Could Jesus Tell Time? A Surprising Answer

Could Jesus tell time? The answer might surprise you! He never saw a clock, but Jesus knew exactly what time it was. This episode dives into the Bible idea of the "fullness of time," showing how Jesus seized a historic window to change the world through love rather than political violence. Discover a fresh perspective on the Christmas season that goes beyond tradition and connects Jesus’s purposeful life to our modern daily grind, inspiring you to stop just watching the clock and start seizing your own life-changing moments.

Segments include:

Two Kinds of Time

A Time for a People to Choose

Our Fullness of Time--Now

Transcript

Do you have a ticking clock in your house? I have a grandfather clock in the house with a large pendulum that ticks… ticks… ticks… the hours of the day. What would Jesus make of that noise? In fact, Jesus never heard a ticking clock and wouldn’t know how to read the dial if he saw it. It would be 1300 years before the ticks of a clock would sound in the belltowers of Europe. The answer is No—Jesus couldn’t tell time.

            But a different measure of time was vital for Jesus. It was the chosen time of the Mission of God that consumed his life. In this Christmas season the insight of Jesus offers a path for us to hear a different tick of time for our own days on the Earth.

            Some 25 years after Jesus lived the Apostle Paul wrote, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son…”

            These words are a bit mysterious. Could Jesus read some celestial time no human knows? What does he mean with the idea of “the fullness of time?” What could it mean for us?

            The central thought of this verse is that God has always been at work to bring every human into a right and thriving relationship. We read of this throughout Hebrew history and, I can add, across all 300,000 years of homo sapiens’ history. The unique work of Jesus brought the ultimate expression of this quest, an emergence of the first person totally enmeshed with God. Jesus responded perfectly to the call of God that sent him with the divine message of love for all. This would provide the quantum leap of God’s ultimate great purpose to unite the universe in perfect harmony. 

What about the time and place in history that Jesus was born? We know the birth of Jesus was about 4 BCE. His preaching began about 27 CE. Is that important?

Paul does not connect any historical event that would have been significant. In another place he says it was the “right time” without further explanation (Rom 5:6). But I think a clue points to the growing unrest in Judea against Roman oppression in the early years of the first century. Within Jesus lifetime there were small revolts, hatred of the Herodian rulers, and disruptions of the Temple worship by Rome. The Jews had won a war for freedom in 166 BCE, lost that independence to the Romans in 37 BCE and were ripe for rebellion when Jesus began his ministry. Perhaps the mission of Jesus and the call to a kingdom greater than any political state was a last moment when disaster could have prevented the war that occurred in 66 AD, destroying the Jewish nation for 1900 years. It was a fullness of time with a window of hope that would prevent the death of millions. Jesus took action to preach the message from God which warned that only a message of love and justice, not taking up swords against the Empire, would bring peace and promise to the world. 

What does this mean for us so many centuries after Jesus lived? I propose that the idea of the Christmas fullness of time means that Jesus seized the moment of his life to act for the greatest meaning possible. He could have merely been a teacher for a few disciples in the backwater villages of Galilee. But no—Jesus knew his time and the circumstances of his world required action. He became a channel of God’s energy to emerge in historic power that would cost him everything but open a new world of transformation for millions.

In my life there have been moments to act and not wait. Taking a knee to ask for a beautiful and brilliant woman to say Yes, celebrating four children, saying Yes to lead a growing Texas church, grabbing an opportunity to be a chaplain and administrator–those are just a sample of times I seized the moment to act. You can add your own stories where life hinged on whether you said Yes or No, Accepted or Rejected, walked through the door or turned away. The moment of time to be fulfilled or time lost forever.

Of course, all of us thrill at the stories of everyday heroes who rush to a burning car and pulled a driver to safety, or first responders who don’t give up the search for a missing hiker, or a mother who fights for her differently-abled child to have the opportunity for a full life.

We should understand however that most of the moments when time is fulfilled are found in everyday life. Perhaps it’s the moment a Dad decides to read a bedtime tale to the kids rather than scroll the sporting news. Sometimes it is when a teacher stops in a hall to listen to a struggling teenager who thought her life couldn’t go on. It could be when a couple makes one last effort to reconcile their broken dreams with a counseling session.

Process-Relational theology holds that God’s essential nature of love is non-coercive, never forcing any human to obey. Jesus could have fallen to temptations of power and neglected the true work of God for others. In the moments when the crowds chanted his name in adoration or in the lonely hour in the Garden knowing the betrayal was coming, Jesus could have missed the fullness of his time.    

Could Jesus tell time? Not by looking at a modern, atomic clock, accurate to a billionth of a second. Did Jesus know he lived in the fullness of a history making moment? Yes, he did. That knowledge went far beyond the ticking of a mechanical clock. He took action in the time and context in which he lived. That is exactly what each of us must do with the guidance of the God who is always drawing us toward love and justice. We have our fullness of time now.