The Right Time Every Time

“Timing Has Everything To Do With The Outcome of a Rain Dance”…Will Rogers.

What if Jesus had come to the present day United States to do his work of redemptive power instead of Israel in the first Century.  Well, firstly, there would be no first Century.  Who knows how we would have marked time now without that event.  Up until then, my sense is there was no marking of time in any particularly meaningful way except by seasons and annual celebrations in various cultures.  I hear the Mayans had a calendar, perhaps beginning with the first known ear of corn or the first sacrificed virgin or who knows what.  The Jews could date back through the generations and determine their cultural existence back about 3,000 years or so, to Adam and Eve, but did they remark that this was the year 2999 and worry about Y3K making their pens run out of ink and cows not give milk, etc.?

So if Jesus came now, we would start a new calendar…yes?  Or would the event be marked by being largely ignored by the press, mocked by investigators, and relegated to the world of fringe lunatics like those who are waiting for the aliens to pick them up and sport them off to faraway planets. 

I suspect in the U.S. Jesus would be tolerated about as well as we tolerate the Chevy Volt, Bill O’Reilly, Gays, Muslims, Lindsey Lohan, and the TV series Jackass.  Just another day in paradise.  Small blip on the evening news about a hilarious rumored feeding of 5,000 men in Yosemite Valley and maybe an episode of “Ghost Hunters” devoted to proving spirits can reside in pigs.  Doctors would mock the concept of healing.  The culture would absorb it and largely ignore it.  We’d go on to playing pong and Tetris on our 4g Tablets, and drinking Venti Lattes at Starbucks.  We are more blaze and materialistic than any culture in history.  I think it would just pass us by and travel into history like the “Howdy Doody” and the “Slinky.”

I suspect that God had a specific reason for appearing to the Jews of ancient Israel at that place and time.  I suspect that reason had a lot to do with his knowledge that that would be the time He would have the most impact on the world.  Being all knowing is a handy attribute for God to possess, afterall!  Not one single person on the face of the earth has had the impact that Jesus Christ has had on the world.  I am glad he came then, and I look forward to his return when God knows the right time and place will be for that event.