Since we began to study the personality of Christ, one thing that is very striking is that it is really easy to miss some important details about His personality unless we pay very close attention. As we look even more closely and meticulously at His life on the earth we’ll see another aspect of His character that is not very glaring – His patience.
Jesus lived thirty years in obscurity as a man in the poorest region in Israel. He, being God manifested in human form, had the power to come out of His situation as a poor carpenter and begin to preach the Kingdom at a very early age. However, He decided to wait for the Father’s timing, He chose to wait for God’s appointed time for His manifestation.
At the age of twelve, while He was in the midst of the teachers and scholars in the temple at Jerusalem, the bible records that, all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers (Luke 2:47). So, basically, we get a hint that He already had superior understanding even at that tender age. Yet, in His immense patience, He waited another eighteen years before He began His ministry. He did not rush to start traveling from town to town to teach the people as the latest Rabbi in town. He did not hurry to start performing miracles. Instead we read that, He went down to Nazareth with them (His parents) and was obedient to them (Luke 2:51). Woah! He chose to wait and exercise patience for the Holy Spirit to endue Him with power and to call Him out from His obscurity into His ministry.
Yet, not only did He wait for the Father to announce Him, but as we look deeper into the situation, we are once again blown away. Even when the audible voice of God had announced Him as He was stepping out of the river Jordan after been baptized (Matt. 3:17), He didn’t start ministry right away. Instead, Jesus yielded Himself to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness for yet another time of waiting. This time, an extra forty days – but He is embracing fasting this time as well. He then launched into ministry and began to preach after that period (Matt. 4:17). It is clearly evident that He is full of patience. Not that He is partly patient, but He is fully patient. The entirety of His being is patient.
An understanding of this aspect of our Lord’s character really helps us to see even more clearly His patience regarding His second coming. According to Apostle Peter, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). This makes us to understand that the Lord is not in haste to return to judge the world before the time that is appointed by the Father, rather He’s waiting patiently, allowing more time for us, whom He has chosen before the foundation of the world, to repent and turn to Him for He is not willing for us to perish.
Friends, let us examine ourselves. Are you always in haste? Are you patient to wait for God’s promises to you to be fulfilled according to His timing or do you go about trying to make it happen by your own orchestration? Do you ignore God’s voice telling you to wait? Do you exercise patience towards others or are you harsh at them?
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
Oh Lord, transform us into your likeness, help us to be patient like you! Amen.
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