The Hour Has Come

The Hour Has Come.  Robert Lamm’s intentionally quirky song, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is,” became the third straight Top Ten hit for the ascendant band Chicago in 1970. Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care (about time)? You know, I can’t imagine why (oh no, no) we’ve all got time enough to cry. But articulating a comprehensive understanding of time predates pop music by at least 4,000 years. Time has occupied a large space in the lessons of philosophers, mathematicians, and theologians, too.

What is time? Is it quantitatively measured or qualitatively perceived? Is time a mathematical unit, a universal principle, or an eternal characteristic? St. Augustine (c. 400 ad) wrote playfully in his classic work, Confessions (Book 11, Chapter 3) about the concept of time. “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I know not.”

Time is confusing, but Jesus’ relationship to time is fascinating. He is Lord over time, not subject to time, yet he was patient concerning time. Christ speaks frequently, especially in the Gospel of John, “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4), “the hour is coming” (John 4:21), “my time has not yet come” (John 7:6). No other human exercises sovereignty over time (i.e., my hour) yet even still Jesus yields to the Father’s timing, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Mark 13:32).

After ten examples to the contrary, Jesus switches his phraseology starting at John 12:23 from the future to the present/past, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27-28a). “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

What was the reason for his time change? Did Jesus’ life run out of sand or did Jesus recognize the arrival of his opportune season? At this pinnacle moment, though Jesus’ relationship to time was experienced as a chronological event that split history into before or after, his hour was primarily a Christological purpose fulfilled. In other words, it was Christ’s moment (kairos) more than his minute (chronos) that had arrived. This is why the Father could answer Jesus’ prayer with an audible voice, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again” (John 12:28b). Even though Jesus had not yet been crucified in time (chronos), he had faithfully arrived at the season (kairos) of redemption. Finally, fatally reaching Jerusalem fulfilled his incarnation’s purpose (kairos). All that was left to do was the shouting, so to speak (chronos).