I just want to be alone

Good evening and welcome to another night here at church. I am glad that we can be here together. I don’t know about you but i am starting to get excited. Christmas is just around the corner. This is the week where i start to get a little bit anxious because i am looking forward to Christmas morning.

The last couple weeks we have been looking at the life of John the Baptist though and i thought tonight we would continue with that in a way.

I shared last week that we wouldn’t see much more about John the Baptist and i was telling the truth. In fact the only moment he is talked about extensively is in Matthew Chapter 14 and that is at his death.

To summarize what is happening here though Herod is living in sin and he was being challenged by John the Baptist to stop. This of course made Herod angry so he had him arrested. This ended up leading to Herod having John the Baptist beheaded. This all happened because of one mans sin and another man’s willingness to call out that sin on behalf of God.

Now, you can imagine when this news broke people weren’t very happy. We know this is true because one of the reasons that Herod hadn’t killed John right away was because he was afraid of the people’s response to it. He knew that John had many followers and that would stir up trouble within the Jewish Community.

When i was reading this passage something caught my eye though. It was the end.

Matthew 14:12 NIV

12 John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

John’s disciples told Jesus

Now for obvious reasons they went and told Jesus about what had happened. IF it was purely family or also because of the shared aspect of the ministry for God that they were trying to do it isn’t said but they went and told Jesus.

They knew he needed to know. This than led to something interesting.

Jesus wanted to be alone

Matthew 14:13 NIV

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.

I mean we can relate to that right. The idea that when you find out a tragedy has hit your family you would like to be alone for a bit. It makes total sense that Jesus would seek time to be alone.

Yet, this wasn’t to be as we saw in the verse. The crowds followed him anyway. This was when I was captivated by what happened.

Jesus in his effort to be alone to mourn to seek God in this time of loss wasn’t afforded that time and in turn two of the most famous miracles happened afterwards.

Matthew 14:14–21 NIV

14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. 18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Jesus Feeds the 5,000

Even in his moment of hardship Jesus was compassionate to the people who sought him out. I had always known that Jesus wanted to be alone. Yet, because the way we approach passages I often viewed it as simply because Jesus regularly sought time to be alone. This isn’t that uncommon for Jesus to do after all. He knew that he needed time with his father. The connection to the death of John had not really presented itself to me till this week.

Even in this time though Jesus didn’t loose focus on why he was on this earth. He continued to show compassion and mercy to the people who had sought him out.

It is always amazing that Jesus was able to do so much though with so little. He was able to feed all those people . One intersting thing about this miracle is that did you know it is thought that Jesus was expecting this Disciples to take care of the problem.

Matthew 14:16 NIV

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

Jesus had already sent them out and expected them to perform miracles as the ministered to others.

Matthew 10:7–8 NIV

7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Yet, there was still some doubt among them on who Jesus was and what he had commanded them to do. So Jesus had to help them out again.

Jesus want to be alone

Jesus desire for solitude hasn’t gone away at this point either. So he decides to sent the Disciples on so he can find some time to himself to pray.

Now I can only imagine that the disciples had to be like Jesus how are you going to catch up to us if we go by boat and you remain behind. It probably was a little confusing to them but they trusted him and left him. While they were out on the boat something amazing happens.

Matthew 14:25–33 NIV

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

After all they had seen and all he had done they still had doubt. They still didn’t fully come to realize who he was till this moment. This wasn’t just another prophet this was the Son of God. They were witness to something far greater.

Jesus and Solitude

Both of these great miracles followed a time in Jesus life that many of us would consider to be difficult. He had lost his relative. His ministry was in danger not only because Herod would not be focused on him but also because the Pharisees were still trying to catch him in his teaching. The weights had to be bearing down on Jesus.

Yet, what did he do. He turned to God he sough his Father and he still continued in his work. He feed over 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple small fish. Than when he was finally able to get that alone time he comes out the disciples in the boat by walking on the water. Dispelling any doubt that remained amongst them of who Jesus really was.

Jesus knew where he needed to draw his stength from. He knew that the best place he could be when things were hard was in the presenece of God. This is why he sought that solitude and the peace that it can bring. That time in prayer to give him the strength to continue on.

This is a reminder for us that no matter what is going on in life that we can trust in him and that we also need to be hitting our knees and seeking God when things get difficult. It is in this hardship that we discover the love God has for us.

Story of my night in the mental hospital.