A thought about Jesus

As I wrestled with my very life this morning on getting out of bed to spend some quality time alone with Jesus, I thought, “Jesus, did you ever lay there in the morning and think, ‘I’m tired, can I just lay here for another half-hour God?’ or ‘This rock that my head is on and this campfire here is just too cozy, just another round of the snooze and I’ll be up.’”

For many of you, that thought may just be too sacriligious for you. Not for me. While I believe He was the Son of God, I also believe He was all man, and if Hebrews said that we have a great high preist that was tempted in every way we have been, well, I think that means all the way down to the innate desire in every human to just “sleep in a little bit.”

However, I’m not convinced He necessarily ever gave in to it. Here’s my reasoning. I’m on a journey through the book of Luke right now. When I got up to read this morning, part of the passage I read said that He spent time one evening healing all who were brought to Him. Then it says, the next morning, at daybreak, Jesus got up and went to a solitary place.

So, I imagine that when it says all, it doesn’t mean that two or three people in the area just happened to be sick and so He healed them. I imagine that if demons were being cast out, and people with lifelong illnesses and people that were knocking on death’s door were being healed, then absolutely everybody who knew of somone who was sick in at least a few mile region brought them to Jesus.

And, I don’t think He just lined them up and filed them through like they were at the DMV getting their tag. Jesus didn’t do things like that. He took time to look you in the eye and say, “I love you,” or “You are my friend if you do what I command,” and “No greater love has a man than this, than the one who lay His life down for You, and I’m going to do that for you if you will just follow me in obedience.” So what I’m saying is, that He probably spent time with each individual that passed through, looking them in the eyes and telling them things about themselves that they were not prepared for. That probably means, some of them collapsed in His arms and wept for a few minutes, which would have taken more time.

I’m even willing to concede that there was no shortage of children with make-believe bandaids because “their finger hurt” and they needed a bandaid. And when they saw Jesus making people feel better, you know they came up to Him and held it out for Him to “kiss and make better.” I think when Jesus saw these little guys He probably let out a good laugh. Not the kind where you think, “that guy’s laughing at me and I don’t like it,” but the kind where you think, “that guy just got genuine enjoyment out of that really cute kid who wanted his finger to be made better,” and that kind of laugh just makes me feel good. The kind of laugh where Jesus kind of has to rock back in his chair a little bit and give a good clap of his hands (a clap that’s kind of loud that you might get scolded for in a normal situation).

I think at that moment, He probably would have picked up a child and placed her in his lap, and said something like, “the kingdom of heaven is filled with people who have faith like this little child who comes willingly seeking healing for brokeness. There is no question here of how and why. She just recognizes the love that God has and holds out her wound for healing.”

All that to say that I bet it took Jesus a lot of time to get through that night with all the little children, and sick people, and teaching moments, and bathroom breaks, and people crying in His arms because they felt loved for the first time in their life. Still, He gets up at the break of day to seek solitude. He might have asked if He could linger a little longer in the bed, but He knew the importance of that short time He may have had with His Father before another day really kicked in. And His night seems a little longer and more important than staying up unitl 11 watching a college football game.