Mark 1.35-39,
Matthew 4.23-25,
Luke 4.42-44.
Whenever preachers talk about Jesus
By the end, preachers tend to describe Jesus as exhausted. And he might’ve been really tired, ’cause he was up all night. But exhausted? That’s only because they don’t know what it’s like to supernaturally cure the sick. Faith-healers will tell you it’s just the opposite. It’s not like a medical doctor, repairing patient after patient with treatment after treatment, taxing your mind and body with thought and work. You aren’t doing the work; the Holy Spirit is. You watch him do his thing; you rejoice once he’s done it. It’s not tiring. It’s invigorating. It’s a rush.
More likely, Jesus was wired after curing person after person after person. Too jazzed to ever get to sleep.
Since translators don’t realize this, they tend to make it sound like Jesus woke up crazy-early in the morning, after maybe two or three hours of sleep. But
What kind of mood did you imagine Jesus was in?
Mark 1.35-39 KWL - 35 Still awake in the still-dark morning,
- Jesus comes out and goes to a solitary place,
- and is praying there.
- 36 Simon Peter and those with him
- search for Jesus,
- 37 and find Jesus and tell him this:
- “Everybody looks for you!”
- 38 Jesus tells them, “We should go elsewhere,
- into the other towns there are,
- so I can preach there also,
- for this is why I’ve come!”
Luke 4.42-44 KWL - 42 Once it became day,
- Jesus comes out and goes to a solitary place,
- and the crowds are looking for him,
- and come to him.
- They’re holding on to him
- lest he leave them.
- 43 Jesus tells them this:
- “In the other cities as well,
- I have to proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom.
- For this is why I’m sent.”
- 44 And Jesus is preaching
- in the Jewish synagogues.
“Capharnaum is cured. Who’s next? Give me more!”
See, one’s mindset makes a huge difference when it comes to interpreting bible. If we bring our own pessimism, skepticism, cynicism, negativity, and exhaustion to the text, we wind up with a negative-sounding Jesus who’s just plain done with these people. And that’s not Jesus. He loves people! He came to save people. Not ditch ’em at the first opportunity.
The idea of an exhausted Jesus, desperately trying to claw back some strength through prayer, is based on our own lack of experience, and bad attitudes. Y’ever notice how many preachers are introverts? To them, people are tiring. Ministry drains them. So they need to get away from people on a regular basis, and renew their strength in prayer… and project themselves upon Jesus, and it’s entirely wrong. He didn’t look at the Galilee and think, “Man, I have so much still to do.” He looked at it in the Holy Spirit’s might, and thought, “I’m gonna conquer the world!”
(Last little thing. In
The people who sought Jesus.
In Mark it’s Simon Peter and the other students who sought Jesus after he took off. In Luke it’s the crowd. Not sure how big a crowd, but certainly bigger than Simon’s group. Jesus responded to Simon with “We should go elsewhere”
Why were the people of Capharnaum trying to hold onto Jesus? Well, besides the fact he’s the nicest, friendliest guy, they wanted a healer around in case anybody else got sick. Why should Jesus go to other cities?—other people could just come to Capharnaum. Plus he’s a prophet; they might want some prophecy. Plus he’s a rabbi; he could teach ’em every Sabbath, and maybe every other day of the week, since he’s around. Plus he’s Messiah—he’s the king of Israel; once he takes over the country and world, maybe he’ll remember his old friends in Capharnaum and give ’em really good, powerful jobs.
As for the students: Remember that tired, negative attitude I was just rebuking? You’re gonna find a little bit of that in them. In part because they didn’t have the Spirit’s power yet; they hadn’t been curing the sick right alongside Jesus. More than likely they’d only been doing the gruntwork. Carry the man who can’t walk to Jesus. Hold back those who weren’t willing to wait their turn; remind ’em to be patient. Hold down the demoniac, lest she cut herself again. All they could do was watch the miracles—which is exciting, to be sure, but speaking from experience, it’s no substitute for doing ’em.
So they were tired. As tired as most interpreters imagine Jesus being. They’d be the ones thinking, “Man, Jesus has so much still to do.” And that’s before they knew Jesus was taking this show on the road—they might’ve figured, apart from trips to visit Jesus’s family in Nazareth and Cana, apart from trips to Jerusalem for the festivals, they were gonna stay at Jesus’s home base. Not travel the Galilee. And the Dekapolis, and into Syria, and Samaria again, and they were gonna be doing this a bunch.
Everybody’s expectations about Jesus were off, ’cause
So off he goes!
Mark 1.39 KWL - Jesus goes throughout all the Galilee,
- preaching in their synagogues,
- throwing out demons.
Matthew 4.23-25 KWL - 23 Jesus goes round all the Galilee,
- teaching in their synagogues,
- preaching the kingdom’s gospel,
- curing every disease,
- every illness of the people.
- 24 Hearsay about Jesus
- goes out to the whole of Syria.
- They bring him all those with all sorts of things wrong,
- and he cures them:
- Illness, disease, chronic pain, seizures,
- demons, epilepsy, and paralysis.
- 25 Many crowds follow Jesus—
- from the Galilee, Dekapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
Luke 4.44 KWL - Jesus is preaching in the Jewish synagogues.
Had Jesus only stayed in Capharnaum, he wouldn’t have been the guest speaker, nor the first speaker: He’d’ve been one of the resident rabbis. Who spoke second, third, fourth, whatever—depending on how many rabbis wanted to talk. He wouldn’t get to start the evening with his (infallibly accurate) interpretation of the scriptures, obligating every other rabbi to deal with what he said. He’d be just another rabbi reacting to the first guy. Traveling empowered Jesus to effectively preach God’s kingdom in every synagogue he visited. Smart thinking.
As he traveled, Jesus brought his new reputation with him:
True, Jesus’s reputation wasn’t necessarily an advantage. Yes, many people who’d never go to synagogue might decide to go for once, since Jesus might work a miracle. And while most folks will pay closer attention to a miracle-worker, there are always those folks who don’t care what a miracle-worker has to say; they just wanna see a spectacle, and be annoyed if they don’t. (Heck, they’ll be annoyed even if they do. Too many non-Pentecostals believe miracles look like Hollywood special effects, and are let down when they see what a real one looks like: It’s not “special” enough.)
Yes, Jesus came to teach. But don’t believe
Jesus brought both teaching and power with him. Don’t misread his intentions. Don’t let your bad mood warp your interpretation.
