Timing is essential for so many things in our lives. Athletes know this well and train continually to get better at their sport, thus gaining another quarter of a second or an extra inch (2.54 centimeters) or foot (30.48 centimeters). Nobody says “I do” at a funeral. That’s the language of wedding ceremonies, and even there it needs to come at the right time. Health is also linked to patterns of timing. Healthy people have healthy eating, sleeping, or exercising patterns. They know that these patterns help them to thrive.
Timing is also important in our spiritual lives; it follows patterns and rhythms established by a good Creator yearning to bless His creation. Shabbat is not just 24 hours at the culmination of a weekly cycle, but an ordering of our lives that is God-directed and at the same time aiming at blessing those around us who are—like us—part of the fabric of this God-given living system.
How can we live unhurried lives in a world that is governed by schedules and calendars? What can we learn from how Jesus, the God-man, lived His short life on earth—based on what we know from the Gospels? How do we live unhurriedly the Sabbath pattern underlying a good and perfect creation in a world infected by sin, pain, and destruction?
The gift of time
In the beginning God created time. The Bible speaks of the rhythm of morning and evening as God spoke this planet and its solar system into being (Gen. 1). Time is a divine gift—even following the entrance of sin. Time is the currency God uses to bless His creation, the moment of possibilities. Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 formulates these times of human existence, often in juxtaposing pairs. “The first observation of grace is found in time,” writes Old Testament scholar Jacques Doukhan, commenting on the biblical text. “Unlike Greek philosophers, who saw time as a destructive power, the ancient Hebrews saw life in time. Thus, when Solomon says that there is a time for every event (v. 1), he does not mean that there is an appropriate moment for humans to act; neither does he mean that events happen without our control in a deterministic manner. The use of the preposition le (“to”), attached to the word “all” (to everything . . .), suggests instead that all these time events, the times of human existence, are to be received as grace from God.”1
Sabbath is an important expression of this gift to humanity during which God reminds us of our “creature-ness,” our origins, and our dependence on Him for grace and salvation. We meet God in time. Even though God is not limited by time, He is committed to the perfect time for saving His creation.
In the fullness of time
The wonder of the Incarnation is that the God who is way beyond the dimensions we live in—this God who created time—actually steps into time and becomes subject to time. Paul describes this in Galatians 4:4, 5: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”2 Jesus came in the fullness of time. God restricts Himself to a timetable, a great prophetic timetable that, despite Satan‘s repeated attempts to disrupt, knows no interruptions. It is an unhurried timetable. Jesus comes not only at the right place, but at the right time. The fact that God would voluntarily limit Himself speaks volumes about who He is. In His limitation to our time and despite all plotting and planning by the archenemy and his forces, God is never late, and He is never hurried. This gives us confidence as we face a turbulent, hurried, and unpredictable world.
We need to learn to differentiate between the urgent and the important.
Jesus’ timing
So how did Jesus live in time? From the outset we must acknowledge that people living in the first century A.D. did seem to have a different relationship to time compared to those living in a twenty-first-century world. Lives were not governed by clocks. People looked at the sky to estimate the time of day. There were no timetables for trains or planes. Perhaps life’s rhythms were gentler. Maybe that is a challenge or a call to all of us to, as far as possible, create moments of unhurried time in our lives, breathers that help us to look up for a moment, and not plan every microsecond.
But there were moments in Jesus’ life that were every bit as rushed as our lives often are. Take the incident in Luke 8:41-56, for instance. Jesus had arrived in town, and a large crowd was expecting Him. Imagine a lot of people, a lot of noise, and a lot of action in the crowded streets of Capernaum.3 It seems as if everyone wanted something from Jesus—and then came the very urgent plea from Jairus. Luke introduces him as a synagogue leader, someone of importance. Forgetting his dignity and throwing himself at the feet of Jesus, he pleads with Jesus to come to his house. The text suggests that timing matters, because his little girl is on the brink of death. This is urgent, and so Jesus slowly makes His way through the crowds that, we are told, are almost crushing Him.
This is rush-hour traffic, and Jesus makes His way on this very urgent business, but suddenly something important happens, and Jesus stops. He stops as the woman, who in faith touched His robe, is healed. Jesus sees this as an important faith-building moment for the woman and for the crowd, and so Jesus stops and takes time. Luke 8 reflects this time in the space that is given to the description of this encounter in verses 43 to 48 as Jesus makes the inquiries. The question of who touched Him seems out of time and place, as Peter is quick to point out. Yet Jesus takes the time to ask it, and the woman comes forward and in the presence of everyone she tells her story, which also takes time. She gives her testimony, and Jesus encourages her faith.
Luke underlines this urgent time push by noting that while Jesus is still speaking, a message comes. We can only imagine Jairus’ mounting anxiety as the woman haltingly tells her story while Jairus has something more important for Jesus to do. Time is ticking by. The message is devastating: “Your daughter is dead,” reports the biblical text. “Do not trouble the teacher anymore” (verse 49). Instead of moving faster or rushing forward, Jesus talks peace and courage to the heart of Jairus: “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well” (verse 50).
If we were hearing the story for the first time, we would gasp at the opportunity missed. Jesus didn’t take the urgency of the situation seriously enough, and it would seem that He had missed this important moment to heal the girl and work another life-transforming miracle. Even though the urgent seems to have been interrupted and the golden opportunity seems to have been missed, Jesus assures Jairus that nothing has been lost. Jesus seems to be talking about time as well. Jesus refused to be driven by the urgent. He refused to let the urgent drown out or overshadow the things in life that are really important.
We remember the rest of the story. Jesus raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead and returns her to her grieving parents. He was not slow to avoid catastrophe, but quick to grow faith and respond to trust in His timing—even with evidence to the contrary. The Life-giver uses this miracle to speak even more powerfully to the hearts of those who witness it.
Learning to live in heaven’s rhythms
What can we learn from God about time—this incredible commodity that we have only on loan? God’s interaction with time offers us clear lessons and calls us to reflect on it. God, who lives outside of time and space, is never hurried. As Creator of time, He is also Lord over time. He holds all time—including prophetic time—in His hand and will not be rushed.
And yet He understands our complex relationship to time. Jesus came to live inside of space and be subjected to time, showing us something about how we can relate to time. His life teaches us the importance of using time wisely while not being driven by time. We need to learn to differentiate between the urgent and the important. If we don’t learn to make this differentiation we will continually be driven by the urgent at the expense of the really important. So how do we stop this relentless drive of the urgent? Jesus demonstrates that we need to learn to live and walk in God’s rhythm. He regularly spent time talking to God in the quietness of early morning or the darkness of night, while people were clamoring for His attention or His disciples were looking for Him to get going on the urgent.
It is not easy to learn a new rhythm. Musicians say that rhythmic changes within a musical piece are very difficult, especially when we are in the middle of a song. So God gives us—every single week—a day to step back from the urgent that drives us and to reflect on what is really important. It’s a moment to change the rhythm. Taking this day as an opportunity to reevaluate how we are spending our time is an important part of Sabbath (among many other important things!).
It’s important to realize that our lives do not consist only of to-do lists and ticking off event boxes, but that nurturing our relationship with God and with those around us is more important than a plethora of accomplishments. How else can we learn to order our lives in God’s rhythm? Perhaps we could consciously step back from the unrealistic demands of our devices that drive us 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Perhaps we can turn off some of the push notifications. Perhaps we can make the decision to put our devices down and observe, listen, feel, touch, and smell. We can learn to listen to heaven’s echoes.
Letting go of the drive of the urgent isn’t easy. It can feel risky—as if we are losing control of our lives. But we can afford to let go of the continuous rush of the urgent as we, with the psalmist, rest in the security that “my times are in your hand” (Ps. 31:15), knowing that a loving God is unhurried and never late.
1 Jacques Doukhan, “Ecclesiastes,” in Andrews Bible Commentary, ed. Ángel M. Rodríguez et al. (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 2020), p. 798.
2 Scripture quotations have been taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
3 Luke never explicitly mentioned Capernaum as the location of the story. Matthew 9:1 seems to suggest that Jesus had returned to “his own city,” which, based on Matthew 4:13, was Capernaum.
