“Everyone went to his home…
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.”
John 7:53-8:1
There is always a herd or a crowd to follow, but if you want exceptional faith, you must step away from the herd. Stepping away from the herd was also the norm for Jesus. He exited the herd often to pray and it seems that he often did when life was challenging.
For example, in John chapter 7, Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for the Feastival of Booths. It was a difficult time. He was avoiding the region because “the Jews”, specifically, many of the Jewish authorities, were seeking to kill him (John 7:1) After a discussion with the disciples, he sent them to Jerusalem with the understand he was not coming. However, Jesus followed in secret. Over the course of the feast Jesus taught publicly and became the object of a great division among the people.
On the heals of this division and well aware of the intention of the authorities to kill him, Jesus heads to the Mount of Olives while everyone else proceeds to travel home for the festival was over.
As was his custom…
Why go to the Mount of Olives? From another Gospel text, Luke 22:39, we are told “And he (Jesus) came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.” That snippets of text is the transition from the last supper with the disciples to Jesus time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus appears to have had a discipline of going to the Mount of Olives for prayer. The garden there was a place of solice, a sanctuary of sorts.
I suspect that when the rest of the crowd trudged home and Jesus headed to the Mount of Olives, he was quite likely going there to pray. He was staying true to a discipline that fed him in difficult times. The festival was over, but he wasn’t done seeking out time with his heavenly Father.
When I recently read these verses, the question arose for me, “How might my faith change if I lingered five minutes to pray after worship, or work, or meetings?
What is your custom?
What about you? How might your life change if you sought a few more minutes of prayer when all was said and done and everyone else was going home?
I wondered, “What if I went to my prayer closer after work, or meals, or just before bed?…so much so that it became a custom to me.
Wouldn’t it be great if someday someone wrote about you, “While everyone else slept in, he got up and went for a walk with God as was his custom.” Or, “While everyone else got up after the church dinner and walked out, he cleared tables, as was his custom.” Or, “While everyone asked how someone was doing in the hospital, she visited, as was her custom.”
Wouldn’t life be exceptional if those were your customs?
So, what is your “while everyone else”, and what is your custom? How do you break away from the herd to have an exceptional faith?
I would love to hear, you dream custom…The custom you wished you had RIGHT NOW, that others would ALWAYS remember you for?