No Where

Jesus said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

What did this mean in His day?
Villages were populated with clan. Families stuck together. There was not a great deal of going off for the common folk. Now, we do not have in depth studies of everything everyone was doing. Sociology had not reared its head yet. But we do know that these were not folks who moved around much. We also know that identity came from community. I am who I am in relation to my group. "We are" was more important than "I am."

Jesus gave that up. It was part of the cost of doing business as a Messiah. And He seemed to enjoin a similar ethic on His followers. After all, can't follow someone with no where to lay His head and keep ahold of hearth and bed. So what does it mean for us, today? Private property is huge, at least in my part of the globe. "I own, therefore I am." Yet for all the solid, stable sinking of one's roots, the other side of it is we do not live with families. Most of us do not see family regularly. Many of us have fmaily spread out over hundreds of miles. There are literally dozens of cousins with whom I spent my childhood whom I  have not seen in decades. Would not know how to find them. They are distant memories grown old. For people like me Jesus' words are not so hard.

Yet, in His day, this was serious. The relationships of the Kingdom community (i.e. church) are fundamentally our new family. So thought Jesus, thus spake Jesus. You and me? Well we are part of something bigger, connected at the (Holy) Spirit level and in this together. And, as I often quip, our God has made sure that there are several folks in the church who make travel all the less enjoyable. People sent to teach us not to like, but to love. People whom we must learn to live with. People who make it hard.

Jesus had no where. Yet, in His heart, the Father reigned. Some day, not today, maybe, but someday that reign is going to bust out all over this world. And Jesus will lay His head, everywhere. He is the Head and we are the Body. If you feel disconnected and weary, maybe it is because of that...