Seeds for 09/25/2023 - Matthew 14:12-13a
Scripture: John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard what had happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.
Observation: Life can do a number on you. Life can break your heart and mess with your mind. The question is what we let it do to our soul.
Jesus is no stranger to pain. His cousin John dies a grotesque and humiliating death at the hands of the cowardly ruler, Herod. John’s disciples provide as much dignity as they can, taking his body and seeing that it is buried, but the pain is no doubt immense. Then they get word to Jesus.
When we face such a painful event, many times we need community—people to come along side us for support. Many times we need to seek the Lord is prayer—talking with Him, seeking His wise and gracious care. Here, Jesus models yet another response—solitude. (Caveat: Sometimes we need therapy, and by all means don’t neglect it when that’s the case!)
Solitude is not the same as loneliness or isolation. Solitude is the ability to keep one’s own company. Loneliness and isolation speak to an inability to practice community. But solitude represents a healthy relationship with oneself and with community, embracing aloneness rather than avoiding togetherness.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously addressed this in his classic book, Life Together.
Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls.
Solitude is not apart from God’s presence. However, it is not seeking a fix, anxious for something to remove or dull the pain. Solitude is inhabiting God’s presence simply to be. It practices the wisdom of Psalm 46:10.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Jesus, capable of being in community and being alone, is able to choose solitude when that’s what His soul needs to deal with John’s death.
Application:
Have you learned to keep your own company well?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, help me develop the capacity for community or solitude, and the wisdom to know when my soul needs which. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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Amen and amen.