Walking as Jesus Walked Mary Pytches
I
remember, many years ago, watching my brother-in-law walking in the garden deep
in thought. His head was down and his hands were clasped behind his back.
In his wake walked his two year old son, head down, hands behind his back
– a miniature replica of his father. God,
our Father has called us to ‘walk as Jesus walked’.
St.John, in his first letter, challenged his readers to do this in no
uncertain way. “Whoever claims to live in him (Jesus) must walk as Jesus
did.”(1 Jn.2:6). This verse
usually pops into my head at most inconvenient moments, when I least want to be
challenged by it. But it is a
verse that has far reaching implications for our lives and if we took it
seriously would radically change us. We
would be more fruitful, more fulfilled, more effective for the Kingdom of God,
and in this pressurised and stressed society we would find ourselves functioning
more peacefully.
We
have a tendency to view Jesus as a 1st Century person who did not
have to live with the same pressures as ourselves.
Therefore it wouldn’t be relevant to try and walk as he walked. In many
ways that is true. His life
and ours differ greatly. But
let’s think about the life of Jesus just for a moment.
He spent three years bombarded by people.
He was constantly confronted by crowds with heart breaking needs.
He lived with the urgent expectation that he would meet those needs.
The religious leaders criticised him and plotted against him.
He lived in community - always stressful.
He was let down by those closest to him.
On top of all this he was working towards a horrendous dead-line, which
he alone knew about. Yet he
walked calmly through it all. What
was his secret?
First of all Jesus walked ‘full of the Spirit’. Without a constant filling of his Spirit we can never be anything like Him. Having said that what sort of life did he live?
Jesus
Limited Himself
When
he was twelve years old he made an important statement.
“Wist
ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49 KJV) and then
later he told his disciples that ‘the son could do nothing by himself;
he can do only what he sees his Father doing because whatever the Father
does the Son does also. Jesus
limited himself to doing His Father’s business. Our
problem, so often, is that we so rarely stop to ask the question, “Should I be
doing this, or going here?” Instead
we respond to pressure; Outside
pressure from other people’s expectations, hopes and demands, and inside
pressure, to please, to be accepted, to live up to expectations, to meet the
needs of others and not to disappoint our family and friends.
Then we become like the chameleon when placed on a multi-coloured cloth. It becomes so stressed it just can’t cope. We do have a call upon our lives to serve. But those pressures can drive us to go beyond the call of God and then we are in trouble, because the strength God gives us is for doing His will.
Jesus
walked in dependence.
In
John’s gospel Jesus said that by himself he could do nothing.(Jn.4:30)
Self-sufficiency was foreign to Jesus.
For us it is as natural as breathing.
Our society encourages and endorses it. Besides that science and technology have almost taken
away our need for God. There
is nothing wrong with our technological advances, except when these take the
place of God. He has to be our
primary resource; the first to whom
we turn in our moments of need. We
need to cultivate a mind-set of dependence, because this takes away the stress
of having to try and do it all ourselves.
Knowing the truth about ourselves will help. Jesus said to his disciples, “Without me you can do nothing.”(Jn.15:5). “But,” we argue. “surely we can do something?” The fact is we can’t add one hour to our existence. Our lives are totally in the hands of God. He has our days numbered. Besides this, we can do nothing of eternal value unless God inspires it. We can’t heal the sick. We can’t bring the prodigals home. We can’t conjure up that prophetic word that will go straight to a person’s heart. We can’t answer our own prayers. And we can’t convert anyone. Once convinced of this truth dependence on God becomes a must.
Jesus
was constantly alert and expectant.
The
fact that Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing implies that Jesus was
always alert to what his Father wanted him to do next.
In fact Jesus was completely hooked on his Father’s will.
He said that his food was to do the will of him who had sent him and to
finish his work. (Jn.4:34) He
was hungry for the Father’s will, and it was that hunger that kept Jesus alert
and watching for what God wanted to do next.
If we are travelling on a long journey and we become hungry, instead of
dozing in the back of the car we begin to sit up and watch for a sign that tells
us there is a service station with food ahead.
We need to whet our appetite to see God at work.
One of the ways we can do it is by recounting stories of God’s mercy
and power to one another. A
friend calls these, ‘Holy Ghost stories’.
Excitement about God can be caught from other people,
so it’s worth visiting places where God seems to be moving in power.
We all know that if you want to get a sun tan you have to sit in the sun.
It’s no good sitting under an umbrella.
Similarly if you want to be blessed by God go where there is a move of
His Spirit.
Stepping out in faith and taking risks for God is something else which whets our appetite. A friend of mind worked in a rather up-market ladies’ dress shop and one day a woman came into the shop looking for a new outfit. While she was in the shop she began to feel faint. My friend took her to the back of the shop and sat her down. She fetched her some water and then she felt God prompting her to offer to pray for her. To her surprise the lady agreed to have prayer, so my friend gently laid her hand on the woman’s shoulder and prayed a short prayer for healing. The lady eventually felt recovered enough to leave. The next day she came back in to thank my friend for praying for her. She said she had experienced an extraordinary peace. My friend’s life was changed. Suddenly her job ceased to be hum-drum and ordinary and she found herself going to work feeling excited at what God might do that day.
Jesus
was focussed
In
one place the crowds came looking for Jesus and he wouldn’t see them because
he said that he must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other
towns also, because that is why he was sent.(Luke 4:42).
And the writer to the Hebrews encourages us to “fix our eyes upon Jesus
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, scorning its
shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”(Heb.12:2)
Jesus’ whole life was
focused on the Kingdom of God. It
is what he lived for. He
taught about it, ministered in its power, and all the time anticipated the
moment when he would once again sit in the Kingdom at his Father’s right hand.
Every miracle, every healing, every prayer he prayed, every word from his
Father reminded him of what he could look forward to.
Jesus was a man anointed with the oil of gladness because he never lost
this focus.
Of
all people we should be happy.
Joy will come as we make the Kingdom of God our focus; as we pray for
God’s Kingdom to come; as we have foretastes of the Kingdom, and as we
anticipate the day that awaits us, when the Kingdom will come in all its
fullness. The charge that we are in
it just for ‘Pie in the sky when we die’, has robbed many of their
legitimate joy. Why shouldn’t we
look forward to what is to come? Jesus
certainly did!
The facts are the Kingdom is here already – and we can experience the future breaking into the present even now. But one day the Kingdom will come in all its Glory. We have a fantastic future ahead of us and we will have the privilege of taking part in the great celebration, which the Bible calls the Wedding Feast. The other day I heard the story of a little boy who set his heart on being in the school play. His mother thought he was much too young to be picked. The day the parts were to be given out his mother went to meet him from school with a heavy heart. She knew she would have a job to comfort her disappointed son. The children came out of school and suddenly she heard a little voice shouting her name. “Mummy, Mummy, guess what? I’ve been chosen - I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer.” Well, friends so have we. We have been chosen to clap and cheer, and we’ve even been chosen to sit down at the marriage feast of the Lamb. What a day that will be!.