Jer 23:1-6; Eph 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34
Jesus sent out his disciples with the mission of
bringing God's message to the people. When they came back from their
mission they reported to Jesus all that they had done. The
demanding crowds were so insistent that they had no time even to eat; so
Jesus took them to a lonely place that they might have peace and rest for
a while.
Today's passage places before us the rhythm of
the Christian life. Go out from the presence of God, into the presence of men,
and return from the presence of men to the presence of God. It is like
the rhythm of sleep and work. We cannot work unless we have our time
of rest; and sleep will not embrace anyone who has not worked until he is
tired.
This passage very clearly warns us against the
danger of too constant activity. No man can work without rest; and no man can
live his Christian life without giving time to be with God. Dallas Willard says
that practicing silence and solitude is the most important spiritual discipline
for people today. In our busy, noisy world we need to "unhook" and
get away to be alone with our Lord.
Jesus began his public ministry with 40
days of withdrawal into the desert wilderness to fast and pray in silence and
solitude. He was alone, hungry, hot and thirsty, surrounded by wild animals,
and tested by Satan. But the truth of Jesus' fast is that the Father, the
Scriptures, and ministering angels strengthened Jesus! His time alone with God
and quietly focused only on him empowered him to resist Satan's temptations
(which came at the end of the 40 days) and it focused and prepared him for his
public ministry. Interspersed throughout Jesus' ministry of preaching, and
healing, we see him withdraw from the crowds again and again – often
getting up very early to do so – in order to be quiet and alone with the Father
(e.g., Mark 1:35, 3:13, 6:31, 46).
Jesus' rhythm of life is the secret to
how he got renewed in his Father's love and empowered by the Spirit for his
life and ministry. In quiet prayer he listened to the Father and received
discernment for many things.
Michael Faraday, an early pioneer of
electromagnetic current, once addressed a convocation of scientists. For an
hour, he held the audience spellbound with his lecture on the nature of the
magnet. After he had finished, he received a thundering ovation. The Prince of
Wales, later King Edward VII, stood to congratulate him. The applause thundered
again. Just as quickly, a deadened silence pervaded the audience. Faraday had
left. It was the hour of a midweek prayer service in a little church of which
he was a member. Do we have a similar commitment One of the reasons we gather
for worship each week is for the refreshment of our spirits, the recharging of
our spiritual; batteries. We need to shut the world out and focus our attention
on God's presence in our lives. Jesus knew the value of getting away to a quiet
place.
John the Baptist is another one in the
Bible who practiced solitude with God. He was quite a figure. Imagine a man who
lives in the wilderness with wild animals, dresses in hairy camel skin tied on
by a thick leather belt, and exists on a diet of locusts and wild honey! That's
John the Baptist. His message was as austere as his desert surroundings:
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2, NASB).
John lived in the desert with his
disciples and hundreds of people came to him there to be baptized and taught.
Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest of all the prophets, but John
sought no glory for himself. Instead his life ambition and great joy was to
prepare the way for people to go to Jesus. Like John the Baptist, the Desert
Fathers of the early church made solitude in the desert their way of life. They
lived in the Egyptian desert in private huts where they weaved baskets to earn
a living and while they weaved they prayed and meditated on Scripture. They
fasted often and practiced other ascetic disciplines (some of the monks did so
in extreme and odd ways that have been given undo attention). Regularly they
met individually with their Abba for spiritual direction and as a community for
worship.
The ultimate test of the value of
silence and solitude is if they empower us to love others – if we've truly been
with the God of love and his love has purified us and put us at peace then
we'll love others. So we need to realize that silence isn't something only for
when we're alone; it's also about learning to control our tongue in our
relationships.
"The fruit of solitude,"
explains Richard Foster, "is increased sensitivity and compassion for
others."
The crowd saw Jesus and his men going
away. But some people walked round and were there before Jesus and his
disciples arrived. They earnestly sought the company of men of God. More than
ever today men crave to be in the company of men of God, to
experience the holiness of God. Today we are entrusted with this mission – to
impart the experience of the holiness of God to our contemporaries. For
that we require to do two things. First of all find time to be with
God, secondly find time to be with men. Hence, the rhythm of Christian
life is the alternative meeting with God in the secret place and
serving men in the market place.