“Getting away”
Mark 1:35
The phrase is one of the sweetest sounding expressions ever to leave our lips – “I’m getting away.” Any life-battered and weary person can experience the release in just saying the words: “Getting away”.
• Doesn’t really capture the essence of solitude. “Getting away” isn’t something we usually do alone – someone is pulled into the journey.
Dallas Williard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: “Solitude is the most radical of the disciplines for life in the spirit.” Solitude represents being alone. Most of us gravitate to crowds because we don’t like being alone or fear being alone.
Text language doesn’t draw us into any desire for the experience – Mark 1:35, “Solitary place” (KJV) – “Secluded place” (NAS) – “Alone into the wilderness” (NLT) – “a place where he could be alone” (CEV) – “Went to a deserted place” (NRS)
Solitude is often perceived as solitary confinement – Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist before presidency in 1994-1999. In 1962 arrested and convicted of sabotage for which he was sentenced to life in prison. He served 27 years in a small cell and forced labour.
Focus: Solitude when understood will be a welcomed and necessary, repeated experience; must change the perception of solitary confinement and isolation. Realize it is the best thing we can do for ourselves.
Examples of its necessity – Jesus and disciples:
• Before and after ministry engagements (Matt 4, 14, Mark 1, Luke 5
• Choosing His leadership team (Luke 6
• After John’s death when his purpose would be compromised prematurely and the social impact to his followers would be severe – more on this shortly (Matt 14
• When the twelve returned from preaching and healing (Mark 6
• Eve of crucifixion in preparation (Matt 26
We should grab hold of solitude because
1. SOLITUDE PREPARES US FOR LIFE’S EXPERIENCES
Mark 1:9-12 (emphasis: 12)
Matt 4:1 – details of temptation. “Led by the Spirit into the desert” (NIV). Stronger language: “Led” meaning “taken, driven…..”
The desert was not a dreadful place because of what was to come (temptations). It was a haven that prepared Jesus for what was to come. Would come … issue is being ready…
Solitary experiences are preparation times for dealing with life and getting tuned in to God’s heartbeat for the world – for YOUR PART in the plan for the world.
Commentator Matthew Henry: “God usually prepares his people for temptation before he calls them to it; he gives strength according to the day, and, before a sharp trial, gives more than ordinary comfort.”
E.g. Getting our children to bed when they were younger – “Daddy, can I have another few minutes?” “Ten minutes.” Ten minutes later, “It’s bedtime.” “Daddy, can I have another ten minutes?” “Okay but then you have to go to bed.” Ten minutes go by, “Time for bed.” “Daddy, just a few more minutes!” At this point we DRIVE them to bed.
Why? What a cruel parent you are, driving your children to bed? Not all at. LOVE DRIVES them…
• God will pull us away, lead us, or drive us to solitude.
• Maybe because we lack the discipline or are consumed with distractions to get there on our own
• Love drives…
We should grab hold of solitude because
2. SOLITUDE NURTURES RELATIONSHIP (WITH GOD)
Mark 1:35
Albert Barnes in The New Testament notes that Jesus “sought a solitary place – far away from the world.” For what purpose? Prayer. What is prayer? Isn’t it spending time with God?
E.g. when family visits on occasion we’ve had family from both sides – Glenys’ sister and husband with my parents. It is still meaningful but not quite the same as having one side visit at a time because our focus is divided even though we all spend time together. It is more meaningful when we have the one and can focus on the one.
Jesus insisted on getting alone so he could spend time with God without everyone else around. Still aware of Father but…
Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline says we need to be alone at times, not so we can be away from people but in order to get closer to God and hear what Foster calls “the Divine Whisper”. Can’t hear God’s whisper when everyone is talking, pushing and shoving their needs, expectations and demands on your time and energy
E.g. – Driving children to bed analogy. What usually happens? Mom or dad often puts them into bed but then takes a few moments to stay in the room and does what? Sings a lullaby; strokes her face or rubs her back as he sings a song. And what does the child do? Settle into a deep sleep. Why? There is nothing more comforting than daddy’s presence.
I’m not sure Williard meant to lead me to this conclusion but it is an interesting possibility worth exploring. It is this. We tend to become dependent on the world just because things are set up that way. The more we depend on the world the more we become alienated from God. The remedy then is a place of solitude because solitude strips us of our dependence on the world. When that dependence is stripped, we collapse and that collapse brings us in tune with God; we turn to the only help there is left when the world is stripped away – God!
Williard suggests that only solitude “opens the possibility of a radical relationship to God that can withstand all external events up to and beyond death.” It is the wilderness space where God prepares us to face what comes so that nothing can shake us away from Him.
Look forward to solitary places! God drives us there because of love and he is saying, “I want some time with you”!
We should grab hold of solitude because
3. SOLITUDE IS A PROVEN RESPONSE TO CRISIS
Matt 14:3-13a (emphasis: 13a)
Many reasons suggested why Jesus withdrew to a solitary place when John was executed. Among those are two that stand out. First, Herod thought Jesus was John who rose from the dead (verse 1). To avoid attention and possible premature execution, Jesus went to a solitary place, a place away from the crowds.
This lesson teaches an important principle to us as shared by commentator Adam Clarke. The lesson is, it is “better to yield to the storm than {be exposed to} destruction.”
Another lesson is a beautiful picture of love as Jesus enters into the hearts and feelings of his followers. It is likely that when John was executed the new disciples were frightened, thinking that what happened to John could happen to any of them for following Christ. So John Calvin offers that “Christ, in order to keep his trembling disciples at a distance from the flame, withdrew into a desert place.”
• Solitary places and experiences draw us away from the flame...
• They prepare us to go back into the mainstream of faith and witness…
Always remember that Jesus waits for you in solitary places. “The presence of Christ…makes a desert not only tolerable, but desirable.” (Matthew Henry)
We not only need solitary places to get “far away from the world” (as we learned from Barnes) but we need solitary places of the heart that keep us centered and at peace when the world is pushing and shoving.
We started with Nelson Mandela and will end there. While solitude is not solitary confinement, solitude can come to life in such dark, difficult and despairing situations; those things that are imposed on us which are beyond our control. It was true of Mandela. Watch this movie clip from INVICTUS. It is the story of Nelson Mandela’s efforts after his imprisonment to reject revenge and extend forgiveness and hope through the oddest place: the ruby field.
One source writes of Mandela’s prison experience, “Mandela was in prison for twenty seven years, during which he endured a radical transformation. Mandela, by self-admittance, had a temper problem prior to being incarcerated. During prison, however, he had to learn to control his anger. “One was angry,” says Mandela, “at what was happening [in apartheid South Africa]- the humiliation, the loss of our human dignity. We tended to react in accordance with anger and our emotion rather than sitting down and thinking about things properly” (Battersby). Mandela claimed it was the solitude in the prison cell that allowed one to think to oneself, allowing the nerves to become calm.”
Solitude is a gift. It is an invitation to prepare for life’s challenges; to enter into deep relationship – quiet, soothing, healing – connection with God; it is an opportunity to be equipped to face crisis and tasks, tests and trials. It is an invitation to be loved and cared for.
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty
He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three
His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth
When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind's progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life
Dr James Allan, 1926.
