It’s incredible when you think about it. An unknown team of medical researchers in an unknown lab in an unknown location work tirelessly to create a small tablet which they’ve formulated to be a 12-hour extended-release pain medication. The sufferer, who has been prescribed this med, swallows one tablet and over the next twelve hours the drug slowly releases itself into the body to alleviate pain. One swallow followed by twelve hours of pain reduction! An ultra-sophisticated medical breakthrough! Thank you to all medical researchers, wherever you are.
Our nervous systems are also designed to absorb emotional shock/surprise over a span of time. Surprise birthday parties have seen the guest of honor simply stand motionless, mouth agape, not breathing, for several seconds before the surprise sinks in. Others turn away and burst into tears. One lady I heard about walked into the room where friends were gathered and promptly fainted. We see, but our systems, at that moment, are required, instantaneously, to process an unexpected, huge blast of information all at once. And they need time to fully digest it.
It was the same for Jesus’ disciples. Walking with him wasn’t to be compared with anything they’d previously known. Picture their reaction (not recorded for us) when Jesus saved the wedding’s sommelier from embarrassment. I guarantee they didn’t have anything in their memory banks to help them grasp what had just happened. Or when Peter and John saw Jesus’ transfiguration! (no wonder they fell out). How about that fearsome lake storm stopping in a heartbeat – at Jesus’ command! (I’d have fallen to my knees in worship, too!) Or Mary’s early Sunday morning shock at realizing the gardener in front of her was her resurrected Lord?!
Each of these events (and so many more) were done with Jesus being naturally supernatural. No showmanship. No searching for accolades. No fanfare. He was meeting needs of hearts everywhere, out of his empowered, joy-filled, deity, following the directions of his Father. Each was intended, I believe, to clear away more of the troublesome debris cluttering the disciples’ thinking so they could glimpse joy beneath. Psalm 16:11, alternate version, says: ‘Face to face with You is fullness of joy.’ The disciples were face-to-face with Jesus every day for about three years. Jesus’ very presence was joy and not just a little bit, but its fullness. It wasn’t like some college course he taught the disciples. It was the delightful discovery, little by little, of its presence already in them. Their new foundation. PD