WE CAN NEVER NAIL JESUS DOWN

No pun intended, but that is the truth: much as we would like to, we can never nail Jesus down. Jesus comes into our lives almost unexpectedly and almost equally uninvited. In hindsight we would rather have him pass us by and go bother someone else. We already have enough on our plates and don’t want or need any more. Even so, here comes Jesus knocking on our door.

He knocks on our door, presents us with a problem he needs us to address and simply moves on. He doesn’t give us any insight on how to respond. He just expects us to respond. He rarely, very rarely, stays long enough for us to nail him down as to what we should do next. And even then, we only have a general outline as to what is to be demanded of us.

Such is the life of a believer. We know that life because we’ve lived that life. Fortunately, those knocks don’t come that often, a least the hard and loud knocks, the ones we cannot avoid or ignore. Of course, once we have answered the door and have learned what Jesus wants us to do and he walks away, then it is up to us how or if we will respond. Jesus never forces us to do what we don’t want to do even as we know that is what we should do if we are to be faithful.

What we do know and, again, what we have experienced and learned, is that if we answer Jesus’ knock, he will give us whatever tools and whatever strength we need to do what has to be done. Always has and always will. That does not mean that we would not like a better recipe on how to handle the situation because we would. Who wouldn’t? Who wouldn’t want to know how and what to do?

But it doesn’t work that way, does it? The truth is, for the most part we know what to do and have the tools, or can find the tools, to accomplish what needs to be done. The hard part is not the answering of the door. The hard part is the doing because it will always cost us something – financially, spiritually, physically. How high the cost is what we are concerned about.

Jesus totally understands. He knew the cost of what was being asked of him before he started off on his journey. And he knew that in the end he may have to go it alone, that no one could help him do what was going to be demanded of him. He even tried to get out of it, asking if there might be a way out. There was none. And so he went to the cross and did what he had to do.

The same is true for us. Those knocks on the door usually, always, demand some sort of cross for us to bear. Like Jesus, we try to find a way to pass that cross off on someone else. But we can’t. It is ours to bear. Unlike Jesus, we didn’t and won’t have to bear that cross alone. We had and have a community of faith to help us, thanks be to God.