Something stood out to me in Matthew chapter 4 and made me think of something. I initially put it aside because I didn’t want to overreach the intent of the text. But it kept standing out and speaking to me.
Here’s the verse that stuck out:
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee … From then on Jesus began to preach.
—Matthew 4:12a, 17a
First, a quick recap. In chapter 3, Jesus comes to John to be baptized. God the Father expresses his approval and says of Jesus, “This is my Son.” Then Jesus is led into the wilderness for 40 days, where he is tempted by the devil.
Meanwhile, John the Baptist is arrested and imprisoned. When Jesus hears about it, two things happen: 1) he relocates, and 2) he begins his public preaching ministry.
So what is so interesting about this that it keeps drawing me back? To put it simply, what stands out to me is that Jesus waits his turn.
John was the voice in the wilderness whose mandate was to prepare the way. When Jesus shows up, gets baptized and receives God’s blessing, he doesn’t tell John, “All right, you’re done. My time to shine.”
He waits. He spends a few weeks in the wilderness fasting and duelling with the devil. It’s only when he hears that John the Baptist has been imprisoned that he takes the stage.
Philippians 2 comes to mind. Speaking of Jesus, Paul says:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Jesus knew why he had come, and it wasn’t to make a name for himself. He was patient and waited until the right time to begin appearing more publicly. This was no small thing. Throughout the Gospels, we see how aware Jesus is that every sermon he preaches and every miracle he performs takes him closer to the cross.
Jesus waited his turn. His time. God’s time.
Okay, I’m obviously not Jesus, so let’s take this down a few notches for application.
We have a trailer at a Christian campground. I have a lot of history there: camping as a child, volunteering as a teenager, organizing and speaking at teen retreats and camping with my family. I love being there. For some reason, it is the place where God has often chosen to speak to me in life-changing ways. Anyway, that’s not the point.
Every week there is a Sunday morning chapel for staff, volunteers and seasonal campers like us. They need people to help with the preaching from week to week.
Last year, I considered offering my availability but decided against it because the timing did not feel right. This year, a couple of weeks before the camps began, an email went out listing all the Sundays when a guest speaker was needed and asking for candidates. I again hesitated, worried that I would not be considered. Although I was a pastor for 16 years, my more recent history of turning my back on God and then returning has left me wondering what people might think of me.
I decided to stick my neck out. I responded to the email and said that I would be happy to help. I received a response thanking me and saying they would get back to me. That was the last I heard. In the following weeks, the same email went out a few more times, still showing empty slots and asking for candidates.
Needless to say, during those first few weeks, I wrestled with the feeling that I was being ignored. Every time a new email arrived, I wanted to say, “Hello! I’m here!” At one point, I told my wife I would speak to the person in charge and flat-out ask whether they had forgotten about me or were intentionally leaving me off the list. She suggested that it was a bad idea.
I wasn’t really going to do that. As much as I wanted to, I knew I was hurt and that my heart was not in the right place to have that conversation.
I talked it out with God instead. I had to contend with my well-intentioned desire to preach again, along with my confusion about why I was not being considered. God was teaching me that it was okay to wait. It wasn’t my time, and I didn’t need to grasp for it. He knows my heart. He knows what he is doing in me and what he wants to do through me. He knows how and under what circumstances those things will take place.
So why did that simple partial verse stand out to me when I read it recently? Because it reminded me that Jesus waited for his time, and so could I. While Jesus waited, he was being prepared, and so am I. Jesus did not grasp at something even though he could have, and neither should I.
There you have it. A little piece of me and an example of how sometimes the smallest bit of Scripture can speak to the deepest longings of our hearts.
How about you? Is there a little bit of Scripture tugging at you these days? Maybe to comfort you? Maybe to confront you?