Timing matters.

Ask a comedian. Ask an actor. Ask a person running a punch press. Ask anyone involved in interaction, whether physical or verbal, whether getting things done at just the right time, matters.

I’m thinking that you can’t accomplish a purpose without a sense of timing.

Jesus seems to make that connection in a conversation with his brothers. They are encouraging him to go to the feast, to go show off.

He responds,

The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.

Jesus has a purpose that will come together at just the right time. What’s pretty clear from this is that his brothers don’t. At least not one like his.

They can do whatever they want whenever they want because what they say isn’t threatening to anyone, what they do doesn’t challenge anyone, doesn’t inconvenience anyone’s values, doesn’t get in anyone’s way.

I don’t think that is supposed to be comforting to his brothers, or to us.

Jesus did attack evil. He did take on structures and authorities and injustice, at the cultural level and at the individual level. The nature of his attack was to point out the problem and then aggressively, passionately, purposefully march straight to Jerusalem and … quietly surrender himself.

So, as I look in the mirror, am I safe to go anywhere because no one cares or am I safe to go anywhere because I’m in his care, in his timing, on his purpose?

I’m not sure his brothers understood. Honestly? Sometimes I wish I didn’t.

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