Many Christians long for the heavenly day when they will meet Jesus and his Father face to face, when they will actually see them. Perhaps the Lord's words in the Beatitudes, however, were not intended as a promise of future intimacy, but a recognition of present vision.

At last we prepare to leave our place of solitude and retreat...

What more practical and revealing window exists into the human soul than fear? At root we are weak and timid creatures, full of many fears. Fear of death probably tops the list. It is a universal fear shared by our entire race. And individually we each harbor multitudes of our own private fears. All these Jesus sweeps away, saying, "Believe in me and you need fear nothing!"

We are still in a remote region...

Another group of the most frequently given but often overlooked Commands of Jesus might be summarized in many ways--bravery, stout heartedness, courage, valor, fearlessness, boldness. They are here gathered together as two, which we consider as Take heart, take courage, and simply Do not be afraid.

We leave the city...

The Command to watchfulness has deep but often overlooked consequences. Counterfeits creep in to distract us when we let our spiritual guards down. The moment attentiveness wanes, our eyes drift off the bulls eye of God's purpose. We observe this pattern with the twelve. Every time they became distracted by peripheral concerns, Jesus brought them back to foundational priorities with one or another variation of, "You lost your focus...now pay attention."

We come into one of the larger cities of the region...

A serious examination of the Gospels reveals three surprising combinations of injunctions emerging as the most frequently given commands of Jesus. One would assume, from their prevalence, that these three groups would form the bedrock of Christian teaching, that we would hear them from the pulpits of our churches week after week, that they would form the basis of most dialog and discussion between Christians. If Jesus emphasized them most, would it not be logical to assume that we would too?

While we eat lunch, the woman runs excitedly back into town and begins telling everyone what has happened...