Week 2: Ministry

The Lonely Places

There is an obvious tension in Jesus’ ministry that even surprises his disciples. It is clear from the reading today. On the one hand, Jesus belongs to the masses, but on the other hand, he retreats to lonely places. Mark says that the whole village came to Jesus to receive healing. This ran late into the night. Surely everyone was exhausted from the intensity of the long night, but early the next morning, Jesus withdrew by himself to pray. This is a recurring pattern throughout Jesus's ministry.

He joins the crowds to receive John's baptism and is immediately led into the wilderness for forty days to start his ministry.

In the chaos of a Galilean village, he heals a leper and then ministers on the outskirts of the community.

He preaches to the crowds as they gather by the hundreds. He provides them a meal of bread and fish, then retreats in a boat to the other side of the lake.

He is welcomed into Jerusalem with a parade of people laying down palm branches before him and then wrestles by himself in prayer with God in the dark night on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus teaches us that the way of godliness is through a balance of pouring out and filling up. A couple of things are important to note as we are formed into this same ministry pattern in our spiritual life.

First, Jesus does not withdraw into selfish, isolated distractions. He is not binge-watching Netflix or tethered to a console all night. Of course, there's nothing wrong with entertainment, but that is not what Jesus is doing. He is being filled in prayer with the Father. I once heard someone refer to this as Jesus' alone time. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is not alone, nor does he even desire to be alone. He's just changing the focus of who he is with at that moment. He leans into his relationship with the Father and away from the burden of the crowds.

Second, he finds strength and fortitude in this time of prayer. In the text for today, you'll see that when he rises from this time of prayer as the disciples finally find him, he has renewed focus and mission. This comes not from the needs or expectations of the crowds but from his time of prayer.

Finally, all of this is a balance. So often, we think of our spiritual transformation like monkey bars on a playground. We are striving and reaching for the next rung, barely holding on to the one we're currently on while questioning if we have the strength to make it to the finish line. Yet, most of what Jesus teaches about Gospel formation is more like a teeter-totter. We learn to find balance by properly weighing different aspects of our life. In the same way as Jesus, we find the balance between ministering to others and being ministered to by the Father.

Are you in balance?

Does your teeter-totter lean a little heavily in one direction?

Have you completely cut out your time alone with God?

Have you given too much weight to the wants and expectations of others around you?

Or have you completely cut out your time in relationships with others?

Have you thought all you need for life is one-on-one time with God?