How did Jesus spend most of his time?
Preaching, healing, praying, or performing miracles?
Not if he was really human.
Consider this anachronistic proposal: The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average person Jesus’ age spends 8.6 hours in work and related activities. He spends 7.6 hours sleeping, 2.6 hours in sports and leisure, 1.2 hours caring for others, 1.1 hours eating and drinking, 1.1 hours in household activities, and 1.8 hours involved in ‘other.’
Given the realities of first century life, Jesus may have spent more time cleaning up after sheep, sewing tent flaps, hauling wood, sleeping, and grinding out a living than he did praying, studying, and attending services in the Temple.
In other words, Jesus’ life may not have been all that different from yours and mine.
Let’s think about this as we consider the calling of the disciples, which we will hear about in church on Sunday. When Jesus calls them to be ‘fishers of men,’ he didn’t mean the disciples would never fish again (indeed, they would: see John 21:3) – what it means is that the central focus of their lives would no longer be what it once was. The calling of the disciples wasn’t about them changing what they did as much as it was changing who they were.
What this means is that their life-focus was no longer to revolve around providing food and shelter for self and family, temple worship, and tending to the duties their particular culture had assigned. The disciples would learn about, accept, then embark upon a new life-organizing theme: to be attentive and obedient to the Christ who had called them. This is the most substantial way in which they, ‘left their nets.’
Too often our culture assigns the heavy-lifting of Christ-following to the ordained, ‘professional Christians’ among us. And too rarely do we assume that Jesus and the 12 likely have a lot more in common with those of us who spend our days in front of computer screens, tending to ill patients, teaching kids, designing conveyor belts, or answering telephones. They, like us, also balanced what it means to follow God with what it means to be human.
Sure, our careers will almost always be the central time-consumer of our lives, but they must never define who we are. We are Christ’s summoned and sent, changed from within and charged with a mission. How are we allowing this to define us? How are we putting into perspective our career and our calling? In what ways do we too need to, ‘leave behind our nets’ and follow him?
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Reading
The Art of the Start – Gary Kawasaki
The Witness of Preaching – Tom Long
Banksy
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