Chapter 06: God with Us Was [And Still Is] Always on the Move
“If Christianity can be accurately described as a movement (and it certainly is), it was preceded by a literal movement. ”
Right from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we read the story of the mother of Jesus, Mary, after having found out she was with Holy Child, takes a journey to a hillside town to visit her beloved cousin Elizabeth. Even before Jesus was born, he was on the move.
Once back in Nazareth and engaged to Joseph, Mary and her betrothed then headed to Bethlehem for the required census taking joruney. Donkeys, dusty trails, discomfort, anticipation…a very pregnant teenage girl and an unborn Saviour make their way back to their hometown.
And then, Jesus is born.
Angels appear on the earth to unremarkable men living in the margins of mainstream ancient Israel, lowly shepherds. As they keep watch over their flocks in an unremarkable field on an ordinary night, they are gloriously disrupted and given the most unimaginable news. And their response? They immediately leave their peaceful pasture to seek and find the long-awaited Messiah.
And what about the wisemen?
The first recorded response to Jesus of anyone outside his family is to leap on a camel and make an immensely long and dangerous journey across the Middle and Near East: “Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child?’” The star travels too: “There, ahead of them, went the star . . . until it stopped over the place where the child was.” The wise men were the first Christian pilgrims. They were probably Zoroastrian astrologers, who’d never been invited to speak in a mainstream evangelical church. They set the pattern for all subsequent pilgrimages: they came, they arrived, and they went back home.”
As soon as they left, another journey breathlessly began. “Get up,” said an angel. It is a fairly typical angelic command. You will search the Bible in vain for an angel telling anyone to sit down, relax, and catch up with the celebrity gossip. “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.” (1)
The gospels are clear — God is always on the move. And all the people, angelic and otherwise, connected to the birth and early years of Jesus, never remained in one place for long. In fact, when we keep reading all the way to the end of the book of Revelation, the never-ending movement of Jesus and those who followed after him, is repeated over and over again.
This. Seems. Really. Important.
What is it about going and coming back…the seeking, finding and telling that we are meant to learn?
Let’s go back to the recorded life Jesus for a moment.
At 12, he was lost & found at the temple in Jerusalem, during his family’s annual journey to the ancient sacred city during the Passover Feast (Luke 2:41-51).
Was this not a pilgrimage of devotion practiced by his people for centuries? And here we see Jesus fully partiticpating in this ancient and near ancient practice. But could it also be a foreshadowing of the final pilgrimage to the cross he would take 21 years later?
At 30, when Jesus found himself at the edge of the Jordan River, his cousin John was frantically proclaiming that a pathway needed to be prepared for the arrival of the One whom they had been waiting for (Luke 3).
Was this not a pilgrimage of symbolic external purification whereby the Holy One, without sin, was publicly declaring that something new was about to be unleashed? Immersion into the water requires coming back out, obviously if one wants to continue to live, and once on the shore again, a new journey must begin.
Immediately after his baptism, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness seeking deep connection with his heaeanly Father and to prepare himself, mind, body and soul for the next 3 years of an iterinerant life committed to the healing, restoration and reconcilitaiton. (Luke 4:1-13)
Was this not a pilgrimage of symbolic internal purification that Jesus, who was always divinely, intimately interdependent with the God-head, intentionally put himself through a period of deprivation to not only have clarity around his earthly mission, but to provide all who follow after him a powerful example of the discipline, cost and full body commitment required for deep spiritual formation?
And what about the call repeated over and over again, first to the disciples and then to the women, and the Samaritans, the centurions, the blind, the possessed, the rich and the devious?
Follow me. Follow me. Follow me.
From preaching, to healing, from arriving, to departing, from eating, rebuking, teaching, listening, shaking dust off his sandals, and having no place to call his own, Jesus lived and died and RETURNED as a pilgrim on a journey...seeking (the lost and lonely), finding (the broken and battered) and telling (us to go and do likewise in order to share what you have learned).
There is no greater model of a pilgrim on purpose than Jesus. And his life exemplifies the highest calling of the human experience to be carried out as a life-long pilgrimage, in both metaphor and in practice. And that is precisely what we are meant to learn.
And isn’t that really what a pilgrimage is all about…seeking, finding and then telling others?
Seek (Matt 7:7; Luke 19:10; Heb 11:6)
Find (Acts 17: 27; Romans 10:20)
Tell (Matt 28:18-20; Mark 5:16; Luke 2:15; 8:38-39; Colossians 1:28-29; 1 Peter 3:15-16)
Studying the life of Jesus through a lens of “constant movement” was absolutely affirming. For as long as I can remember, I have had an inner restlessness that has propelled me throughout my life, showing up in the diverse jobs I have had and the many interests I have pursued both professionally and personally. I read and collect wildly diverse books and have cultivated eclectic groups of companions, sometimes in the most unlikely of places, like correctional facilities and skid row. I actually had an elder at a previous church tell me my vocational wanderings were a sign of a lack of discipline in my life. I think I almost believed him (for a minute).
I have come to realize that staying in one place is not for me — my personality, my talents and skills, my convictions and values drive the decisions of the places and spaces that I find myself. And if Jesus kept moving from place to place to bring what he was meant to bring at that particular time for that specific purpose…perhaps permission is also granted for me to go and do likewise.