Where is Jesus, Continued

Mark 1: 35- 39
10 April 2011

I don’t know about you but I had a busy week last week. It all started with a ministerial meeting with my colleagues from the Canning and Area churches. From our discussion there, it was obvious that I was not the only one with a charged schedule. On Wednesday, I met with a fellow pastor who has been a guide for me during this last year of study. As part of our monthly encounters, I had to give him my account of what I do from day to day for a month. His first words to me were, “Looking at your daily schedule made me glad that I am no longer a full time pastor! I don’t miss that busyness.”
I know I am not the only here living a busy life. Many, if not most of you are extremely busy at work, or with your families or participating and volunteering in different activities and organisations. When we go to bed at night, we fall asleep quickly – or perhaps have a difficult time falling asleep because we think of all the many other things that have yet to be done.
These past two weeks, we looked at a day in the life of Jesus which was rather busy for him. It all began going to worship in the synagogue of Capernaum. There, Jesus taught the people with a degree of authority the hearers had never heard. While still there, he exorcised an evil spirit. On entering Simon and Andrew’s house, there was no hello good to have you. His greeting was, Simon’s mother-in-law is sick. “We’ve heard what you did in the synagogue; can you make her well too? She’s lying down and can’t get out of bed. That is how sick she is. So please, do something, anything.”
Jesus, as we know, went up to her bed, took her by the hand, lifted her up and just like that, she was healed. She felt so good that she began to serve the many who were in the house. The news of what had happened in the synagogue and at the house spread like a wild grass fire. As soon as the Sabbath was over, at sundown, the restriction to travel being lifted, people began to bring their sick loved ones and those who had evil spirits inside them. Someone would come to the door, pleading. “Jesus, we’ve heard what you did. Can you do the same for me, for my brother, for my sister, for my father, for my mother? Please, we don’t know where else to turn. We’ve tried other things but it didn’t help.” And all night long it went like this, people coming in and out.
Just thinking of the day Jesus had makes me feel exhausted! But as I expressed last week, everything that happened that evening can make us wonder, where is Jesus today? How come we don’t witness all those miracles that are recorded in the gospels? Is it that people then had more faith than we do today? Is it because somehow Jesus is absent?
This is a question I often hear when something happens. Where is Jesus – where is God? Why did this happen to me? Is it because I have done something wrong? Is it that my faith has faltered somewhere along the way?
The first disciples also were wondering where Jesus was on the morning after all the healings took place. Perhaps, people came knocking at the door that morning seeking for healing. But Jesus was not in the house. Worried, perhaps, they went searching for the One who had performed so many miracles the day before. Why wasn’t he at his post?
“In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you (Mark 1: 35-37).”
Have you ever searched for someone and having difficulties finding them? That is rather frustrating, isn’t it! It’s like when your children a small. One moment they are busy paying somewhere, making noise and all of a sudden, you realise all is quiet, too quiet even. You go search for them. And perhaps, they have fallen asleep, or are quietly looking at pictures or getting into mischief!
I am sure the disciples were wondering what was going on! They search the house, the street, the synagogue even. It was not until they searched a lonely corner of the neighbourhood that they found Jesus, praying.
I wonder what the disciples thought when they first saw Jesus praying? Did they think he was wasting His time and short changing the people by not being there for them? It was not just the disciples that were looking for Jesus. There were all kinds of people still seeking Him for healing and to have their demons cast out. Going away to be alone, was this being insensitive? Indeed, is praying a waste of time?
We all know the importance of prayer. We often speak of needing prayers and needing to pray for others. But do we take the time to pray? I must confess that the busier I get, the more I have to do, the less time I take to be alone and pray. I feel I don’t have time to pray because there are too many things to do.
But after a busy day, and before another one, that is exactly what Jesus did. He went away somewhere by himself, to pray.
I will be the first one to admit that I quickly forget the benefit of such time alone with God, doing what Francis of Assisi said is good to do in prayer. “When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing – nothing.” We must seek nothing but to be in the presence of God. Having done so numerous times I know how wonderful it is and how much more at peace I am when I do it. Yet, even though I know it in my head, I often stop that knowledge to be translated into action. Perhaps it is the same with you.
Søren Kierkegaard, a theologian and philosopher of the nineteenth century once wrote, “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” Indeed it does, but how often I short-change myself for not doing it.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I don’t pray. I do. What I don’t do, is take the time and make the effort to find a place of solitude and pray – pray seeking nothing but to be with Him. How often do we make the effort and take the time to do this?
So the disciples find Jesus, by himself, praying. We don’t know what they thought when they saw him but we know what they said.
“When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons (Mark 1: 37- 39).”
Of course, the disciples wanted to bring them back to their place. They were proud of Jesus and what He had done and what He could do. They wanted to sit down near Him and listen Him teach because what He said was so profound, so beautiful and so insightful. But Jesus said no. He was not going back to Capernaum, at least not right now.
I can just imagine their disappointment. I know what that feels like. Last Sunday, Janice and I had planned to have supper with our oldest son after the Acadia Chorus Spring concert. We even invited one of his friends to come along. We were sure he would say yes. We usually take him out after all his performances when we are there. And after all, how can a child say no to the invitation of his parents? I am sorry to say that we left with our heads low. David had other plans. He had another rehearsal to tend to. There was no time.
Disappointed as we were, I am sure, the disciples went along with Jesus to the neighbouring towns. There, He went to the synagogues to preach and teach about the good news. There he cast out many more demons.
But I wonder if the disciple did not question themselves about why Jesus didn’t want to go back to Capernaum. Did they do something wrong? Was there something that Jesus had found offensive with the place? Were the people not up to His standard, whatever that might be?
It’s just like us when we question where Jesus might be when we pray for something or seek His guidance and we come up with blank answers – or worse, when the answer seems to be no. We wonder if there might be something wrong with us. We wonder what we could do to get Him on our right side. We wonder if we need to be perhaps more spiritual for Him to show us the way. And at times, when things are difficult and dark, when we search for Jesus and can’t seem to find Him, we truly wonder: Where is Jesus? Why doesn’t He answer with all the power and might He displayed when He walked the roads of Galilee?
The reason Jesus did not go back to Galilee is simple: He wanted the good news to be shown other places too. It was not limited to Capernaum. Just like I cannot assume that I always am the top priority of my children, I cannot assume that Jesus will give me what I want when I want it. My children are their own persons and sometimes, I just don’t fit in it. That doesn’t mean they don’t love me or don’t care about me. It’s just that their priority for the moment is not me.
It’s not because I may not find Jesus’ power right here and now that it means He has pushed me aside. There is a purpose to His actions. Maybe His power is to be displayed through me in a different way that I would like it to be. If I were to be sick, may be my sickness is meant to show Jesus power in a way I had not thought of. I have met many people who ministered to their loved ones in powerful ways through sickness. Their hope and their confidence in God glowed in ways it did not before. Isn’t that Jesus at work in the person’s life?
When Jesus took the time to separate himself from the busyness of life through prayer, He knew it was important. It was through those times that he gained the strength, the wisdom and the insight He needed from God to continue on His ministry on earth. I think we do well when we follow His example. For it is through those times that we discover the depth God God’s compassion and the wisdom of His guidance. Such prayer time call us to go beyond words and just to be silent. As mother Teresa so aptly said, “God speaks in the silence of the heart.  Listening is the beginning of prayer.”
In the busyness of life, may we remember to take the time to retreat to spend a few moments alone with Jesus. When we do, we’ll find Him near, waiting for us.