Reading: Mark 1:35-2:12
Context: Why does Jesus withdraw to solitary places for prayer, especially after successful ministry times?
Jesus withdrawal is about knowing when to be in the crowd and when to be alone with God. It’s a breathing pattern. He breathes in the quality time with the Father to receive all there is to get at the start of the day, thus prepared to breathe out to others the wondrous spirit that is received in the course of prayer. That breathing in time is essential as it underlies what is breathed out. This is His practice, in good times or bad, as a reflection of His focus to spend quality time with the Father in prayer. You could get the impression that He’s setting an example for His followers to live by.
What is particularly striking is the detail Mark gives us — “very early in the morning, while it was still dark” (v.35). This is deliberate, prioritised, and intentional. Consider what the previous day had looked like: teaching in the synagogue, casting out an unclean spirit, healing Simon’s mother-in-law, and then the whole town showing up at the door after sunset. By any reasonable measure, Jesus had earned a lie-in. Yet there He is, before the world wakes up, already in conversation with the Father. That tells you something profound about where His priorities truly lie.
Note also that His disciples “hunted” for Him (v.36) — a word that conveys searching with some urgency, almost a mild frustration. Even those closest to Him didn’t fully appreciate what He was doing or why. And yet the fruit of that early morning investment was immediately evident: rather than returning to the same ground to repeat yesterday’s successes, He was ready to move forward — “Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also” (v.38). The solitude produced fresh direction. That’s what genuine time with the Father does. It refreshes, recharges and redirects you.
Content: What obstacles do the paralysed man’s friends overcome, and what does this reveal about their faith?
Consider the full weight of what these four men actually did. They carried their friend — dead weight on a mat — through a pressing, impatient crowd who had no intention of making way for them. They then climbed onto the roof of someone else’s home and dug through it. The effort, the resourcefulness, and frankly, the sheer cheek involved are remarkable. This was no passive hope; it was active, determined, creative faith that refused to be told no. There is something almost beautifully relentless about it.
And let’s not gloss over the fact that Jesus saw their faith (v.5). Not just the paralysed man’s faith — theirs. This is one of the most compelling pictures in all of Scripture of intercessory faith in action. The friends believed on behalf of someone who may have been too broken, too exhausted, or too long-suffering to muster much of his own. Their faith became a vehicle for his healing. There is a question here worth sitting with: who are we carrying to Jesus right now? And equally, who might be carrying us in our own moments of paralysis? The Church, at its best, looks a lot like four friends with a mat and a plan.
It would be great to have four friends with that kind of faith to support me in times of paralysis.
Concept: Jesus claims authority to forgive sins, which the religious leaders recognise as a divine prerogative. What is Mark demonstrating here?
Mark is highlighting a number of things in this episode that would be breathtaking for the audience of the day and should still blow our minds today. First, there is a serious sin complex afflicting humanity. Secondly, the sin complex can only be resolved by the divine. Thirdly, that Jesus’ earthly ministry was just as much putting that divine resolution into effect as it was to show the physical manifestation of the power of God. That is great news that man’s deep internal issues could be resolved in the man, Jesus Christ. That’s a crucial part of His earthly ministry and one that is carried on by His Body.
The scribes’ objection — “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (v.7) — was not wrong. What they failed to reckon with was the man’s identity standing before them. Jesus doesn’t dismiss their logic; He essentially agrees with it, and then confirms it by doing precisely what only God can do. It is one of Mark’s most deliberate and carefully constructed moments of revelation.
Jesus draws attention to the fact that the invisible miracle and the visible one are connected. The man walks out with a healed body as evidence of a healed soul. And the crowd’s response, that sense of astonished wonder, is the right response, and it’s one we should be careful not to lose with familiarity. The Body of Christ continues to carry this ministry into the world — the greatest healing work there is.
Conclusions: How do you balance active ministry and service with personal time in prayer and solitude?
Times of solitude for me are sacred, and I grow to treasure them more and more as they support me in understanding what that divine connection should be like to cultivate. I find that the time taken at the start and end of the day is vital for putting everything else into perspective, and I endeavour to make it an ongoing practice. This shaping helps considerably as times of ministry become increasingly pressing amid responsibilities.
The challenge, of course, is that the busier things become, the easier it is to let that time erode. What Jesus models is a counterintuitive truth: the greater the demands on your ministry, the more necessary your solitude becomes. The pressure of yesterday’s full house was the very reason for this morning’s prayer meeting in a lonely place.
There is also a danger worth naming here: the danger of doing for God as a substitute for being with God. The fruit of ministry has its roots in prayer, and roots that aren’t being fed will eventually produce visible consequences. Cultivating the rhythm of solitude is the lifeline that keeps everything else alive and fruitful.
Next time
Episode Five: Conflict with Religious Authorities
Reading – Mark 2:13-3:6
Jesus is a great model to follow in understanding the importance of the time away to support the time in engagement and service to others. This is another reason to get the Word In so we can get the Word Out.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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