Week 18 ———  Jesus is Up Before the Dawn
Mark 1:32-39

Last week, we talked about Jesus’ encounter with the four fishermen.  The next day was the Sabbath in Capernaum. Then, on Sunday morning, he left on a three-week journey to the towns of Galilee. I’d love to tell you some stories from that 3-week trip, but I can’t.  I can’t because the Bible has no details about that trip.  So, while Jesus travels around Galilee until July 7, I have time to back up and talk about what happened a week ago,  June 15-16, 27 AD.

Mark 1:32-34       That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door.  And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. 

That Sabbath in Capernaum was a busy day for Jesus.  After he heals a demon-possessed man in the synagogue, he leaves the service and heals Peter’s mother-in-law. After sundown, everyone in the town who had acquaintances who needed healing brought them to Jesus, and Mark tells us, “The whole city was gathered together at the door.”  It was probably a very long night.  Then Mark picks up the following day:

Mark 1:35-39       And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”  And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Have you ever had one of those days that seemed never to end?  There have been a few days in my medical practice where I felt like the whole city had been at the door.  They may all have the same number of hours, but some days are longer than others.  Just a few days ago, Friday, June 21, was the “longest day” of 2024, the summer solstice, when we have more hours of daylight than any other day this year.  But we have all had days that seemed to last forever and some we never wanted to end.  What do you want to do after a long, hard day?  If at all possible, you want to sleep late, right?

So what does Jesus do after healing that lasted long into the night?   Mark says, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”   What woke Jesus up so early?  Jesus got up before the sun so the daylight didn’t wake him.  He didn’t set an alarm clock.  Why did he wake up so early after a long day?  I am guessing God woke him up.  Does God ever wake you up early?

Back in March, we discussed what Jesus did during the 40 days in the wilderness, and we talked a little about the prayer life of a first-century Jew.   (See “https://swallownocamels.com/2024/03/09/february-16-march-27-27-a-d-jesus-in-the-wilderness-the-year-of-the-lords-favor-16/“)  There were set times for prayer, at least at “evening, morning and noon” as David mentions in Psalm 55:17.  We know Daniel had a habit of praying three times a day, despite the threat of the lions’ den (Daniel 6:10).  And there were at least two set prayers, the Shema and the Amidah. (The text of these prayers is included in the link above.)   We know the early Christian Church prayed the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.  Traditions today vary widely. The Eastern Orthodox Christian Church has adopted breviaries (liturgical prayer books), and church bells ring seven times daily to announce their prayer times. Then you have the Protestant churches in the US, many of which have no set times of prayer.

Many other religions have set prayer times. Most of us who have traveled have heard the call to prayer coming from the minaret of a mosque. Five times a day, it rings out (dawn, early afternoon, late afternoon, after sunset, and nighttime), and the prayers are recited worldwide, facing toward the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia.  

Should we have a set time to pray?   I grew up in the church, but no one ever told me I needed to set specific times aside for prayer and that I needed to pray specific prayers.  Is there a command in scripture to stop praying three times a day?  (I can’t find it.)   I once had a Sunday School teacher speak on why we shouldn’t regularly say the same prayer over again.  (He had gotten upset because someone read a printed prayer during the worship service.)  He used Matthew 6:7 as his verse to teach that.  From the KJV:  “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye, therefore, like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”  He interpreted that as saying we shouldn’t use pre-written prayers like those heathen do.  Those are just “vain repetitions.”  The KJV is not wrong here, but this teacher misunderstood.   To repeat something in vain is to say something without meaning.   The “vain repetition” (or, as the ESV calls them, “empty phrases”) Jesus is talking about is the common practice of the pagans of saying the exact phrases over and over because they thought that if you said this particular phrase so many times, you would force the reluctant god to fulfill your request, almost like saying magic words.  Jesus certainly does not speak against saying prescribed prayers, for the next thing he says is to “pray like this” and gives us a prescribed prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer.  It is crucial to guard against the concept of ‘vain repetitions.’ Every time we recite the words of the Lord’s prayer (or any prayer) without heartfelt meaning, we risk repeating them in vain. Our prayers don’t need fancy wording, but they must be honest, from the heart.

Should we pray like Jesus 3 regular times a day?  There is something to be said for having a regular rhythm of prayer in your day.  Perhaps we, as apprentices of Jesus, also need to imitate him in this.  Maybe it is time to live every day in a rhythm of prayer.  In the morning, sometime in the mid-day, and in the evening, set aside a few minutes to pray every day.  Why don’t we do this?   We feel like we are so busy.  There is so much to do each day.  But look at Jesus.  Jesus only has ten months left to do what he was sent here to do before his crucifixion.  He doesn’t have time to waste. That is all the time he has to choose disciples, teach them, show them how to live life and correct their misunderstandings.  He has to train them before he sends them out to change the world with the Gospel.  He spent the first 40 days after his baptism in the wilderness. That is nearly a tenth of the time of his entire ministry.  We think of the time in the wilderness as ‘when he was tested by the satan.’  But the time in the wilderness was his time with the Father and the Holy Spirit with no interruptions.  A time of preparation so that he would be able to do his ministry.  And then, throughout his brief time here, he goes off many times by himself.  Pay attention as you read the Gospels. Jesus is constantly going off by himself to pray.  Because he knew he needed to.

Jesus only had ten months to do what he had been sent here to do before his crucifixion.  He doesn’t have time to waste. He only has 438 days from his baptism to his crucifixion.  That is all the time he has to choose disciples, teach them, show them how to live life and correct their misunderstandings.  He has to train them before he sends them out to change the world with the Gospel.  He spent the first 40 days after his baptisms in the wilderness. That is nearly a tenth of the time of his entire ministry.  We think of the time in the wilderness as ‘when he was tested by the satan.’  But the time in the wilderness was his time with the Father and the Holy Spirit with no interruptions so that he would be able to do his ministry.  And then, throughout his brief time here, he goes off many times by himself because he needed to.  

Once Jesus’ ministry gets going and people find out he is healing, casting out demons, and performing miracles, he is constantly being sought by the crowds. He could have set up a full calendar of speaking engagements at any synagogue in Galilee.  And the healing.  You realize that there were almost no cures for anything in the first century.  The field of medicine was pitiful at best.   So, if you had a disease, you had little hope for healing unless you found a miracle.   If you heard about a healer, you would travel far just for a chance to be healed. That’s why the whole town was at his door.

Yet, with all these crowds pressing in, Jesus made time to pray alone.  The busier Jesus got, the more he went off alone and prayed.  In our passage today, Jesus is tired and exhausted, but he needs to be connected to the Father.  Look back at the passage.  Jesus gets up before dawn to spend time alone with the Father.  Simon is busy searching for Jesus because the town is full of people who are looking for him.  There are more that want his touch.  Simon tells Jesus that there is a great ministry opportunity here.  But Jesus tells Simon that he needs to go to other towns in Galilee, and he invites Simon to go with him.  “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I have come.”   Again, the reason we don’t have any stories from these three weeks of Jesus’ ministry is that his disciples didn’t go with him.  They weren’t ready for a full-time commitment yet.  They stay home and fish while Jesus goes on this quick tour of Galilee.  So all we know about this trip is this one sentence: ” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

The people in Capernaum are all pro-Jesus here.  (This is a significant change from his reception in Nazareth.)  Jesus has gone viral in Capernaum.  It would have been easy for Jesus to stay there.   But Jesus was fine saying ‘no’ to Simon, saying ‘no’ to the crowd in Capernaum if it meant saying ‘yes’ to the Father.  There are so many good things we can do in God’s world.  There are so many ministries we could help out.  We could try to help all of them and end up just pulling ourselves in so many directions, getting nothing done.  We could do many good things but miss the great things God wanted us to do.  John D. Rockefeller is quoted as saying, “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”  If you say ‘yes’ to doing one thing, you say ‘no’ to many others.  To choose the best thing, the great thing, you must say no to some good things.

Jesus could have done many good things if he stayed in Capernaum.  But they weren’t the things God had for him to do. We have to discern what the great thing God wants us to do is.  Jesus was doing that before dawn in Mark 1— praying to determine God’s best.  And that is the root of prayer. 

In Jesus’ Bible, in Hebrew the most common word for prayer is ‘tefillah’ coming from the root word ‘palal’ as seen in I Kings 8:28:  “Yet have regard to the ‘tefillah’ (prayer) of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the “tefillah” (prayer) that your servant ‘palal’ (prays) before you this day,  

The root meaning behind palal is “fall down to the ground in the presence of one in authority to plead a cause or seek a judgment or discernment.”   It is the picture of someone falling on their knees before a king or judge, begging for something.  That is not a familiar picture to those who live in the US, but I have a very clear picture of ‘palal’ in my mind.  

I was working in the mission hospital in Ghana during a malaria epidemic.  Our 36-bed pediatric ward was overflowing with 54 patients, many of whom were near death.  I came to the bedside of a very ill 6-year-old little girl who was hanging on to life by a thread.  The malaria parasite had infected her brain.  Her father fell on his knees before me and begged for us to do anything to save his daughter’s life.  I was shocked and overwhelmed by his actions.  I did the only thing I knew to do.  I went down on my knees with him to appeal to the authority who could actually heal his little girl.  I told him through the translator that we were doing all we could with medicine to treat his girl but that I would join him in praying to God, who could do what we couldn’t do.  So we knelt there on that wood floor beside her bed.  Her father, me, the translator, and all the nurses in the room joined together to fall down before the creator of the universe, the great physician and pled for the life of this little girl.  The next day, she began to improve, and a few days later, this father carried his daughter back to their village, leaving with not only a daughter who was whole but a knowledge of a God who can do what man cannot.   I wish I could tell you that all of the children got better.  But many did not.  Many fathers carried their children back to their village to bury them there.

But this man on his knees, seeking one with the power to fill his request— that is palal.  That is the root of prayer.  Again, it is to “fall down to the ground in the presence of one in authority to plead a cause or seek a judgment or discernment.”  Jesus is up before dawn in our passage today to seek from the authority of the universe a discernment.  Should he stay in Capernaum or go elsewhere?  He can do good wherever he goes, but Jesus has limited time.  He wants to do not what is just good but what is God’s best.  We need to pray more prayers of discernment.  We come to Yehovah for His discernment over our lives. 

Proverbs 3:5-6    Trust in Yehovah with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

We know it is not smart to “lean on our own understanding,” but often, we try to decide what is best without seeking the one who knows.  Jewish scholars say prayer is “the soul’s yearning to define what truly matters and to ignore the trivialities that often masquerade as essential.”   That is a haunting phrase, “trivialities that often masquerade as essential.”  Jesus’ time was limited; he had little time for trivialities.  How about us?  Sometimes, we live each day like we have all the time in the world, but our time in this life is also limited.  How good are you at ignoring the trivialities to do what matters?

Trivialities —  I will mention just a couple of examples.  Your trivialities may vary.  
According to a survey conducted in February 2021, 48% of the respondents stated that, on average, they spent five to six hours on their phones daily (not including work-related smartphone use). 22% said they spent three to four hours on their phones daily. Only five percent of users surveyed said they spent less than an hour on their smartphones daily. Have you heard the term ‘doomscrolling’? It refers to spending excessive amounts of time reading large quantities of news online or viewing multiple videos or posts without knowing how much time has passed.   A similar study showed that most Americans watched 3-4 hours of television daily.  And sometimes we say to ourselves, “I wish I had more time to visit with our neighbors, read a book, study the Bible, pray, etc.”  The time is there.  We must be better at discerning how to use it for great things.

God created life with a rhythm.  He established it at the beginning of Genesis.  The years are broken up by appointed times when you stop what you do daily and dedicate time to God.  The weeks are broken up by the Sabbath, a day set aside to stop what you are doing, rest, and seek God.  The days are broken up by times of prayer.  God set up this rhythm to our years, weeks, and days for all the saints in the Bible, Old, and New Testament.  The creator of the universe set it up this way because He knew we needed it.    We were not designed to be continuously busy.  It is not healthy physically or spiritually.  But we live in a busy world.

You understand busy if you have ever walked on New York City streets.  There are things I like about NYC, but the crowds, traffic, and street chaos are not on my list.  The best pictures of NYC are from far above, where you can’t see the people or the cars, just the buildings.  In the mid-1800s, New York City’s population grew exponentially due to a large influx of immigrants, and living conditions became more crowded and unhealthy.   The City’s politicians and planners felt that more open space was needed for the health of the residents.  In 1853, state officials approved funds to purchase the land from 59th to 106th Streets, between Fifth and Eighth Avenues.  So they created Central Park—over 800 acres with artificial lakes, waterfalls, meadows, and wooded areas. It is a respite from the hurry, a place to get away from the craziness of the city. Many New Yorkers say a walk in Central Park maintains their sanity.  Even the New York politicians recognized that amid this craziness, we need space away from the crowds.

As we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, as we apprentice under him, we are called to imitate his actions. One of these actions is taking time for solitude. Just as Jesus sought time alone with his Father, we too should seek moments of quiet reflection and connection with God.   Jesus calls us to slow down, simplify our lives, and be apprentices. We have to be with him, observe what he does, and then do what he does. The trouble is that most of us are too busy to find the time to be with Jesus. Dallas Willard called hurry the great enemy of the spiritual life. He said we must “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.”  We must learn to live in the spiritual rhythm God designed us for.  We need to take the time to be with Jesus.  Maybe for you, it is in the morning before the dawn.  Perhaps some other time works for you.  But it must be some time. We must learn to say no to things that do not benefit us.  We must also learn to say no to some good things and yes to God’s great things.

Have you settled into a rhythm of prayer?  Would you consider, just as a trial this next week, imitating Jesus with a brief prayer time several times a day?   Come before him with the idea of the Hebrew root of prayer, palal, on your knees before the authority seeking discernment and favor.