echurch

written by Stephan Joubert

Have you noticed that Jesus preferred not to use any form of transport while he was amongst us? Apart from the times when He crossed the Sea of Galilee on a boat, He always walked to wherever he wanted to go. That day when Jesus entered Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover on the back of a donkey, He used it as a symbolic means to illustrate his own humility and the true nature of God’s kingdom, not as a form of transport. The rest of the time Jesus used his own two feet to get wherever he wanted to go.

Jesus brought the kingdom of God into our world at walking speed. At a ‘staggering’ two miles per hour He transported God’s amazing grace into grace-less territory. Jesus never hurried to where He was going. He always had time on hand. As a matter of fact, He waited nearly thirty years before he even officially opened his mouth to proclaim the good news. Jesus quietly spent his childhood years in the small Galilean town of Nazareth. There He helped his father and four brothers in their carpentry shop. Perhaps He even traveled with his father, Joseph, to work in Sepphoris, a new city that was built at that time a few miles to the north of Nazareth.

At a full two miles an hour Jesus went around healing the sick, saving the lost, and opening up a new world in front of hopeless people. Yes, it was God’s good news day, finally! Good news started spreading at the speed of grace wherever Jesus walked and talked. Everywhere He went, grace touched lives at exactly the right speed. His feet walked at the pace of grace while his words graciously spread life and hope to outcasts, the lost and the lonely!

I wonder what would happen if we begin to walk at his pace?