It’s almost not an action at all, yet it’s the one Jesus performs most often in the Gospels (Mt 13:1; Lk 5:27; 22:39; Jn 19:5, etc.). “Jesus went out.” We’re not always told where He’s leaving from or exactly where He’s going. “Jesus went out.” Most of the time, this phrase stands on its own, adding nothing decisive to the narrative: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mk 1:35) As if Jesus came to go out.
The God who draws near is a God who distances Himself. In this same passage, where Jesus merely passes through, He tells the disciples who wish to hold Him back: “Let’s go somewhere else.” Not here or there — somewhere else. Why? “That is why I have come out.” Not out of Peter’s house, where He just healed Peter’s mother-in-law, but out of the Father’s house, where He eternally dwells (Jn 1:1).
This “going out” is an event. It is called the Incarnation. But first, it is God’s very nature — His style, His way of being recognized, the manner in which He allows Himself to be approached. The life of the Trinity excludes the fusion of the persons. The Father, the Son, and their mutual desire to allow each other space to breathe. The Father, the Son, and the freedom granted to the Son to go out into the world and spend His inheritance. If we understand this — and only this — if we see that the refusal to control is inherent in God Himself, then Jesus tells us we are in the Kingdom: “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” (Jn 16:27; see also Lk 4:43; Jn 8:42)
It is often true that Jesus goes out from the temple or synagogue (Mk 1:29; Mt 24:1; Lk 4:38, etc.). He gives the Mosaic Law a breath of fresh air, testing it in contact with those who either ignore it or whom it excludes. In doing so, He follows in the footsteps of His people. The famous Exodus from Egypt began with Moses going out from Pharaoh’s palace to see and measure the suffering of his people. (Ex 2:11-13)
In an article titled “And Dinah Went Out…,” Janine Elkouby, author and scholar specializing in the role of women in Judaism, focuses on the simple act — the only one recorded — of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah. Dinah “went out to visit the women of the land.” (Gen 34:1). She paid a heavy price for this. She was abducted and violated by Shechem, the local ruler, whose city, after a cruel ruse, was destroyed by Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers.
Elkouby notes that the Midrash often interpreted Dinah’s innocent intention harshly, blaming her for the dishonor brought upon her father and the subsequent war. Perhaps her only fault was her innocence, her ignorance of the fact that in going out to see the daughters of the land, she would encounter the possessiveness and violence of men. Perhaps the going out of Christ — and ours in His footsteps — is still like that of Dinah, with this difference: we are now warned. We must leave the comfort of the palace, the possessiveness of family, and the temple with its security to bring the joyous news of salvation to a world that does not want it.
There is only one place from which God does not go out: the desire for Him that He kindles in our hearts. That is why, when the disciples on the road to Emmaus wished to hold Him back, Jesus “continued on as if he were going farther..” “Stay with us,” they protested, “for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” “So he went in to stay with them.” (Lk 24:28-29)
Martin Steffens teaches philosophy at a secondary school in Strasbourg (France) and is a regular contributor to La Croix.
Reproduced with permission from La Croix International.
