Good Friday morning! Another lesson taught last night, and another example of the Holy Spirit using me for God's glory. Tomorrow is some sort of airplane thing at our local aero-port. Apparently the pilots of airplanes fly-in to our airport and then everyone celebrates with breakfast. I'm not sure that I get the challenge. Wouldn't flying-in to something like a box canyon be more of a challenge and worthy of celebration? I mean, aren't you supposed to fly in and out of airports? It's Friday and I like to ask silly questions on Fridays! I think I'll go up there to take some of them photographical thingies. I can make my profession sound silly too!
Today, we have another in the great verses of John's gospel.
Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people. John 3:22
Notice that nothing more is said of poor Nicodemus here. It's possible that Nico was left standing there stunned by what he had heard from Jesus. What I take from the ending of the conversation is that Nicodemus probably didn't decide to believe right away. Jesus gave the man a lot to think about, but he may not have forsaken his allegiance to the law at that time. We all want to earn our salvation and Jesus had just told Nicodemus the good news that we can't earn it. While Nicodemus pondered; Jesus and his disciples got underway and spent some time in the countryside. I spend a lot of time there these days, and that seems like a right good idea to me. Jesus didn't always seek out the crowds - of course, we know the crowds often found him anyway. Jerusalem was left to its own ways and devices for a while, and Jesus kept on working.
How much would some time with Jesus be worth to a small group of disciples today? We don't even have to have a large group; Jesus told us that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there among them. We see a lot of charges for time. Lawyers, psychologists, consultants, and many others charge by the hour for their services. Many workers are paid by the hour by employers. So if we take the highest amount charged by the most highly paid, oh poo, take the hourly equivalent of one of those mega-millions athletic or CEO contracts and put that up against an hour of Jesus' time, what would the difference be? Right, Jesus never charged a dime! But the time the disciples spent with him was also beyond price.
The largest fee ever spent for lunch with Warren Buffett, the highest rate ever charged by a superstar lawyer to celebrity client, and the millions paid to a CEO to leave and do no work at all, could be added together and it wouldn't be enough to buy an hour of Jesus' time. His time wasn't for sale! I like the picture of Jesus and his disciples leaving the city for a quiet time out in the country. To me it's a shame that some of our cities are so large now that it takes a vacation for some folks just to leave the city. We need our quiet time and Jesus set the example for us. Even from his small group of disciples Jesus took time to be alone with God. With the needs of many so great in the city, Jesus also took time for the countryside.
Have a great day in Christ!
Bucky
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