Called to a lonely place

In this episode, I reflect on the unpredictability of life and the importance of finding solitude amidst chaos. Drawing from the Gospel, I discuss Jesus’ response to grief following John the Baptist’s death. Despite seeking a “lonely place” for rest, Jesus encounters a crowd and responds with compassion, teaching and nourishing their souls. I encourage listeners to seek their own moments of solitude to connect with Jesus, allowing His love and compassion to rejuvenate them. This episode is a gentle reminder to find spiritual nourishment and peace in the midst of life’s challenges.

(00:00:00) –  Have you ever had one of those days when you thought that it was going to be a certain kind of day, maybe you’d set it aside as the day we were going to get a whole bunch of chores done. Or maybe it was just a day when you thought, look, this is a time when I will finally just have some space for myself. Maybe it’s a project you were working on. It was just having some time to rest, to soak up the sun. But perhaps even from the moment you got out of bed, everything began to unravel. All of the things that you thought you were going to do, just one by one, begin to fall away. And everything just began to kind of fall apart. And how we respond to a situation like that, I think, is a really wonderful judge of our character. The way that we’ve been formed and shaped and the way that we have become the person that we are, because Jesus experiences that in the gospel today.

(00:01:08) –  We don’t get the story. But if you look at the section immediately before this, Mark has told us the awful events around the death, the execution of John the Baptist. And so Jesus would have been grieving. Jesus would have been going through a time of just facing his own mortality as well. Not only did John represent the very best of this call to repentance, but Jesus is doing the same thing. He’s announcing the same message of salvation through this gift of turning away from sin. And to announce such a message is never a popularity winner. You’re never going to gain favour by telling people to stop sinning. Turn away from what you are doing. And so he’s mourning his cousin, but he’s also mourning the reality of what his life most likely is going to be very soon now, as he faces all of the leaders in Jerusalem and indeed the might of the Romans. And so, in part, he needs this time alone. Let’s go off to a lonely place, a place where he can simply rest and find that sense of renewal.

(00:02:31) –  And he sees that the disciples, these apostles that remember last week, he sent them out to you by two to announce this, this gift of repentance to proclaim the breaking in of the kingdom of God. And I came back full of fervour and joy and wonder, just wanting to tell all their stories about what had happened on the road, the way the people have responded, the way that others hadn’t responded. But he needed them to come away as well, nonetheless to put their feet up. But we often need that space, that ability to go off into the wilderness, place a place where all the distractions are able to at least be muted, be turned down somewhat so that we have that capacity to be at peace, to be in the presence of the one who loves us, to be in that place where Jesus can teach us. Jesus can minister to us, but they sell off in the boat. And I guess at least they had that time together, that time to be out there on the lake.

(00:03:38) –  And there’s no report of any storm as they’re crossing this time. So perhaps it was a place of peace. A place where they could begin to recuperate a little bit. But when they get to this favoured, obviously lonely place that they’re heading for. Everyone in the crowd seems to be in on the secret. They know the place that Jesus always takes his disciples when he’s looking as haggard and tired as he is. And so Jesus is thinking, oh, you’re finally. I’ll be away from the crowds, away from all of those people, and I’ll be able just to find some space with my friends, with my disciples, just to be together, to receive that healing, to to find that experience of being there in the deserted place and the wilderness, to be at one with God again as soon as he steps ashore. What does he say? A whole bunch of people, and they’re all hungry. They’re all thirsty. They’re all longing to be fed and nourished. And it’s interesting: what is the response of Jesus when all these plans, all the things that he thought is, this is what I need.

(00:04:46) –  This is what my disciples need. This is the way that I’ll be able to address it for them. And instead of being annoyed, we don’t know what his inner dialogue was. Perhaps there were a few choice words that he thought. Thinking: these people, they’re always here when I’m turning. But what does he do? He has compassion on them. It’s the natural response of Jesus. It seems to have compassion upon us to be there, to be all that we need. And what does he do When we also, as the crowd in this case, this people that are longing for meaning, longing for purpose, and Jesus sets about to teach them at some length. We’re not told that. It’s just a little story that he tells. He begins to tell them the wonders of God. He begins to share some parables. Perhaps he begins to open their hearts to the way of the kingdom. And that gift, that power that Jesus is able to share to these hungry and thirsty people, to his own disciples who need to experience that peace and that regeneration, to find that life, that to be able to be recreated in that recreation of God, and to hear that message of salvation, to hear the compassion of Jesus being expressed in that wonder of wanting that community to to come into that lonely place with him.

(00:06:22) –  He’s still doing the same thing. He’s still reaching into those places where we’re frazzled and haggard, when all of our days just haven’t worked out the way we intended. He’s there to meet us with his compassion. He’s there to invite us into that sacred place, into that place of rejuvenation, that place where we can be ourselves. We don’t have to pretend anymore. We don’t have to put special masks on. We don’t have to wear particular clothes. We don’t have to be doing anything in particular. It’s just in that lonely place, a place where we can be. A place where we can experience the wonder of his love. We can just finally rest and receive. And in that place, all of our wounds can begin to be tended to. All of those deep desires that we have, all of the ways that we’re disconnected, all of the experiences we’ve had that we haven’t had time to make sense of in that deserted, lonely place. That’s where we can begin to find his compassion. That’s where we can begin to be loved, ultimately.

(00:07:30) –  So the Lord is inviting us constantly, inviting us into that lonely place. A place where we can be by ourselves with him, to be fed and nourished by his word, to find our life, to find our freedom, and in that place to experience the wonder of his love. Today, let’s make a commitment to spend some time this week to find that lonely place for ourselves to go there, to be there, and to allow Jesus to meet us, and to show that same compassion to us. That we are like sheep without a shepherd. He’s wanting to feed us and nourish us with His word, and to call us and invite us more deeply into his freedom and into his life today.

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