Flashback Favorite: Tired Jesus

As the busyness of summer shifts to the busyness of fall, it’s easy to feel worn down and just plain tired. Immediately after acknowledging my tiredness, I often feel some guilt creep in…like I should be able to handle this and even more. Perhaps you can relate. But even Jesus got tired…and He provides an example of what to do when we need to rest:

Tired Jesus
Originally posted on February 06, 2020

Early on in His ministry, Jesus was teaching in the Judean countryside, and His disciples were baptizing new believers.  They were very busy and many became followers of Jesus.  However, when Jesus received word that the Pharisees had heard about His growing ministry, He decided to leave and return to the northern area of Galilee.  To get there, He had to pick one of two route options: either take the straight-shot, 3-day hike from Judea to Galilee, or to take the longer road which headed east, crossed the Jordan River, turned back west, and crossed the Jordan River again before coming to Galilee.  This added days to trip and had the additional land barriers to deal with.  So why would Jews take the long road?  Because that path would mean they would avoid dealing with the Samaritan half-breed outsiders.

However, for this trip, Jesus chose to travel the faster, more direct path; but that meant they would be staying at least one night somewhere in the region most Jews wanted to avoid.  And let’s not kid ourselves…a 3-day journey on foot is still a 3-day journey on foot.  They had a long hike in front of them to get back to where Jesus and eleven of the twelve disciples had grown up.

John 4:4-6
He had to travel through Samaria; so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well.  It was about noon. 

Jesus was worn out from His journey.  This is an important observation.

Jesus got tired. 

Yes, He is perfect. 
Yes, He is the prophesized Messiah. 
Yes, He is God in the flesh…but that’s just it, Jesus is also human like us.  I find it very comforting that at the mid-point of His day, Jesus needed to take a break and rest His tired feet. 

So He finds a place to sit down.  He sent the disciples into town to buy food – this is a quiet, cool place for Him to rest.  The text does not indicate that anyone else was there.

We all need to take time to rest.  Each of us are dealing with situations that take more than one day to finish…which means we’re going to have to recharge at some point.  Jesus relied on His disciples to go get the food, which tells me that it’s ok to receive help from others when we’re tired.

We don’t have to shoulder everything, all the time.  Those of us who fancy ourselves as “the strong one” in our family have the most difficulty with this.  And yet, here’s Jesus giving a simple, straight-forward example.

Jesus got tired.  He felt worn out.

So he sat down and rested.

Another thing the text doesn’t tell us how long He was able to rest before someone came to the well.   But it was in the exact location He chose to rest that He would have His next encounter as part of the Father’s will.  If Jesus had pushed through the tiredness, if He had kept going until the day was completely done, He wouldn’t have stopped at this well.

And one of His greatest evangelistic events wouldn’t have happened.

Are we willing to trust God enough to rest?  We often see the need to rest as weakness and the time taken to rest as time being wasted…as if God if up in Heaven shaking His head in disappointment when we’re feeling worn out from our day, with an extra twinge of guilt if we’re “only” halfway through the day.

Do we believe that God can use our place of rest to recharge us, but also for the benefit of others?

Seems like a tough concept to grab hold of, but as we’ll see, that’s exactly what happened to Jesus.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Tired Jesus

Early on in His ministry, Jesus was teaching in the Judean countryside, and His disciples were baptizing new believers.  They were very busy and many became followers of Jesus.  However, when Jesus received word that the Pharisees had heard about His growing ministry, He decided to leave and return to the northern area of Galilee.  To get there, He had to pick one of two route options: either take the straight-shot, 3-day hike from Judea to Galilee, or to take the longer road which headed east, crossed the Jordan River, turned back west, and crossed the Jordan River again before coming to Galilee.  This added days to trip and had the additional land barriers to deal with.  So why would Jews take the long road?  Because that path would mean they would avoid dealing with the Samaritan half-breed outsiders.

However, for this trip, Jesus chose to travel the faster, more direct path; but that meant they would be staying at least one night somewhere in the region most Jews wanted to avoid.  And let’s not kid ourselves…a 3-day journey on foot is still a 3-day journey on foot.  They had a long hike in front of them to get back to where Jesus and eleven of the twelve disciples had grown up.

John 4:4-6
He had to travel through Samaria; so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well.  It was about noon. 

Jesus was worn out from His journey.  This is an important observation.

Jesus got tired. 

Yes, He is perfect. 
Yes, He is the prophesized Messiah. 
Yes, He is God in the flesh…but that’s just it, Jesus is also human like us.  I find it very comforting that at the mid-point of His day, Jesus needed to take a break and rest His tired feet. 

So He finds a place to sit down.  He sent the disciples into town to buy food – this is a quiet, cool place for Him to rest.  The text does not indicate that anyone else was there.

We all need to take time to rest.  Each of us are dealing with situations that take more than one day to finish…which means we’re going to have to recharge at some point.  Jesus relied on His disciples to go get the food, which tells me that it’s ok to receive help from others when we’re tired.

We don’t have to shoulder everything, all the time.  Those of us who fancy ourselves as “the strong one” in our family have the most difficulty with this.  And yet, here’s Jesus giving a simple, straight-forward example.

Jesus got tired.  He felt worn out.

So he sat down and rested.

Another thing the text doesn’t tell us how long He was able to rest before someone came to the well.   But it was in the exact location He chose to rest that He would have His next encounter as part of the Father’s will.  If Jesus had pushed through the tiredness, if He had kept going until the day was completely done, He wouldn’t have stopped at this well.

And one of His greatest evangelistic events wouldn’t have happened.

Are we willing to trust God enough to rest?  We often see the need to rest as weakness and the time taken to rest as time being wasted…as if God if up in Heaven shaking His head in disappointment when we’re feeling worn out from our day, with an extra twinge of guilt if we’re “only” halfway through the day.

Do we believe that God can use our place of rest to recharge us, but also for the benefit of others?

Seems like a tough concept to grab hold of, but as we’ll see, that’s exactly what happened to Jesus.

Keep Pressing,
Ken