Jesus is the Antithesis of Hustle Culture
The other day on X, the social media app, I saw Elon Musk post a picture of a note that explains his unstoppable character. “How many days since my last all-nighter: 0.” That reads, “zero.” If anyone embodies the word “hustle culture,” it would be Elon Musk. He gets things done at breakneck pace. All. The. Time. He builds rockets, satellites, space age electric vehicles, and robots. What does the word, “hustle culture” mean?
It is a widely accepted belief among people in business that advocates working long hours at the expense of personal needs. For example, if someone has a “side hustle,” they are working additional hours at their own job, and for many that is entrepreneurial, whereby they are attempting to launch it to the next level. It could also mean that someone is gunning for promotion in a non-stop mode of work. They are uni-focused in a goal driven attitude. They won’t stop until they achieve their KPIs: Key Performance Indicators. What does this have to do with pastoring? I think a lot.
In the Gospel of Mark, he uses the Greek word “Eutheos,” 41 times, generally meaning, “immediately.” It’s used mostly in the early chapters, and there is a total of 59 times recorded in the whole NT. One could read that Mark is the epitome of hustle culture and Jesus is leading the way.
But, not so fast…
It’s actually more like a literary device used to help speed the narrative along so that Mark can accomplish the story/the Gospel in an efficient manner. Mark is the shortest gospel and considered to be the first. It is widely understood that the other gospels are expansions of Mark’s.
But, is there something more to this? Pray tell, yes…
When my family came back from the PennDel picnic at the Bongiorno Conference Center the other night, and I arrived in my driveway at about 8:00 PM I noticed my wife’s minivan had a flat tire. In order for us to get to work the next day, I needed to “immediately” change that flat tire and get it to a garage first thing in the morning. When my toilet overflowed, I “immediately” ran for the plunger, but couldn’t find it in the whole house. So, I immediately drove to the hardware store to remedy the situation.
As much as we desire to accomplish tasks connected to a driving strategy, does everything, always have to be an “immediately?” Are we perhaps even self-sabotaging ourselves by living in a constant “immediately” state of living?
The other night I was bemoaning to my wife about my state of “immediately” that I found myself in. She said, “Well, one solution is to just drive yourself into the ground.” I said, “That’s what I was thinking!” And, then we both laughed at ourselves for the absurdity of this way of life.
I love the passage in Mark 1:35-38 where Jesus is the antithesis of the hustle culture. It comes after an extended time of intense ministry and healing the sick and casting out demons while he was staying at Peter’s mother’s house. The whole city was gathered at his door. That’s a long, hard day of teleworking!
What happens next is this. “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’ But he said to them, ‘Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.’”
Jesus stayed on task to his overall strategic purpose in life, His mission. He didn’t stay there in one location because “Everyone is looking for him.” Jesus could have stayed in that one location and made a big name for himself, and hustle cultured something that actually wasn’t the will of God. What did Jesus do?
He got up early, spiritually recalibrated himself and prayed. Taking time in solitude and prayer is the antithesis of hustle culture. You might say, “But, I need to get stuff done!” Yes, you do, but maybe not always “immediately.” Healthy living is more like working at "Jesus pace," not "hustle culture pace."
* The picture is Christ on the Mount of Olives by Joseph Untersberger, 1864-1933 and it's in the public domain.
