13 Now when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been assassinated, He withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed Him on foot from the towns. 14 When He went ashore, He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion for them and cured their sick” Matthew 14:13-14.
Recently I was part of a large crowd who discussed prayer. These two verses above are so instructive to me about prayer. When confronted with deep grief, Jesus doesn’t blame or gossip about think about getting even with the murderers of the Baptist. Di you notice what Jesus did when faced with defeating and suffocating grief? HE GOES OFF TO A QUIET PLACE TO PRAY!
The first place Jesus turns when faced with defeating grief, when faced with sadness, is to turn to God, His heavenly Father. He sought a place of quiet solitude, which suggests to me that He wished to be quiet in the presence of God. He needs the love of His Father. While none of us knows for certain, I cannot imagine that Jesus got away by Himself so that He could explain to His Father in heaven the details about the Baptist’s death and how He, Jesus, felt about it. No, Jesus knew that His Father knew everything.
Quiet silence in prayer, in the presence of God, is hard for us to do, so much so that we rarely even mention it when we talk about our prayer.
When Jesus finally gets to His place of quiet solitude He is interrupted by a crowd of people who need Him, a crowd who is following Him. Jesus has compassion for them, and He accepts the interruption in His quiet place of prayer before His Father, and He meets the needs of the crowd.
This is a glorious interruption, and Jesus embraces it because He knows His Father in heaven is helping Jesus in His time of grief by bringing others to Him, others who need God. The crowd is hungry, thirsty, for Jesus. So He heals them.
When you and I struggle, we need to learn to do what Jesus did. Head off to a quiet place to sit in silence before God. He already knows all that is going on in your heart. After all, He is the one who called you to pray.
This short insight into the prayer off Jesus is so instructive. Think about it! Jesus knows His father in heaven knows what is weighing on His heart, so Jesus trusts His heavenly Father will bring peace. So Jesus reaches out to help others instead of sulking in grief, instead of demanding quiet time in prayer to His Father.
In the end this little passage speaks to me about loving and trusting God in our difficult times, and instead of wanting to have our needs met, prayer draws us, as it drew Jesus, to help others. That was the prayer of Jesus that day — helping others!!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
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