3 Attributes of the Pace of Jesus We Need to Emulate
By Michael Kelley
Isn’t it amazing how, when you spend enough time with someone, even the smallest things can alert you to their presence? Imagine sitting in your home and the back door opens. You hear footfalls, and more than likely, you’re able to get a pretty good idea of who it is that just came into the house. Just by their walk. Their gait. The heaviness of their steps and the length of their stride.
We all walk a little differently.
When we turn to the Bible, one of the words we find the authors using again and again to describe the ongoing relationship we have with God is “walk.” And if that’s true, then surely it’s not too much to think that as we “walk” with Jesus, we become familiar with the manner of His walking. Moreover, we also want to emulate that way of walking. His pace tells us much about His priorities and, therefore, what our priorities should also be.
So what is it about the pace of Jesus that we should seek to emulate? At least these three things:
1. Unhurried.
Jesus seems to have an unhurried pace. That is to say, He always seems to have time to stop for people, even when doing so was annoying to those around Him. Consider the scene in Mark 10 with me. It’s another busy day in the life of Jesus. His reputation has spread; He scarcely has a moment to Himself any more. Everywhere He and His disciples were turning, there were people. Sick people. Needy people. Accusing people. Skeptical people. And, on this particular day, there were also a bunch of kids.
The disciples didn’t want any part of those children. In fact, they “rebuked” the parents and their disruptive kiddos (Mark 10:13). That’s a strong word – rightly so. There was nothing polite about what the disciples did; it's not as if they pulled mom and dad aside and quietly whispered, “Jesus is actually teaching right now, but we’re going to have a meet and greet later and you are more than welcome to come then.” This word is so strong, in fact, that in another form it can be translated as “punished.” In response, Jesus is even more incensed than they were at this intrusion:
“When Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me'” (Mark 10:14).
Jesus had time in the midst of the busyness for those the world would neglect. So should we.
2. Interruptable.
Jesus also walked at an interruptible pace. Take a single chapter of Scripture from the gospels like Mark chapter 5. Jesus and His followers travel across the Sea of Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes. No sooner do they get out of the boat, when they are interrupted by a crazy, unkempt, dangerous, social outcast of a man who lived among the dead. Jesus and His disciples make their landing on the other side of the sea and they are interrupted again by a large crowd of people, presumably seeking His teaching and His healing. But before He could begin to minister among them, He’s interrupted again by a synagogue ruler named Jairus who fell at His feet begging that He come with him and heal his daughter.
Jesus agrees and begins to follow the man, when He’s again interrupted by the crowd pressing in on Him, clawing and grabbing, all seeking something from Him. This interruption is interrupted by a single woman who crept up silently behind Jesus and touched the hem of His garment, and she is healed from an affliction that had lasted over a decade. It’s interruption after interruption after interruption. Interruptions by crowds, by outcasts, by diseases, by grief – always an interruption.
And yet nowhere in this passage do we have any indication that Jesus was put off, annoyed, or otherwise inconvenienced by any of these infringements on His personal schedule.
3. Intentional.
Jesus was unhurried; He was also interruptible. But He was never UNintentional. Just one example here:
As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).
Jesus was never arbitrary. He walked with purpose, even when that purpose meant heading straight toward His death in Jerusalem.
And like Him, we should be intentional in the manner we are walking, believing God has put before us good works He planned in advance for us to do.
So how are you walking today? Are you so consumed with your own priorities that you can’t be interrupted? Or is your schedule so packed that you have to always be in a hurry? Or is it the other way - you’re just sort of meandering your way through life without any intentionality to do the good Jesus has for you?
Walk like Jesus today. Walk unhurriedly. And interruptably. And with great intention.
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
