In the morning, long before dawn, Jesus got up and left the house, and went to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He answered, “Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.” [Mark 1:35-38]
Jesus praying at a lonely place
Mark 1:21-39 is a very fecund passage for lectio divina. This Scripture also yields serious food for thought in response to a few questions that have been raised with us in coffee-corner chats as to why Jesus suggested “going elsewhere” when there seemed so much work to be done “right here”. It is clearly a promising vein to mine for some deeper truth on problems associated with priest-transfers that a few friends have been troubled by.
Mark 1:21-39 yields a vision of what Christ wants us to do in ministry. If we begin by listing down what he did in a day, we have a clearer idea of his hectic schedule. And if we include the people’s corresponding reaction to what he did, we appreciate better the kind of pressure they put on him.
- 21 Jesus taught in the synagogue.
- 22 The people were amazed at his teaching.
- 23 Jesus confronted evil spirits.
- 25 The spirits came out of the man.
- 27 The people were all so amazed.
- 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
- 31 Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law.
- 32 In the evening, they brought to him the sick and demon-possessed in Capernaum.
- 33 The whole town came crowding round the door of Peter’s house.
- 34 He cured many suffering from diseases and cast out many devils.
- 35 In the morning, long before dawn, Jesus went off to a lonely place to pray.
- 36 Simon and friends went in search of him.
- 37 On finding him, Simon declared, “Everybody is looking for you.”
Prayer – In the Midst of a Busy Schedule
Clearly, Jesus had had a very busy day in Capernaum. His reputation spread like wild fire. Then, in his typically brief narrative, Mark tells us in v.35: “In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.”
Right here, Mark captures for us a major characteristic of the Lord Jesus for our instruction. And that is, when he is busy, when the going is good and many people are pressing round him like a celebrity, Jesus always pulls away from the crowds, gets up very early in the morning, to go to a lonely and quiet place and commune with his Abba Father. He knew that when people are eager to treat you like a celebrity, the experience can be very intoxicating. Instead of basking in glory and sitting on his laurels, Jesus goes away to pray. Jesus teaches that in order to stay focused on our mission, there is nothing more important than to stay in spiritual communion with God.
Here too, Mark offers an important keyhole view of Jesus’ personal life. Instead of busy savouring the accolades the people are piling on him, he chose the quiet, undisturbed spiritual communion with God. There is a profound lesson here for all Christians who engage in any ministry:
- In order that we don’t lose our proper anchorage in God and his wisdom, we have a constant need to go to a quiet place and pray. This is all the more necessary when outside voices are competing to honour you at your “temple”.
- Before we have anything worthwhile to say to others, we need first to commune with God and tap into his wisdom.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church underscores the importance of prayer in the life of a disciple. Paragraph 2725 teaches that not only is prayer a gift of grace, but a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and Christ himself, all teach us that to pray is to do battle. But against whom are we doing battle?
- First, it is against ourselves, our natural inclination to want to do things our way, and our propensity to lean towards the material, the sensational and the superficially attractive and delightful.
- Second, it is against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn us away from prayer, away from union with God.
This is the “spiritual battle” we promised to fight with all our might when we entered upon our new life in Christ at baptism. That explains why in all the three cycles of scripture readings for Years A, B and C on the First Sunday of Lent, the Synoptic Gospel texts focus on the same theme of Jesus’ forty days of fasting and prayers in the desert [Matthew 41-11; Mark 112-15; Luke 41-13]. Three years down the road, the disciples of Jesus who followed him in ministry, but did not pray for strength as he did, would scatter upon his arrest.
Let Us Go Elsewhere
Resuming the narrative in Mark’s Gospel, we find a stunning revelation.
While Jesus was praying at a lonely place, excitement was building up at Peter’s house. Jesus’ name had spread and the whole town was now crowding at Peter’s door [v.33]. Peter and friends had a good idea what they would want to do. “Everybody is looking for you,” Peter burst out with excitement upon finding Jesus [v.37]. They wanted Jesus back at the house. Why?
Imagine the great potentials of the situation because now, Peter and the first disciples had, simply by association with Jesus, themselves become celebrities. Furthermore, all this was now happening in Peter’s house. That offered Peter and his fellow-disciples an ideal opportunity to become power-brokers! Anyone who wanted to see Jesus could see Peter and company with a request, for now they had exclusive access and hence exclusive brokerage. Imagine the power! Imagine the temptations! Just like Peter would go on to propose erecting tents up on the mountain of transfiguration because “it is good to be here”, so too, there is great potential for putting up headquarters at Peter’s precinct to handle all that busy administrative work coming right up.
At this lonely wilderness, those who do not pray will only harp on the glory of the Transfiguration and not its call for sacrifice. “It is so good to be here, Lord. Let’s make some tents and start some rolling business right here. People will be lining up to see us.”
The question is, what did Jesus want to do? What Jesus did next would be the testing blueprint for Christian ministry. “Let us go elsewhere,” Jesus said, “to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came” [v.38]. He who rose very early to go to a lonely place to commune with Abba Father, does not forget his mission. He will not settle down to a power base, to enjoy the spread of his popularity, to receive endless homage from people who come pressing at the door [v.33].
Jesus’ response was as shocking as it was disappointing to the would-be power-brokers. Enjoying the hype surrounding Jesus’ instant fame, the disciples wanted to manage him. But Jesus knew, from his early morning prayer, that to preach the kingdom of God, he had to go out to bring the message of the kingdom to the people and not sit tight in a comfortable high chair expecting the people to come to the message.
Right here, therefore, we suspect much light may be had for truthful reflections concerning the many problems related to priest-transfers, at least with regards to those cases that friends had discussed with us. “Let us go elsewhere,… because that is why I came” sounds pretty close to the kind of vision-and-mission statement that parishes and lay organisations ought to align themselves to.
Jesus was kept very busy in kingdom-preaching and healing the sick that came to him in great numbers. St Mark makes it clear that Jesus’ mission was not glory-seeking for himself or to elevate his followers to positions of power, authority, and prestige through identification with him. The power of the Word ought to convict us in whatever ministry we may be engaged. When we are engaged like Jesus in seeking to heal the world rather than our own glory, we may come to understand better who Jesus is and who we are called to be. Jesus in Mark’s Gospel always points through and beyond himself to God and to God’s coming reign on earth, and his invitation to those who would follow him is to find their voice in bearing witness to this transforming, redemptive God.
Would the following questions worth your while to reflect on?
- When those outside the church look at us, how faithful to Christ’s agenda do you think they would find us?
- When I am having success in ministry, am I conscious of the corrosive influence of success?
- When rational temptation kicks in to justify a refusal to step away from those activities that brought success, do I forget that Christ did differently precisely at this point?
- Even while everyone was looking for him, Christ’s relationship with the Father was pre-eminent. Do I keep in the forefront of my consciousness this great example set by Christ, to keep my walk with the Lord as of first importance?
- Am I too attached to this place because it is too nice, too good, too comfortable, too promising, to give up on?
- Do I subtly find myself looking at my own importance in managing the work that he has called me to do?
- Is my inability to feel the freedom to go “elsewhere” the result of a severe lack of prayerful communion with God?
A note of absence from Kuching, Malaysia:
We are currently residing in Manila where Jeffrey is Visiting Associate Professor at the De La Salle University-Manila during the first trimester, May-August, 2012. He is teaching two courses at the Theology and Religious Education Department, College of Liberal Arts: “Scripture and Christology” in the undergrads, and “Creation and Eschatology” in the Ph.D. programmes. We will be back in Kuching on 1 September.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, June 2012. All rights reserved.
You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to us at jeffangiegoh@gmail.com. You can also be dialogue partners in this Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry by sending us questions for discussion.