I have never been a big fan of walking. I could never see the point of walking. It was interminably slow. After rushing from one place to another in a car, walking held little attraction. I wanted to get where I was going in a hurry.
When Sharon and I were dating we would go for walks around her neighborhood. Sounds romantic, right? As we swapped stories and got to know each other better, Sharon would intermittently look up and remark, “Oh, that house needs new shingles.” I would look and wonder how she could tell. As an insurance adjustor, she could tell. I have since learned to identify bad shingles.
Sharon loves going for walks. When she suggested we go for a walk, I would typically groan and reluctantly get up off the couch and follow her out the door. But our first neighborhood was anything but interesting. There were no trees for shade There was nothing to see. The only reason I walked was to be with her. I didn’t like walking.
So, it may seem odd that for my sabbatical this summer, Tim Ryan suggested I read the book “God Walk” by Mark Buchanan. Though the premise is simple, “Walking with God,” the practice of this idea has been revolutionary for me. I want to share this with you this morning.
From beginning to end, the Bible is full of “walking” metaphors. The Bible uses “walking” as a way of describing life with God. The prophets preached it; Jesus embodied it. Walking was the vehicle where discipleship took place. In other words, walking is a way of learning the pace of Jesus. Buchanan writes of it as learning to walk with the three-mile-an-hour God.
1. God made us for Walking
In the OT and in the ancient Jewish mind, how you live is how you walk. In Hebrew, the word halakh “to walk” or “to go” became a powerful way of describing one’s manner of life before God. Later, the related word halakha described the Jewish way of life shaped by God’s law. The very first instance of walking in the Bible was when Adam and Eve had sinned. Genesis 3:8 tells us that they “…heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” and they hid. It is an awesome thing to think of God as walking casually among humans.
Halakh soon became an important Jewish concept of “walking with God.” Twice it says in Genesis 5 that Enoch walked with God (22, 24), as if to say something much more significant than strolling with the Lord. He was a man who walked faithfully with God.
Even more formally, walking came to represent obedience to God’s commands. Moses told the Israelites “…to keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him,” (Deut. 8:6).
Truly, we complicate faith in God by making it a religion. People get caught up in the details of religion and turn it in legalism. Micah addresses this temptation when he asks a really good question, “What does God want of us?” And the prophet Micah replied, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (6:8).
Micah doesn’t reduce faith to believing the right things or accumulating credits through works. He gives us this beautiful picture, “Walk humbly with your God.”
You see, I was in a hurry to get somewhere, to get from point A to point B quickly. I saw walking as transportation. God sees walking as transformation.
2. Jesus walked with his Disciples
By the time of Jesus, Halakh was entrenched in Jewish life as “the way of walking.” When a Jewish rabbi interpreted the law, he was giving halakh – specific rules on how to walk.
We see Jesus walking by the sea and calling men to come and follow him. He continued to walk. And as he walked, Jesus taught these men his “way of walking.” The little group always seemed to be moving from village to village. I think that if you would trace the path of this journey, it would make no sense as to where they were going. Draw a line on a map and you would see Jesus and his followers walking in circles. That didn’t matter. It was not the destination but the journey that was important. It was the conversation.
Yet Jesus clearly taught that Jerusalem was the final destination. Here’s the kicker: The journey from Capernaum to Jerusalem could be made on foot in a matter of days. Jesus, however spent three years walking toward Jerusalem.
Walking and talking was a key part of discipleship. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” (John 8:12). Jesus continues the OT language of walking, In the Greek, the word is peripateo. So, Jesus invites his followers to travel down the same road with him and learn his pattern for life. That’s the invitation. And the response is peripateo, “to walk,” or imitate that way of walking.
Jesus didn’t set up a classroom and teach theory. He took his disciples on the road and showed the light of life. When they passed a field of wheat, Jesus waved at it and said, “I know a story. A man was sowing seed…” When they were arguing about who the best disciple was, Jesus taught them about greatness by setting a child in their midst. The world was his classroom.
Follow me. Come with me. Walk with me. Watch what I do. Following Jesus was not a lesson plan, it was life lived together. Jesus wasn’t trying to get to Jerusalem in a hurry; he was transforming these disciples into disciple-makers.
3. Walking creates space for Discipleship
Jesus showed his followers the way to walk in a dark world. The Way. Not an idea. Not the ideal. Not even doctrine. Not philosophy. Not moral training. The Way! How do you follow an idea? You can argue about it. How do you follow a philosophy? You study it. But Jesus doesn’t give us an idea or a philosophy. He gives us a way to walk.
Mark Buchanan convinced me in his book that walking, literally walking, awakens one’s life with Christ. Walking revives body, mind, and soul in profound ways.
While I was on sabbatical, sitting on the couch and reading this book, I thought, “I need to do this.” I got up, went outside, and walked. Three benefits emerged as I walked. I found…
Walking restores my body. I’ve noticed my pants getting tight. I know I lacked a regimen for exercise because I am always in a hurry. When would I exercise? I need to be places. The truck gets me there fast. But my body was suffering and I was forming unhealthy habits. I’ve started walking to work, walking to coffee places, everywhere in town.
Walking clears my mind. On sabbatical, I sat and read or sat at my computer. But when I decided to walk that day, it blew my mind – literally. After walking around that new path in town, I realized my mind was clearer, my thoughts were more positive, and my attitude was brighter as I started the day. It was so simple, how could I have missed this? My mind needed this. I needed to go from 60 mph to 3 mph.
Walking opens me to the quiet presence of Jesus. This one was the most surprising. I imagined I would walk and pray. Nope, didn’t happen. I didn’t feel like praying on the walk. I couldn’t force myself to do it. But while I walked, I found Jesus was quietly present. He didn’t reveal anything to me. He was just there. He whispered in tones that I did not hear until long after the walk was over. At three-miles-an-hour, I realized how small and dependent I was on his presence. At 3 mph, I am vulnerable and open to my need for him.
4. Jesus meets us on the Road
When we walk, Jesus is quietly present. Consider the encounter on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Cleopas and his companion are walking to Emmaus from Jerusalem, a distance of 7 miles. A stranger comes up beside them and overhears their conversation about the crucifixion of Jesus and the discovery of the empty tomb.
The stranger asks what they are talking about and they are surprised he doesn’t know. He seems clueless about the events that shattered these two people’s world and have gripped and shocked a nation.
That 7-mile journey becomes a two-hour conversation.
You know, these disciples are walking away from Jerusalem. They think the “Jesus story” is over. They are disappointed – grieving. Bewildered over the empty tomb.
Jesus comes alongside them. He doesn’t say, “Hey guys, it’s me!” He doesn’t reveal himself in a blaze of glory. He walks with them. He asks what they are grieving over. Jesus listens to their questions. Then he starts to explain from the OT what the prophets said about Messiah. He walks and talks. He teaches Cleopas and friend about how all roads, all Scripture, lead to the same place: the Messiah will suffer before he enters his glory.
What’s interesting is they don’t recognize him. When I was walking the Rosenort Trail, I didn’t recognize Jesus either. Not until later. In both instances, theirs and mine, however, he was right there.
After Jesus reveals his hands in the breaking of bread, he disappears. And then Cleopas and his companion say to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (32).
Did you notice where their hearts burned? Not the destination. On the road. While walking.
So, I am walking now. And I am enjoying the journey as never before.
Buchanan wrote, “…walking is the way we keep pace with the three-mile-an-hour God. It is God speed. We walk with a God who seems in no particular hurry and who, it seems, enjoys the going there as much as the getting there. A God who is slow.” (8)
Buchanan also wrote how the two disciples at Emmaus discovered Jesus even as they were lamenting his absence. That was my experience on the Rosenort Trail. I wondered where Jesus was even while he was present with me. Jesus keeps showing up in those moments, showing us himself, showing us his world, walking beside us. My heart burns even as I think of this reality. Even when we don’t recognize him on the walk, he is okay with that. That comes later. It takes some walking to get to the place where we recognize him.
This is not about pilgrimages to some sacred shrine, like the Camino de Santiago in Spain. I am not saying we should plan a “Jesus March.” It’s not an exercise plan like Tai Chi Walking. I invite you simply to walk. It’s not magic. It just creates the space. Jesus does the transforming.
I found it takes five minutes to walk to church from my house. It takes ten minutes to get to Lilystone and seven to go to Jake’s. But most of all, I have discovered that slowing down to God speed is an opportunity to learn to walk with Jesus.
I invite you to walk. It may sound overly simple, but I think we are missing something in this fast-paced car-crazy culture…that in the Garden, God walked. And Jesus wants to walk with you.
AMEN
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