Jesus Standard Time by Benjamin Wailes

Minute for Stewardship: Jesus Standard Time

By Benjamin Wailes

 We’re about to set our clocks back one hour, returning to Eastern Standard Time (EST) next Saturday.  An observation: This October has seen 3 information technology moguls pass:

  1. Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple
  2. Dennis Richie, Father of the ubiquitous C programming language
  3. Bob Galvin, CEO of Motorola who lead its transformation through the business management discipline known as Six Sigma, for which he & Bill Smith earned the first Malcolm Baldridge Award for business excellence.

I mention these men because, contrary to the opinion of many, they are evidence that money, not even billions of dollars of it, can buy one more time in life.

Even for the Son of God, His time on Earth was finite, and He was infinitely more aware of it than everyone around Him, except perhaps Mary of Magdala.  Jesus, resurrected and ascended up to heaven, knows what you are going through.

The other reason I mentioned these IT industry leaders is that I took up the opportunity to participate in a UM-Flint workshop on leadership, which taught leadership as a skill that can be learned and mastered.  I took from that workshop one valuable term: servant leadership.

In this secular context, to me, there is no doubt that the servant leadership style, is a way of talking about Jesus as a model of leadership, as testified in the Gospels, without giving Him credit by name, as the author of our salvation, nor glory, for His victory over Death, and therefore over Time.  Let us all then set our clocks to “Jesus Standard Time!”

The clearest example of Jesus’ servant leadership, we find in the Gospel according to John, chapter 13, verses 6 to 9, 12 to 17:

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

   Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.        “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.

13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.

14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”


Jesus said this shortly before He was taken away to be crucified.  He knows, but the disciples don’t -- that this is His last time with them in corporeal life.  It’s so easy to forget why Jesus HAD to come and HAD to die on the cross:  Everything Jesus did in His life is to restore life to be what God had originally intended:


God did not intend for there to be death or disease or illness, or lack of anything.  All these came when sin entered the world.  We are all descendants of Adam and Eve.  Please keep this in mind as you hear these verses from Matthew 25 verses 34 to 40:

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you?

39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’


We encounter Jesus when we help those in need -- by giving of our time and of our resources.  I have, therefore, personally experienced Jesus through many of you, welcoming me into this congregation, through fellowship in the Neighborhood Breakfast, the adult education Bible Studies, at Deacons’ Meetings, and open-hearted love; through my Church-Mom and Church-Dad, Tom & Kathy Robinson [Tom taught me how to play Cribbage -- a good game for keeping the quantitative skills sharp] and through the concern shown me by Dick Skaff [Indeed, Sir.  No, you can’t beat free.]; and through the generous pastoral care of Pastors Musgrave, Ytterock, Baillie, and Pope.  

And finally, I humbly ask each of us to sincerely pray to our Father in heaven and ask ourselves, which person am I more like or do I want to be like: the widow who put 2 very small copper coins into the temple treasury or Ananias & Sapphira, who deceived the Holy Ghost, keeping back part of the sale price of their land?

Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, please do your best to help keep our church operating in Jesus Standard Time!