Interruptions

The longer I have studied the gospels, the more intrigued I have become by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  A fair bit of conviction accompanies that intrigue as well.

As the summer months begin in earnest, and our vacation plans and summer projects get inked into our calendars, I want to challenge us to pay attention to one feature of Jesus’ ministry that may have escaped our attention: Jesus was interruptible.

Interruptions tend to be annoying.  We are busy people.  We have carefully laid out our itineraries for the day.  Our time is precious.  And then, when something unexpected and unsought comes along and disturbs our schedule, we are rarely at our best.  In fact, sometimes we are at our worst.  We begrudge the person or event that has imposed itself upon us and is distracting us from our day’s mission or the task at hand.  The interruption is perhaps pushing our to-do list later into the evening and robbing us of our precious downtime.

Recently, a woman was sharing with me that one of her favorite Bible stories was the account of Jesus healing the paralytic (Luke 5:17f).  Like many accounts of Jesus’ ministry, it recounts an interruption!  Verse seventeen reads, “On one of those days, as he was teaching…”  Did you catch that?  Jesus was busy doing something – in fact it was something important: teaching.  The text goes on to state that the Pharisees and teachers of the law had come from every village in Galilee to hear him.  During his teaching, he is interrupted by the roof overhead being removed one tile at a time – and a paralytic man – fastened to his mat, is unceremoniously lowered through the hole in the roof to lay at the feet of Jesus.

There are many other accounts of Jesus being interrupted.  He is reclining at a pharisee’s table when a woman of ill-repute crashes the dinner party and anoints his feet (Luke 7:36f).  He is sleeping in a boat – no doubt catching what rest he can, and his disciples awaken him to rescue them (Luke 8:32f).  He is on his way to Jairus’ house to heal that synagogue ruler’s daughter, when a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years touches the hem of his garment (Luke 8:40f).   Twice people are rebuked for interrupting him and either wasting his time or delaying his schedule.  The disciples themselves want children to be kept away from him as they believed that the children were a “hindrance” to Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus rebuked his disciples and made time for the children (Matthew 19:13-15).  After ministering in Jericho, a blind man named Bartimaeus is rebuked for calling out to Jesus – Jesus clearly has places to be.  Jesus stops what he is doing and heals the blind man (Mark 10:46f).

This is just a small sample.  Jesus was interrupted constantly.  And it is out of his gracious and accommodating responses to those interruptions that we have some of the most powerful and beautiful examples of our Savior’s ministry.

What about us?  As we make plans and set priorities, we often consider it a mark of discipline and focus to turn interruptions aside.  Even in ministry, there is a professional tendency to actively insulate ourselves from the possibility of having an unscheduled meeting of any kind.  How very unlike Jesus.

We are too often inflexible and impatient with interruptions that we believe are wasting our time, or are less important than what we had planned on doing.  Jesus stopped everything for blind people, unclean folks, and small children.

Jesus turned interruptions into ministry opportunities.  Do we?

So, this summer hold your plans loosely!  Maybe that flat tire that interrupts your trip is an opportunity to meet a tow truck driver who needs a smile and a prayer.  Maybe that neighbor who comes to you with an urgent need is actually your best opportunity to minister to him – despite the fact that you have Dodgers tickets.  Whatever you do, be interruptible as you imitate Christ!

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

N.B. The image is the artwork of Frank King, cropped from his March 8, 1921 Gasoline Alley comic entitled, ” Walt! Stop! There’s a flat tire back here!” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, control number 2009615985. There are no known restrictions on publication.