Editorial | “Yes, straight away”

We all like to see that attitude from our children when they are little. And the Father seeks the same in us. Mark’s account of the Lord’s living and working amongst men begins with the theme of immediacy:

“And the Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness… And immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open… And immediately they left the nets and followed him… And immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat… And they went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue… And the report of him went out immediately everywhere… And immediately , when they had come out of the synagogue… Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and immediately they told him about her… immediately the fever left her… And immediately the leprosy departed from him… he immediately sent him away… And immediately many were gathered together… And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit… And he arose and immediately picked up the bed” (Mk.1:10,12,18,20,21,28,29,30,31,42,43; 2:2,8,12).

This is not simply giving the impression of a fast moving ministry and progression of events. This is Mark’s way of showing that the Spirit was conducting things. The Lord’s cures were immediate, in contrast to the slow, partial cures of medical science and healers.

Matthew does the same. He sets up Joseph as the parade example of immediate response. Joseph receives three visions, and gets up in the morning and obeys them; taking Mary to Egypt, and then back to Israel, when people rarely travelled more than 50km from their birthplace let alone moved that far. Marrying Mary when she was pregnant not by him, when marrying an already pregnant woman was bound to make the rest of his life very difficult.

Those called to the Gospel responded immediately. Matthew left his money on the table and walked out of the office immediately he was called. “They immediately left the nets and followed him… they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him” (Mt. 4:20,22). The way the Lord called people in the midst of their daily lives, and they immediately “left all and followed Him” is surely recorded to set a pattern for all future response to Him. Those fishermen who left their nets had heard the message some time earlier, but the record is framed so as to stress the immediacy and totality of response to Him, in the midst of daily life. In a day when the complexity of modern living can become an excuse to justify almost anything as an expression of discipleship, we need to remember the starker simplicities of Jesus’ first call: “Follow me”. And the immediate response which was made to it. In this sense, Jesus through His word that makes Him flesh to us, i.e. an imaginable person… still walks up to fishermen, into shops, accountants’ offices, school classrooms: and bids us urgently and immediately leave behind our worldly advantage and follow Him in the way of true discipleship.

The theme of immediacy of response continues with the speed at which people were baptized in the Acts. In the midst of the aftershocks of an earthquake and possible jailbreak, the prison keeper said “Yes, straight away”: “At that hour of the night… immediately he and all his family were baptized” (Acts 16:33). There are other examples. “Haste” characterized the Abraham family, the rock from which we are hewn. Abraham ran to meet the Angelic visitors, and then ran to get a calf to prepare for them (Gen. 18:2,7). The narrative of Abraham’s servant finding a bride for Isaac is full of the language of immediacy and speed. He runs toward Rebekah, and she runs to fetch water for his camels and thence runs to tell her family (Gen. 24:17,20,28); Laban runs to the well (Gen. 24:29). Rebekah, representing the bride of Christ, immediately responded: “I will go” when her family wanted her to take ten days to think it over. The same Hebrew word is used in all these references. Abigail is likewise described repeatedly as ‘hasting’ to do things in response to David (1 Sam. 25:23,34,42)

In Preaching

The need is the call. And we encounter others’ spiritual needs all the time. Straight after his baptism, Paul “immediately in the synagogues proclaimed Jesus” (Acts 9:20). He later reflects that when he was called “that I might preach him among the Gentiles- immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:16). Submission to human structures so often impedes our immediacy of response. What will they think? How might she take it? Am I authorized to do this by the committee? What will the Jerusalem ecclesia have to say about this? In contrast, “When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10). The Lord justified His immediate attention to a needy person on the Sabbath, and His unilateral operation outside of the existing religious structures, on the basis that “Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately draw him up on a Sabbath day?” (Lk. 14:5). Immediacy of response to God, and His immediacy of response to us, is all part of ‘walking in step with the Spirit’. Submission to human structures militates against this.

In Forgiving

There is an immediate urgency for us to forgive. But too often there is a lag time between the offence and our forgiveness, which can drag on all our days. For the passage of time often doesn’t heal, it only entrenches perceived hurts and positions. We must agree with our adversary quickly, for we are on our way to judgment (Mt. 5:25). The call of the Gospel is effectively a call to go to judgment. If we truly perceive this, and our coming need for the utmost grace, we will settle our differences with our brethren“quickly”. We are living life on a knife edge. The Lord saw men as rushing to their destruction. We are the accused man on the steps of the court, whose case is hopeless. Now is the very last moment for him to settle up with his brother. We’re like the unjust steward, with a knife at our throat because all our deceptions have been revealed. Everything is at risk for the guy. Life in prison, goodbye to wife and kids, poverty… stretch out before him. He must get right with his brethren by forgiving them their debts.

The kind King who immediately, frankly forgave his indebted servant was alluding to the seventh year release for slaves (Mt. 18:26). But this King, despite the insincerity of this servant, simply proclaims the forgiveness and release there and then. This is how King Jesus operates- He makes the seventh year of release the ongoing status in which He lives with men and women. And this is to be our pattern, not waiting until the seventh year, not demanding a passage of time or partial restoration before we forgive, but doing so immediately without attention to issues of sincerity of repentance. The King’s example in immediately offering the spirit of the seventh year release is surely saying that we should forgive and accept without demanding any passage of time. Observation of ecclesial life suggests that in the end, members are often forgiven about anything, but it just takes time. But if forgiveness is going to be granted, why not grant it immediately…

Readiness to leave

Israel ate the Passover in haste (Ex. 12:11,33); their attitude of being ready to leave straight away is representative of the attitude of the faithful as they await the midnight call to leave ‘Egypt’ at the second coming. Lot and his family dithered in leaving Sodom [cited as a type of our response to the Lord’s return] because of the pull of materialism. The parable of the man who built bigger barns taught that in some senses we should be in the Lord’s service like there’s no tomorrow. He expected His followers to respond immediately, to pay the price today rather than tomorrow, with no delay or procrastination.

There is an emphasis in His teaching on immediacy of response, single-mindedness and unrestrained giving. This is radical stuff for 21st century people in the grip of manic materialism and the planning for the future which characterizes capitalism.

The immediacy of response required is clear in Mt. 24:18. Even grabbing an outer garment, equivalent of a jacket, would lead to unworthiness and destruction. The call to leave must be responded to immediately, with the faith that what clothing we have on is utterly irrelevant. If we are living in a spirit of immediate response to the Lord, then this will seamlessly continue when we realize “He’s back!”. There will be no delay, but an immediate response to His call. This accords with the description of the righteous as opening the door immediately in response to the ‘knock’ of the second coming (Lk 12:36).

Response to the Word

The Lord is the greatest example of immediate response. He was of “Quick understanding in the fear of the Lord” (Is. 11:3 AV; “finds pleasure in obeying Him”, GNB). The word ‘immediate’ is often used of the Lord in this way: “And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit…” (Mk. 2:8). A word or hint from the Father, an implication from His word, was enough- and the Lord responded immediately. The same word comes to us as we read it daily. We are to ‘run’ in response, especially in these last days (Dan. 12:4); “that he may run who hears it” (Hab. 2:2), just as Samuel ran straight away to Eli when he heard the Lord’s voice (1 Sam. 3:5). David felt likewise: “I will run [‘make haste’] in the way of your commandments” (Ps. 119:32). But he also observed that God’s word “runs very swiftly” (Ps. 147:15). He ran in response to the running of God’s word. Hence Jer. 23:21 uses the same idiom to describe how those who spoke forth God’s word ‘run’ with it. The word is to become flesh in us, as it did in the Lord. And so we ask: When was the last time we read or heard something from the word, and actually did something concrete in response? We read of baptism, and went out and got immersed in water; we got wet. But that response is to continue all our days.

The good ground of the sower parable includes all the positive aspects of the other ground types. The seed “which fell on the rocky ground… immediately sprang up” (Mk. 4:5). And that was good. When you perceive an opportunity to do the Lord's service, respond immediately. See it as another opportunity for “redeeming the time”. This is a major Biblical theme. Israel were not to delay in offering their first fruits to God (Ex. 22:29), lest their intentions weren't translated into practice. The Lord told another parable in which He characterized those not worthy of Him as those who thought they had valid reason to delay their response to the call (Lk. 14:16-20). They didn’t turn Him down, they just thought He would understand if they delayed. But He is a demanding Lord, in some ways. What He seeks is an immediacy of response. All this is not to say that we should rush off in hotheaded enthusiasm, crushing the work and systematic efforts of other brethren under foot. But when we see the need, when we catch the vision of service, let’s not hesitate in our response, dilly-dallying until we are left with simply a host of good intentions swimming around in our brain cells.

We are to be like the man who traded his talents “immediately” (Mt. 25:16). We cannot be passive on receiving the opportunity to serve God. We will urgently seek to do something with what we have been enabled to do for the Lord. The law of the peace offerings was designed so as to encourage the person who decided to make such a freewill offering to execute immediately- they were to eat it the same day they offered it, and the sacrifice would be totally unacceptable if it was killed but left for some days (Lev. 19:5-7). If we have an impulse to respond to the Lord, we should respond to it immediately. This isn’t mere impetuosity. The man who refuses to immediately respond to the Lord’s call to service says that he must first go away from the Lord and bury his father (Mt. 8:21); the young man went away in sorrow (Mt. 19:22); people hear the Gospel and then go away to all their petty businesses of this life (Mt. 22:5).

Our Slowness

But children typically do not say or do ‘Yes’ straight away. There is a time lag, an inertia element, and often the request has to be repeated. This is usually not due to rank disobedience, but because it takes them time to process the request, and their slowness tends to frustrate us. The Father and Son must, albeit with greater patience, have something of the same sense. As children grow, lag time between hearing the word and responding diminishes. And so it should be in our path of spiritual growth. As we get older, we ought to see that there is only one thing that matters- our response to the Father and Son. The flesh wants us to delay immediate response, in the hope that we may in fact not have to make the response. John the Baptist aimed to prepare people for the Lord Jesus to use them as a path upon which He would come to Zion. His work was to “Make his paths straight”; and that is the same word translated “immediate”. There was an intensity and critical urgency about John and his message. He warns people to “flee from the wrath to come” along that straight or immediate path (Lk. 3:7). This was what their changed lives and baptisms were to be abouta fleeing from the wrath to come. He speaks as if that “wrath to come” is just about to come, it’s staring them in the face like a wall of forest fire, and they are to flee away from it. So immediate response involves a seeing of things as a ‘straight’ and plain path. This is not an appeal for simplistic obedience with no thought to consequence or wider contexts, but it is true that we make our choices so difficult. In issue after issue, the choice is in fact simple- for the Lord’s way, or not. Our lives become uncluttered and the decisions clear once we are signed up to this principle of immediate response. I wonder if it is intentional that we read that Saul was baptized on Straight street or way (Acts 9:11)- the very same word used by John. ‘Immediate Avenue’, we could translate. It is the only “right way” (2 Pet. 2:15); again using this same word for “immediate”. Immediate response is the only right way. Even if we are left with egg on our faces, fools for Christ’s sake, in our late night reflections on our choices clutching on to the promise that “We can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Cor. 13:8).

If only we would live in this spirit. Our quick response leads to the Lord’s further response, and the dialogue of our lives with Him progresses quicker. God is in dialogue with man. And it can progress at the speed of light, if we allow it to. For that dialogue, that relationship, is mediated by His Spirit. There were eleven days’ journey from Egypt to Canaan (Dt. 1:2). It took Israel a lifetime. And that journey from Red Sea baptism to the promised land is our journey in Christ.

Our delayed response is connected to the conservatism deep within us, the predilection to carry on just as we are and have done. We don’t want the new wine, “for he says [deep within himself], The old is better” (Lk. 5:39). The Lord here accepts the basic conservatism of human nature- that we will not make the change immediately. In seeking to make the total transformation, we ourselves must realize that however progressive, liberal, flexible, open to new ideas we think we are- when it comes to spiritual change, we are terribly conservative. And it is such unbridled conservatism which stops people changing and accepting the new wine. There is the assumption in many Christian groups and minds that conservative = righteous, and change is likely to be for the worst. And yet the Lord is teaching that it is our native conservatism which stops the vital, transforming change which is necessary to avoid the shattering of life and personality now, and final destruction at judgment day. We all find change hard; new wineskins are able to be stretched.

But the Lord knows our nature. He saw that our spiritual growth would be an agonizingly slow business; as slow as a tiny mustard seed growing into a tree, as slow as a man digging a foundation in rock, or a seed growing and bringing forth fruit. Such growth is very slow from a human perspective. But He saw the possibility of His blood being wasted if men didn’t change from old to new wineskins. The implication is that we shed His blood afresh if we won’t change, if we allow the conservatism of our natures to have an iron grip upon us we not only destroy ourselves, but waste the blood of the Son of God.