Significant moments in life ... Part 4

Luke 22:7-13 – 'Preparation for the Last Supper'

As we enter into the Passion Week / Holy Week (the last week before the Crucifixion), we remember the struggles which Christ went through, even before He took upon Himself the sins of the world on the cross.
And I am stunned to know that ordinary times/events in my life, can be a significant contributor to God’s manifold plans for this Universe.
Yes, Christ's work is complete - but, we have a job at hand.


vs.10 – He replied, ‘As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters…’

How many of us would dare venture to find a place/location, when the landmark given is not stationary but mobile (a moving object)?
Many of us have trouble finding a place, when the address is clear and directions and landmark are straight forward.

Imagine, if I invite you to my house for a dinner, and I tell you, “Take Bus No.55 and get down at the last stop, walk 10 ft ahead and you will find a cow on the road - well, it’s possible in India, as cows are everywhere :-) and there you take left, until you reach a place where there will be 2 dogs barking (which is also possible in our country), and then 5 ft from there take right, and the house in front of a person riding his cycle is my house”
– with that kind of a direction, will you try to come to my house?
Wouldn't you think I am crazy to give you such a direction to my house?

Here in this passage, we see Jesus precisely doing that as He sends Peter & John to fix a place for them to have their Last Supper, with that kind of a direction in response to their “Where?” question.

Now, interestingly Peter doesn’t have any questions (for once)!
And they both set about their task.
A delayed obedience here would have meant, this ‘landmark’ man wouldn’t be there anymore – because he is moving!

What is even more interesting is that, this man doesn’t even know what’s going to happen, when he is going about his regular mundane job of fetching water. He was NOT commissioned to be Peter & John’s guide or to bring them home. He was just about his ‘menial’ work, and very faithfully at that, if I may add.
That turns out to be a very decisive pointer for Peter & John to find the house and organize ‘The Last Supper’.

This man who was carrying the water jar – could his movement have been orchestrated by God?

Sometimes we need to go about doing things, which we need to do in life.
Who knows, as we are faithfully discharging our duties, it might be a pointer for someone else, in their walk with God.
Hence the need to go about our work - in other words, MIND OUR BUSINESS, before someone else says that to us :-)

Yes, God is Sovereign, but that doesn’t relieve us of certain jobs. Let’s carry our water jars, as it were!!

Significant moments in life ... Part 3

John 4:1 & 3 - “The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, … When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee”.

Background:
Jesus left Judea and started north for Galilee. He could have taken one of three possible routes:
(a) along the coast;
(b) across the Jordan and up through Perea; or
(c) straight through Samaria (the easiest & the best possible route).

Orthodox Jews avoided Samaria because there was a longstanding, deep-seated hatred between them and the Samaritans. The Samaritans were a mixed race (‘mongrel Jews’ as per Matthew Henry) - part Jew and part Gentile that grew out of the Assyrian captivity of the ten northern tribes in 727 BC.
Rejected by the Jews because they could not prove their genealogy, the Samaritans established their own temple and religious services on Mt. Gerizim. This only fanned the fires of prejudice. So intense was their dislike of the Samaritans that some of the Pharisees prayed that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection! When His enemies wanted to call Jesus an insulting name, they called Him a Samaritan (cf. John 8:48).
Source: Encyclopedia of the Bible

Jesus meeting up with the Samaritan woman was a divine moment and it seems orchestrated by God. However, when we read the incident, Jesus’ trip towards Galilee and going via Samaria (vs.4) all seem prompted by the jealous attitude of the Pharisees, who didn’t like Jesus’ popularity.

Vs.6 – tells us that Jesus was tired when he rested near the well – and it was then that this Samaritan woman turns up. She came there at a time, when no one else was expected to be there!

It seems God uses our mundane day-to-day routine and schedule to weave His divine plans in our life! At times, I don’t feel that going through the daily rut is anything significant – in fact, it seems far from being so .. when I am sweating it out.
At times, I am confused as to what next!
Have you been through such a phase in your life? Are you in one right now?
Take heart.

I am reminded of one incident, which took place 12 years ago in our life.
In ’98, we were pursuing our trip and studies in the UK. The process started off in a very insignificant manner, but there were clues here and there to indicate that something great was going to unfold before us in that, we were accepted for the school, without us filling out the application form and when we didn’t have any money to pay towards our school fees, airfare, etc.

As time moved on, the process for obtaining our visa became a nightmare. We had to undergo a medical test and the papers were sent to the wrong person from the embassy and then the hospital sent the wrong report back, all caused some serious frustrations and not to mention the time was drawing close and most of the items in our house already disposed. So, if we didn’t get the visa, we didn’t have anything to go back to.

During our penultimate day in Pune, before leaving to Mumbai to collect our passports and tickets and flying out .. we were waiting for one letter which was due to come from Chennai. We had to submit this letter to collect our passports, without that our whole trip would have to be postponed and/or tickets cancellation, etc. This letter was couriered to us 5 days prior to that and what should take only a day or maximum 2 days hadn’t arrived until then.

We were nervously wondering around and awaiting the courier guy to come. On that day, one of our friends had invited us for lunch. I nearly called them up and cancelled that appointment as we were waiting for this URGENT letter. But then we decided to go, leaving a note on our door for the delivery guy to give us a call when he comes or to come to this other place to deliver it to us.
We delayed our going by a few minutes, hoping against hope that he would turn up before we leave.
Eventually, as the clock was ticking by we decided to go, leaving a note on our door.

Usually, we take a long proper road out of our house to hit the main road .. and on that particular day, though I was headed on that road, I turned back and decided to take one of those windy mud roads to get to the main road. And as we turned a couple of corners, I saw one guy in a cycle whistling away, who cut in front of me. And very briefly my eyes fell on a bag which was hanging in the front, which read PROFESSIONAL COURIERS. I didn’t think much of it .. but as we crossed each other, something prompted within me to go back and check with that guy, if he was indeed from the courier company. I told Carmen about it and she said, “he didn’t seem like he was looking for any address, but anyway, let’s check”.
So, I turned back and soon caught up with him on my bike, and asked him if he was from the courier company. And to our amazement, he said YES.
I asked him, “Do you have a courier for RAJAN from Chennai?”
To our utter surprise and shock, he said, “Yes. I have been looking for this address for the past 2-3 days and I can’t find it. And in fact, I am going back to the office now to send it back to the sender with a note: CAN’T FIND THE ADDRESSEE”.

Wow – what a relief! We got the letter .. we had the luncheon meeting .. we were able to pick up our passports/tickets the next day and eventually we flew out.

What could have happened, if we had decided to stay put in the house, waiting for the courier to be delivered? We would have obviously missed it.
What if we had taken one of the wrong turns?
What if I hadn’t spotted the COURIER bag in the cycle, or if it was turned the other way round .. I wouldn’t have seen it?
What if, I would have delayed going by a few seconds or gone a bit too early?

There are endless ifs and buts here … but, God was in total control.

Here the Samaritan Woman was blessed with a divine contact, because of the Pharisees’ jealous attitude, which prompted Jesus’ move.

Sometimes, divine moments unfold before us, as we trudge along not knowing if it is worth doing what we are doing.

Let’s not wait for that special moment to act a certain way, as we may never see it coming!
The Jews missed out on the Messiah, because they thought He was going to come in a certain way.