There’s a fascinating and downright convicting summary of Jesus’ ministry in chapter 5 of Luke’s account. In the original language, Luke paints this picture:
- Testimonies, reports, and “Did you hear?” about Jesus were spreading like wildfire. The circle of people learning about the amazing stuff Jesus was doing was increasing exponentially.
- Crowds and masses of people were showing up every day from everywhere. They wanted to hear Jesus’ teaching. They wanted to be healed of whatever was broken in their lives. Day after day, week after week, the house was packed.
- Jesus frequently walked away from the crowds to an isolated place and prayed.
I’ll be honest–number 1 and number 2 are something I drool at. They are what I dream about. Who wouldn’t want word-of-mouth about their ministry, their product, their organization, or their agency spreading like wildfire? And who wouldn’t want the growth chart, sales chart, and quarterly report to reflect seemingly unending increase and effectiveness?
But do you know what I’d do when I got to number 3? Put it off. Delay it. Postpone it. I’d want to ride the wave of numbers 1 and 2 as long as I could. I’d want to nurture that momentum as long as possible. All in the name of being a good steward. All in the name of wanting to serve the people God’s sending. There would be plenty of time for prayer later, when things slowed down.
But not Jesus. Frequently, in the height of “success,” Jesus would withdraw to isolated places and pray. And it’s not like Jesus could just send in a replacement. His bench wasn’t exactly deep. When Jesus left the field, the game had to stop. The crowds had to stand and wait until Jesus came back. Any expert would tell you that’s the easiest way to kill momentum, to stop a growth curve.
But Jesus was so committed to the Father and so unconcerned about “success” that he often withdrew for these times of prayer.
I wonder–would you withdraw?
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