In a chapter filled with
amazing miracles, it was an incidental comment that caused me to ponder and
meditate today.
The chapter begins with an
account of John the Baptists’ arrest and beheading. As Matthew transitions to
the next story, he includes this brief notation: When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by
boat privately to a solitary place (13a).
This sentence infers that
when Jesus heard what happened to John he needed some alone time. I suspect
Jesus needed time to morn for his cousin, maybe time to make sense of the
tragedy. In the wake of the Newtown , CT
What I saw in Jesus was the
very human need to be alone and process the tragedy of His cousin’s
death.
Unfortunately for Jesus His
alone time never came. Crowds saw him leave and followed Him by foot. When He
landed, a crowd was waiting so He gave of himself more by healing all the sick.
Eventually He did the miraculous feeding of the 5000 so the people could
eat.
He must have been
exhausted.
Again I was struck by
Matthew’s retelling of the evening after the miraculous feeding. Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the
boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.
When evening came, he was there alone… (22-23).
Jesus finally got His alone
time and He prayed. He spoke with His Father about the day, probably about the
beheading of John and likely other things of the recent
days.
What I realized is that
Jesus not only needed alone time to recharge Himself, He needed alone time to
reconnect with His heavenly Father, the source of life and strength and balance
and….
What a tremendous example
Jesus leaves for me, for us today.
Jesus, thank
Your for being real and showing me how powerful time alone with the Father truly
is…
May I learn
from You and emulate You in seeking time with the Father, the Spirit and You in
prayer regularly. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment