. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary -Matthew 8-15. Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1987. 423. Print.
Nolland, John. Word Biblical Commentary - Luke 1-9:20. 35a. Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1989. 228. Print.
Rice, John R. The King of the Jews, A Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew. Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1964. 269, 360-361. Print.
Strauss, Mark L. Four Portraits, One Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007. 289. Print.
