SOLITUDE…AT LAST!
45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. Mark 6:45-46
A day that was meant to be quiet and restful turned out to be quite eventful! A crowd of more than 5,000 people saw to that! Jesus had accepted their intrusion without irritation. He recognised their desperate spiritual need and ministered to them all day, topping it all with a miraculous meal that was a perfect, practical demonstration of the Father’s compassion for them.
But He had to break up the party and send them home. They could not stay with Him there forever. He sent them home by foot and He sent His disciples back to civilization by boat. At last He could enjoy a time of solitude with His Father in a quiet, remote place. It would have been no use insisting that His disciples pray at that point. They were not yet ready to be quiet in God’s presence and open their souls to Him.
How Jesus must have revelled in these hours of fellowship with the Father, under a starry sky with the wind blowing in His face and the fragrant earth beneath Him. What did He say? What was the heart of His fellowship with God? Do we know Him well enough to speculate about His prayer?
He would have affirmed His ECHAD with the Father. Perhaps He would have gone over the day’s events, reviewing the way He had handled everything that had happened in the light of His submission to the Father, His compassion for the people and His purpose to reveal the Father to them. He would have listened to the Spirit whispering His Father’s approval and affirmation.
Perhaps He was aware of the temptations surrounding another successful day; the pull towards self-satisfaction, independence, pride, self-awareness, and prayed to be kept from the sins that dragged Adam and Eve into rebellion against God. Perhaps He would have humbled Himself before God and reaffirmed His purpose to give Himself up as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. perhaps He simply enjoyed the peace of the Father’s presence and the warmth of His love.