When they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!" Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come." (Mark 1:37-38)
So, how are your New Year resolutions going, then – a little way into 2015?
Mission worker Simon Guillebaud, in his excellent book Choose Life, recalls one January in which he found himself "breaking my major resolution within minutes of the New Year kicking in. It was deeply depressing". I hope it's been better for you!
Such resolutions, of course, are all about priorities – about what's important to us, and what we are aiming for.
As we continue our journey through Mark's Gospel, it is interesting – and surprising – to note Jesus' priorities and how they may differ from our own. The end of chapter one features two specific healings – those of Simon Peter's mother-in-law (v29-31) and a man with leprosy (v40-45). In between, we are told that the whole of Capernaum gathered at his door "and he cured many who were sick with various diseases" (v34).
But something else, perhaps somewhat unexpected, also happens. Early in the morning – while it is still dark – Jesus gets up and goes off to pray alone. Peter and the others, discovering his absence, set off in pursuit, track him down and say, "Everyone is searching for you," (v37). The unspoken implication seems to be: you did some great healing miracles yesterday, people want more of that today, so what are you waiting for?
And Jesus replies: "Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come." No more healings today, then – at least not in Capernaum. All those people will have to be disappointed; there's an even greater priority.
Now don't get me wrong. I believe that Jesus can (and does) heal people, even today. The GP Rex Gardner has documented several cases in his book Healing Miracles. I myself had a hospitalised relative whose serious health condition turned around at precisely the time his church gathered to pray for him.
But does Jesus heal everyone? No. Does he want to heal everyone, right here, right now? Some Christians appear to think so. And yet when Jesus visits a place where there were "many invalids – blind, lame and paralysed" (John 5:3) only one gets healed. When Timothy is suffering from "frequent illnesses" the apostle Paul – who had been involved with many healings – merely advises him to "take a little wine for his stomach" (1 Timothy 5:23).
Back in chapter one of Mark, we clearly see Jesus prioritising prayer and preaching. Why? Because while we are concerned about our physical bodies, God is even more concerned about the health of our souls. We want wholeness – but God wants holiness.
And so we are reminded that Jesus' priorities for us may be rather different from our own; his purposes somewhat deeper than we anticipate. It is true he can still heal today – and yet it may also be otherwise. If even Jesus himself was somehow, in that mysterious phrase, made "perfect through suffering" (Hebrews 2:10), should we his disciples expect any less? One of the most gloriously Christ-like women I know is also one of the most physically disabled. The apostle Paul faced his own ongoing "thorn in the flesh".
Ultimately, in Jesus' withdrawal to pray we see the priority – perhaps privilege is a better word – of individual intimacy with God our heavenly Father. After all, what could ultimately be better? An old hymn sums it up so well: "Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone. By looking to Jesus, like Him you shall be; Your friends in your conduct His likeness shall see."
The Rough Guide to Discipleship is a fortnightly devotional series. David Baker is a former daily newspaper journalist now working as an Anglican minister in Sussex.
