Today we want to look briefly at a passage from the Gospel of Mark that deals with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, namely Mark 1:35–39:
And rising in the morning long before day, he went out and went away into a desert place, and there prayed. [36] And Simon and those with him went after him: [37] and having found him, they say to him, All seek thee. [38] And he says to them, Let us go elsewhere into the neighbouring country towns, that I may preach there also, for thus am I come forth. [39] And he was preaching in their synagogues in the whole of Galilee, and casting out demons.
Within the larger narrative of Mark’s Gospel we find ourselves here after a full day in Jesus’ ministry. After he had taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Mk 1:21–22), driven out a demon there (Mk 1:23–28), then healed Peter’s mother-in-law in his house (Mk 1:29–31) and in the evening healed many different people as well (Mk 1:32–34), Mark describes the following morning for us. Since Jesus is our example in everything, we want to learn from our Master through this short report.
Jesus’ Prayer
Jesus’ prayer life in Mark’s Gospel is remarkable, since it appears at three places where he prays: at the beginning of his ministry in the passage here, in the middle of his ministry (Mark 6:46) and at the end of his ministry in Gethsemane (Mark 14:32–42). The fact that prayer appears especially at “decisive turning points” and “in moments of crisis in the narrative” probably points to the importance of prayer for Jesus.[1] So although Mark describes Jesus’ prayer life less than Luke does, for example, he perhaps expected his readers “to take the dimension of prayer in Jesus’ ministry for granted.”[2] All the more reason to take a closer look at the first of these three passages.
The Greek πρωῒ ἔννυχα λίαν (in the morning, long before day) is a very vivid description, which ensures that this point is particularly emphasised. There can be several reasons for this. On the one hand, this note explains how it was possible for Jesus to leave the town without many people following him — which, given the large crowds Jesus always drew, is surely one part of the explanation. On the other hand, it is also striking that even after such a full day as the one we have just considered, Jesus takes no long rest, but rather makes prayer a priority. Cole aptly notes:
After an eventful Sabbath full of worship and ministry in the synagogue, at a time when others might have sought rest and recovery, Jesus turned to God in quiet prayer.[3]
Furthermore, it is striking that Mark notes that Jesus went “into a desert place.” On the one hand this was probably due to the fact that “[i]n such ancient towns, with their narrow lanes and simple one-room houses in which sometimes ten or twenty people lived, […] it was nearly impossible [to] find a place where one could be alone.” Thus “[m]ost blocks of houses […] consisted of four living areas, all oriented toward a common courtyard,” and the villages in Galilee “usually lay close to one another.” In the hills outside the settlements, however, one could find early in the morning the solitude that was not possible in the town itself.[4] On the other hand, the fact that he rose “in the morning long before day” probably also served the purpose of having undisturbed fellowship with God. This was likely between three and six in the morning, and, as already noted, it is remarkable against the background of the previous day.[5] That Jesus withdraws from the crowd, alone or with his disciples, is a recurring motif in Mark’s Gospel (see Mk 1:45; 3:13; 6:31–32, 46; 7:24; 8:27; 9:2, 30–31).[6]
Poole writes aptly:
Christ chooses for this [i.e. for private prayer] the morning as the time freest from distractions and company, and a solitary place as the most suitable for a quiet duty.[7]
This teaches us to keep making undisturbed fellowship with God a priority, even in the midst of stressful times. “Right at the outset Mark reminds us that Jesus’ life and work did not consist solely in what he gave to people, but that above this stands what he said and did in prayer, upward to the Father.”[8]
Jesus’ Expectations and Those of His Disciples
That the disciples sought and found him may indicate that this was a place where they had often been together before. The word καταδιώκω, which the Elberfelder CSV renders as “hurry after,” is not a common one and is used rather in negative contexts,[9] so it can also mean “pursue” or “hunt down.”[10] “Here it probably expresses the eager (and anxious, perhaps even annoyed?) searching of the disciples; they ‘tracked him down.’”[11]
The disciples, however, experience — and this was not to be the last time — “that their thoughts were not his, that his will was not theirs.”[12] Jesus’ understanding of the kingdom of God, and of how it would be established, thus differed fundamentally from that of his disciples and also from that of the crowds. “Whereas they would naturally follow ordinary human logic in exploiting popularity and building on success in familiar surroundings, following Jesus will increasingly mean for them that they have to reorient themselves completely.”[13]
The Lord probably did not want to become known as a miracle worker;[14] perhaps he also saw that the crowds were seeking him from wrong motives, wanting only healing for their bodies or wanting to see miracles out of sheer curiosity.[15] In any case, he left Capernaum behind for the time being and moved on in order to preach the gospel in other towns as well.
So we see that our expectations can often fundamentally contradict those of the Lord, and the process of discipleship consists precisely in bringing our expectations ever more into line with his.
Jesus’ Mission
Jesus’ answer to his disciples contains both a geographical exhortation and a statement about his general mission. Statements about what Jesus came for are found especially in John’s Gospel (John 8:42; 16:27–28), but also in Mark (Mk 2:17; 10:45). They point to his coming into the world as the eternal Son of God with a clear commission. Toward the end of his life Jesus can therefore say:
4 I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it.
Jesus had shown the Father perfectly through his life and his ministry, and he would do so in a very particular way at the cross.[16]
The commission Jesus named here quite concretely was to proclaim “the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God and the necessity for people to respond with repentance and faith (1:14–15)” — and that not only in Capernaum, but in all of Galilee.[17]
As Christians, the Lord Jesus is thus also an example to us in fulfilling God’s commission in this world. For we too are called by God, namely to be a light in the world (Mt 5:14) and to make disciples of the nations (Mt 28:18–20). And in the same way we should fulfil this faithfully.
Conclusion
In summary, then, we can learn from our Master in the way he prayed and in the resolve with which he followed God’s commission. In the disciples, on the other hand, we have a rather negative example, in which we can see how our expectations are often not congruent with God’s plans — and in that process we may grow to think more and more as the Lord does.
