I passed a sign in front of a church that read, “My lifeguard walks on water.” Have you seen this one?

I’ve seen this phrase in quite a few places — all land-locked. I wonder what a lifeguard sitting on the beach would think of it?

Judging from the way his family and the crowds responded, Jesus’ experience was fairly normal and human. The miracles were amazing but just not amazing enough.

A trip to Jerusalem with holiday crowds would have been a great venue for walking on water or parting a river. I’m sure that the crowds would have appreciated the shortcut and the spectacle.

Come to think of it, I’m sure there are a few lifeguards today who wouldn’t mind being able to walk on water. But we’re stuck with normal. No shortcuts.

If we could follow Jesus’ experience, we would find that he walked through water more than he walked on water. In the long run, that may even be more important for us.

After Jesus feeds and dismisses the crowd of 4,000, he and his disciples board a boat and row west across the lake.

The miraculous meal overwhelms a rather mundane ambiguity. From whence the boat?

Are we to conclude that they stole the boat? Of course not!

If they borrowed the boat they would by necessity have to return it. Alternatively, some of Jesus’ newfound friends might have given him a lift.

The option developed in the SpendaYearwithJesus storyline is that Jesus’ dispatched his married disciples to their homes to meet him later on the other side of the lake.

On the one hand, the married men could spend some time, however brief, with their families. On the other hand, their splitting off and then rejoining the group could account for the boat.

The challenge to this option is a view that Jesus and the twelve were together at all times..24×7 — always teaching and healing except when they were walking from town to town.

The manic teaching and healing schedule, however, does not account for the logistics surrounding those activities.

Jesus did not have a staff to whom he could delegate. If he had anything even close to resembling a travel secretary or a transportation captain, they were probably part of the twelve.

Mark, Luke, and Matthew tell a story of events that seem rather random. While the sensationalism of the events arrests our attention, I wonder what happened to the participants.

Here’s a summary: Spontaneously, Jesus tells his disciples, “Let’s go to the other side of the lake” (Mk 4:35). When they arrive on the other side (after an episode amazing in its own right), they are greeted by a hostile, raging, tormented man.** Jesus heals the man and sends him back home to the astonishment of his community. #irony Naturally, the townspeople ask Jesus to leave.

Where are they now?

The human question arises, what happened to the guy? The Gospels don’t say…

Was the world of Jesus’ experience so large that people randomly appeared and then disappeared never to be heard from again? Like the people you sit near on an airplane going overseas.

Or was his a world where interaction led to more interaction? Similar to meeting a like-minded colleague at a conference and exchanging business cards.

I conclude from research and personal experience that it was the latter – that contact generally resulted in more contact. Jesus probably saw the man during his second longer stay on the other side of Lake Galilee.

** Two men according to Matthew 8:28.

We must not neglect the wives of Jesus’ disciples. Neglect, you ask? Those men are on the road with Jesus!

In Jesus’ experience, loyalty to the Torah was authoritative. And the Torah warned against neglecting one’s wife.

If a man [who is already married] marries another woman, he may not neglect [his first wife’s] food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. (Exodus 21.10)

This particular regulation seems obscure within the larger body of Law, but it apparently caught the attention of the Rabbis and is therefore worthy of our notice.

In the Mishnah, the discussion concerning conjugal rights prohibits lengthy absences by the husband as follows:

Disciples may go to Torah study without their wife’s consent for thirty days.Workers go out for one week. . . . Sailors for six months. . . (Ketuboth 5.6)

Paul echoes the Torah’s concern for conjugal integrity in his letter to the Corinthians.

The husband should fulfill his wife’s conjugal needs and the wife her husband’s. (1 Corinthians 7.3)

It would seem lawful of Jesus to respect the schedules of the disciples who were married (see Mark 1:30; 1 Corinthians 9:5). And that affects how we schedule Jesus’ experience.

Jesus was not under the Mishnah. The Mishnah simply gives us a context in which to form our own assumptions.

In other words, expect during the SpendaYearwithJesus story for the married disciples to break off from the group to visit their families. And don’t be surprised if Jesus stops praying, teaching, and healing to honor his mother every once in a while.

Every week, week after week, month after month, year after year…

Jesus’ friends and neighbors gathered Sabbath day to Sabbath day to read the Law of Moses.

The founders of the early church verified and upheld the practice.

Paul referred to the practice in his missionary preaching:
“… the utterances of the prophets … are read every Sabbath” (Acts 13:27).

James also confirmed the habit as part of the ruling of the Jerusalem Council: “For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath” (Acts 15:21).

Other first-century writers comment on the practice of gathering for Sabbath instruction. Philo was a Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, Egypt. Josephus was a historian of the Jewish War.

Philo explains, “…on the seventh day there are spread before the people in every city innumerable lessons of prudence…during the giving of which the common people sit down” (Special Laws 2.15 §62).

Josephus also explains for his readers, “And the seventh day we set apart from labor; it is dedicated to the learning of our customs and laws” (Antiquities of the Jews, 16.2.3 §43).

In another book, Against Apion, Josephus continues concerning the learning of the law, “…for he did not suffer the guilt of ignorance to go on without punishment, but demonstrated the law to be the best and the most necessary instruction of all others, permitting the people to leave off their other employments, and to assemble together for the hearing of the law, and learning it exactly, and this not once or twice, or oftener, but every week…” (2.17 §175).

The Law of Moses** animates Jesus’ experience. In particular, we understand the rhythm of Jesus’ story in the seven day increments marked by the Sabbath rest (Saturday). We also hear the Law informing the teachings, the challenges, and even the arguments in Jesus’ story.

Every Sabbath, Jesus’ devout friends and neighbors gathered to learn the Law.

** In English, Moses’ Law is called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Interestingly, in German, the books are titled Moses I-V.

In the SpendaYearwithJesus Torah reading schedule, the Sabbath reading for this week picks up the theme of God’s economy from Leviticus 1:1–6:6. (Jesus could not join the worshippers in the synagogue. He was banned—implied from John 9:22.)

These chapters of Leviticus outline the offerings that the people of Israel brought to the Temple as part of God’s economy—the burnt offering (ch. 1), the grain offering (ch. 2), the fellowship offering (ch. 3), the sin offering (ch. 4), and the guilt offering (5:15).

When was the last time you talked with someone about animal sacrifice? How did the conversation go? At best, sacrifice is a clinical consideration of ancient religions; at worst, a disgusting artifact better left in the past.

Yet just a few nights ago, I participated in an important part of the practice of sacrifice in ancient Israel—i.e., eating the sacrifice. It is part of my Texas experience and economy. At dinner with friends, we consumed part of a cow. I had ribs and my friend had a porterhouse steak.

As you read the first chapters of Leviticus, it is easy to get caught up in the practice of the ritual, the sprinkling of the blood, the disposal of the innards. Much of what one observes, however, is normal for any butcher shop.

Don’t miss the part where the worshippers and the priests eat. During his life, Jesus participated in the religious system outlined in the Law of Moses, including, I assume, eating steak or lamb chop.

Jesus also stated at one point that he came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17). I wonder how Jesus fulfills God’s economic intention expressed in the sacrifices?

We recently met my in-laws at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. I have been to airports all over the world from Hong Kong to Frankfurt. An international terminal is as captivating as it can be frustrating.

The book of Acts comments on the attendees of the Feast of Weeks (aka Pentecost). The ranks include Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs (2:9-10).

Basically, the feast attendees are coming from the furthest known parts of the Roman Empire, north, east, south, and west in that order. That’s an international crowd!

As we know from airport experience, gift shops abound and food is generally more expensive. At international airports, currency exchanges are readily available with requisite fees.

I am not saying that the Jerusalem temple was the same as a modern airport terminal but it does share interesting features.

You can imagine hearing several languages and seeing different styles of clothing, all polite and reverential of course. People traveling from the far reaches of the Roman world would need currency exchange. And they needed to purchase sacrificial animals (after traveling light).

Can you imagine Jesus’ experience among the hustle and the bustle?

The Galilee speaking tour was a wild success! So Jesus lived the sweet life from one success to the next, right?

It’s easy to think that way, especially when you hear the phrase, “I can do all things through Christ.” There’s a song, a poster, t-shirts, etc. How can we not experience success!?

But wait… it follows that if Christ can do all things for us, then he should have been able do all things for himself, too. So I assumed that Jesus’ experience was not subject to suspense or uncertainty. He never got into a jam. Logically, I then wondered why I had so much anxiety and gridlock in my life if Christ could just bail me out like he did himself.

Either something was wrong with me or something was wrong with him.

I took a second look at the context of the phrase, “I can do all things” and was shocked by what I found.

What I understand now, I will try to explain with a picture of the phrase from the original Greek. The circled words below mean “all,” so there are three references to “all” in the context of the “can do” phrase.  When it says, “I can do all things,” the “all things” summarizes the preceding the sentence, which includes

• living in humble circumstances
• times of surplus resources
• having plenty of food
• going hungry
• times of surplus (repeated)
• going without

This list seems closer to my experience.

It’s easy to see Jesus’ experience without any friction, like he was just acting out a movie script that he had already read. Sure, he put in a fine performance, but where’s the suspense?

But as we follow Jesus for a year, we rediscover the suspense. And ultimately, we see the same high’s and low’s, the same busy and quiet, the same gains and losses that mark the seasons of our lives–and along the way we learn not to get too fixated on one extreme or the other.

“The name Jesus underlines the real humanity of our Lord.” — William Barclay, Scottish Theologian

Just for a moment (or a year), I encourage you to hold the theological question and take up Jesus’ story as he lived it.

Along these lines, William Barclay spotted something noteworthy in the Gospels concerning how the writers remembered their subject.

In the Gospels [Jesus] is by far the commonest name of our Lord, for in them he is called by this simple name almost six hundred times. It is at first sight an astonishing fact that in the four Gospels the expression Jesus Christ occurs only four times, in Mark 1.1; Matt. 1.1; John 1.17; 17.3; and the expression Lord Jesus occurs only twice, and in both cases there is doubt about it. Luke 24:3 and Mark 16:19.

The Gospel writers appear to recognize and preserve by his name that humanity that qualifies Jesus’ experience.

I invite you to approach the human Jesus afresh, to visit Jesus’ experience as definitively human.

Speaking of travel routines, petty frustrations, and no shortcuts…

I was listening to the Gospel of Matthew as I was driving downtown on my commute. With cars all around me on the crowded six-lane street, I was constrained to the speed and flow of traffic. Stuck in traffic, I felt tense. It seemed like every red light was strategically positioned to stop our progress.

At any rate, inside my car, I listened carefully to the reader and the words of the Sermon on the Mount hoping my ears would spot some significant pattern that my eyes had failed to see. Heard something, I did, but it was not what I expected. There was a soft, subtle, pious-sounding music track playing in the background. And that was not all. I noticed a reverb, a slight echo, in the speaker’s voice.

Please allow me to clarify, Jesus’ life did not have a soundtrack as he lived it. His voice did not have a reverb effect when he spoke. Unlike Hollywood action heroes, he did not move in slow motion as he walked into town.

Jesus’ life did not have a soundtrack . . . then. NOW, we hear the music of his life! The music of Jesus’ life is that epic and melodic soundtrack of faithfulness that resonates through history.

Our lives make music too. As we see his melody of faithfulness played out in Jesus’ experience, may it inspire us to compose our own music of a well-lived life.