Jesus is tired. (sic!)
I looked at the above screenshot on my phone and thought, “Jesus Is Tired. Huh.” Then I moved on to other apps. While looking and listening to other things on my phone, in the back of my head, I wondered about that headline, “Hm, ‘Jesus is tired,’ I wonder what that’s about. I guess when he was in human form he’d get tired the way all we humans do. I wonder if he was tired when he overturned tables and chased sellers out of the temple. Maybe he was sick and tired of the way people treated God’s house. And the Bible talks multiple times about Jesus going to the wilderness or having his disciples take him across the lake in a boat to get away from the crowds. He must have been tired then, at least tired of being with so many people. He fell asleep on a boat in one story so he was obviously tired then. But I don’t think we could say he gets tired now. Like, I sure hope he’s never tired of me! I sure hope he doesn’t listen to all the prayers that we say to him and at some point become too tired to handle them.”
Finally, curious, I went back to see what this article with such an intriguing title said. Oh, not “tired”—”tried.” “Jesus Is Tried.” It’s about Jesus’ trial before he was crucified and the painting “Christ before the High Priest” by the Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst. Well, that makes a lot more sense!
But what about that thought? What about a tired Jesus? What would an article called “Jesus is Tired” say? Is there something Jesus is tired of? Can I even imagine myself or anyone else saying a prayer we have prayed a hundred times before and Jesus saying, “Been there, done that. I’m tired. Move on.” Thankfully, NO! I cannot imagine that. Instead, I see Jesus giving me a hug and saying, “I know. It’s so hard. I love you.”
Thankfully, we know Jesus was a human. He knows what it’s like to be tired. He knows the feeling of defeat, the feeling of what’s-the-use that comes sometimes when we are tired. When Randy and I were dating while in college, we would often drive to his hometown, which was about an hour away. I would invariably fall asleep with my head in his lap. (He got a foretaste of traveling with me and our children. He said, “Before we even got out of the city limits, Mavis and the kids would all be snoring away.”) Sometimes, while I was resting there, he’d take one hand off the steering wheel and rest it on my shoulder or brush the hair off my face. That’s more what I imagine Jesus doing when I’m tired and feeling despair. He lets me rest against him and just holds me.
Lately, an image that comes to me is of me sitting in a pew beside a row of 3 others to my right. I think of it as an updated version of Job with his “comforters.” (Job 2:11 and following.) In the image/daydream/vision (?), I have made some kind of statement or confession, and suddenly, a 4th person on the end leans forward, looks at me, kind of waves, and says, “I’m here.” That fourth person is Jesus, like in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who suddenly appeared in the furnace.
Praise God, Jesus is NOT tired—especially of you. God loves us when we are tired, or despairing, or making poor choices, or taking the next right step, doing well or doing awfully, whatever, whenever, always. God loves you.