TIME FOR JESUS

We humans seem to be slaves of time. Time rules our lives. We have several clocks in the house: in the bed room on the night stand it shines in the night; on our microwave and kitchen stove timer; and on the wall in most every room. We even have it on our wrist, and often look at our cell phone where the time is displayed. How many times a day do we look to see what time it is. I have been asked by total strangers, even when I traveled to Siberia, "What time is it?" We are concerned about time!

Since Jesus is the eternal One, is He concerned about time? The Gospels give us details about His Life, His thinking, His concerns, and His purpose.This study deserves an in depth look at all 4 Gospels to see what Jesus relationship to time really was (is?). I am going to make a quick scan of the Gospel of John to get a glimpse of Jesus and time.

The first indication in John about this is in chapter 2:4. At the first miracle recorded in the Bible where Jesus turned water into wine at a marriage reception, He mentions time. When they ran out of wine, Jesus mother, Mary, came to tell Him, "They have no more wine." (I am puzzled about why she did this, but that's another subject) He told her that that was not His concern and then He said, "My time has not yet come."  What did He mean?

Then in John 7:1-6 we read the account of Jesus' brothers telling Him while they were yet in Galilee, that they should go to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. He refused to go then and He said, "The right time for me has not yet come."  What did He mean?

In the same chapter, 7, it tells us He finally went to Jerusalem and began to teach in the temple. The religious leaders did not want Him to teach and it says they "tried to seize Him". Then verse 30 says, "no one laid a hand on Him because His time had not yet come."

In the next chapter, 8, a similar scene takes place. He again is explaining His relationship to the Father and it says, "yet no one seized Him because His time had not yet come." It seems much of what happened to Jesus was governed by time.

Then, later in His life when once again He had entered the temple to teach just before the Passover Feast. A remarkable statement is made in contrast to all statements before about Jesus and "His Time". Verse 1 says, "Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father." And this began the last few days of Jesus' life of this earth. The right time was apparently important

And then in Jesus remarkable prayer to the Father in chapter 17:1 He says, "Father, the hour has come."

And immediately after praying He is arrested, tried, and crucified.

Time was important to Jesus. He was ready for His time. While we do not know, as He did the time of His coming death, we need to be ready because one of these times our time will come.