Jesus Walks (And You Can, Too!)

It was my first year of college and I was grabbing a quick lunch at the cafeteria, trying to gain that freshman fifteen that four years later has yet to accumulate on my skeleton, when an unassuming campus minister sat down beside me. After a few minutes of small talk, he began to interrogate.

"So, have you led anyone in your dorm to Jesus yet?" he asked. 

I was caught off guard. I knew the guy, but not very well.

"No, not that I know of," I said with a sort of awkward laugh. He persisted.

"Well, have you started a Bible study or anything?" 

I nervously sat back in my chair.

"Ummm, nope." 

He leaned forward.

"Why not? You know Jesus, right?"

My mind went blank. 

Jesus? Jesus who?

"I don't know, man." I pushed my chicken nuggets around the plate with my fork. 

"Well, you know, if you don't tell them about Jesus maybe no one will," he said. 

The book of Revelation talks about these heavenly monsters with a billion eyes that fly around God's throne and sing Phillips Craig and Dean all day. In that moment, I felt like the record stopped and all those eyes were on me.

"Their blood is on your hands," he said grimly.

Boy, that escalated quickly.

I left the cafeteria that day carrying an extra fifteen pounds of guilt. I had never felt so defeated in my life. 

Maybe you feel that way too sometimes, like you aren't running fast enough for God. As if God put us all on a starting block, fired the gun and is now shaking his head in disapproval as the Super-Christians sprint laps around you.

So what are us normal, out-of-shape people to do? How can we do enough for God to be "good Christians." How can we run fast enough to keep up with those who are miles ahead?

I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't have any performance enhancing drugs to offer. I do have one consolation, though.

Jesus wasn't much of a sprinter, either.

Maybe the more incredible thing about Jesus is not that he walked on water, but that he walked.

For a guy with a relatively urgent mission, he chose a curiously slow means of transportation. And it isn't just the lack of running shoes in his closet, either.

Surely God, in his infinite wisdom, knew about the looming emergence of trains, planes and (please, Lord) hover boards, right?

Because he could have been born in whatever time period he wanted, leaving the sandals behind in favor of all kinds of technology and transportation.

With a wave of his hand and a slight edit of Hebrew prophecy, Mary and Joseph could have ditched the donkey and called an Uber. They could have delivered the baby Jesus in a Waffle House, the modern day equivalent of his humble birth.

And when Jesus grew up, he would have been able to engage the whole globe without even getting his Chacos dirty. In an age when a stupid college kid can share his thoughts with hundreds of unassuming people, Jesus could have gone viral.

His Twitter would be followed by millions. "The most 🔥🔥🔥 commandment is this, millennials; ❤️ God and  ❤️ 👱🏻👵🏽👳🏻."

And there would be no walking. He would fly from one sold out arena to the other, preaching the kingdom of God to millions with Bono playing guitar softly in the background.

There is no doubt that Jesus' scope of influence could have been so much larger in the 21st century than the 1st. Why didn't he just wait another two thousand years?

I don't pretend to know why Jesus came when he did or why he chose to walk, but the fact that he did should be an enormous comfort to all of us.

Because it means he wasn't in a nervous rush.

A couple years ago I was riding in the car with my sister who is a notoriously terrible driver. As we were driving along, she asked me why everyone is so nervous when she drives.

I looked over at my sister in the driver's seat, her eyes peeled on the road, her white-knuckled hands at ten and two and her back as stiff as a board. It was like she was trying to fly a fighter jet into North Korea.

"Casey, we're nervous because you're nervous, and you are the one driving this thing."

I think a lot of our stress and guilt comes from our view of Jesus. We look over and see him nervously gripping the wheel, as if he is running from place to place trying not to get blood on his hands.

We are nervous because we perceive him as nervous, and he is the one who is supposed to be in charge of this thing.

But we don't see a nervous Jesus in the Bible. 

Jesus was never late or in a hurry. He didn't seem to have a quota to meet or a schedule of speaking engagements. 

Emergencies couldn't speed him up or slow him down, he just walked at his own pace. Lazarus' family knows that first-hand.

He only preached for three out of his thirty-three years, for goodness sake. For whatever reason, efficiency doesn't seem to be his top priority. 

So what does this mean for us?

It means that the Christian walk is less like a sprint and more like, well, a walk. 

It means that we can follow the Spirit instead of fear, engaging with him in a spiritual slow dance of sorts, watching his feet and moving where he moves.

And instead of working frantically, we can rest knowing that a powerful God is in charge. He alone can redeem the world, but he will let us join if we will slow down enough to walk with him.

Though sometimes we don't understand why, Jesus walks. And if Jesus walks, we can, too. 

"If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25