One day in October at 8am, SpendaYearwithJesus will send this text-message:

Heads down, Jesus and disciples shuffle silently in shoulder-to-shoulder traffic up the stairs to the Men’s Court on Temple Mount.

I can’t think of anyone who enjoys getting stuck in traffic. And I haven’t met anyone (yet) who hasn’t been pleasantly surprised by the thought of Jesus getting stuck in traffic.

There is something life-changing about the intersection of Jesus’ experience with our experience.

Scratch that. Life-changing evokes images of inheriting unexpected millions. There is something day-impacting about the intersection of Jesus’ experience with our own daily activities, especially with the seemingly mundane and boring.

Jesus’ life story reads like ours with wake-up routines, work, meal-times, friendships, conflicts, and even getting stuck in traffic.

Pausing to reflect on our shared daily experience with Jesus is more than a pleasant diversion. The significance of Jesus’ life infuses the rhythms of our daily lives with consequence.

No one likes getting stuck in traffic, but getting stuck in traffic with Jesus seems a little more bearable.

Check out an overview of the story at wjes.us/story-nav.php

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We measure our speed on the highway in miles per hour. Jesus and his followers measured their speed in miles per day.

When we say, life moved more slowly, we mean that people and their stuff literally moved more slowly.

So how much more slowly? Best guess is about 12-15 miles walking per day. (A Roman courier on a horse was faster, of course.)

We get an idea of travel speed in Acts 10. The distance between Joppa and Caesarea was about thirty miles. Couriers left Caesarea and returned in a period of four days (Acts 10:30).

Time references are found in 10:33 (“immediately”) for the speed of the journey, and 10:23 for the halfway point. The couriers stayed overnight and then returned.

Two days there and two days back to cover a round trip of 60 miles. That’s 15 miles a day moving at a good pace.

“Jesus died.”

The statement is a historical fact verifiable by the five senses (for the people who were there).

“Jesus died for our sins.”

This statement introduces a theological and spiritual element that is not verifiable by the five senses. We can verify that Jesus died. We can also verify that people commit exploitative acts toward one another characterized by the term sin.

But the relation between Jesus’ death and humanity’s offenses cannot be verified by the five senses.

Today’s investigators seek physical evidence measurable by the five senses. Forensic tools extend the capabilities of the senses to penetrate into the physical world telescoping or microscoping objects into view.

Analogy provides another tool investigators use to extend beyond repeatable experience accessible to the five senses. For one-time events, analogies to other prior provide frameworks against which to compare bodies of evidence and “visualize” results.

Missing links, however, manifest the vastness of human experience across space and time. Present sensory investigation may re-assemble the puzzle pieces. But there always seems to be pieces that will not fit or pieces that are just missing.

Sensory experience can not and will not conceive of any new pieces outside of existing discoveries.

Indeed, the introduction of new pieces changes the puzzle in a way that exacerbates measurement and control. Spiritual perception does not come with its own bounds.