Do you need less prayer than Jesus did?

As the reader of the New Testament is well aware, each of the four Gospel accounts begins differently. Both Matthew and Luke tell us something of the infancy of Jesus, and the writer of the fourth Gospel begins, as it were, in eternity: "In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1).* Mark, alone of the Gospel writers, thrusts us at once into the adult life of Jesus, introducing first John the Baptist, and then showing Jesus coining to John to be baptized.

After John had been put into prison, Mark tells us, Jesus began His Galilean ministry. Before long Jesus began selecting His disciples, and two sets of brothers—Peter and Andrew, James and John—were the first chosen. Later Jesus came with them to the home of the first two, where Simon Peter's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. Thereupon Jesus "went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them" (Mark 1:31).

As evening came on many sought Jesus; Mark notes that "the whole town came crowding round the door" (verse 33). There were evil spirits to be dispelled, and diseases of every sort to be healed; one clearly has the impression of a very busy Jesus, giving of Himself untiringly far into the night. Then, "in the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there" (verse 35). Once the disciples were up and about they began to look for Jesus, and when they came upon Him in His place of prayer, a kind of reprimand was in their words: " 'Everybody is looking for you' " (verse 37). Jesus ignored their implied question, bidding the disciples to accompany Him to the neighboring towns, so that He could preach there, too, " 'because that is why I came'" (verse 38).

In this pericope from Mark's Gospel one can all too easily skip over what I should like to suggest is a very important consideration: Jesus went off by Himself at an early hour to pray. One should not overlook the context. Jesus has had an extremely busy day that kept Him occupied well into the night, healing and casting out devils. Once the disciples have caught up with Him, He is again to have, presumably, a busy day, as He moves on into the nearby towns to preach. But between these busy days Jesus slipped off by Himself to pray.

In our desire to emphasize the "Godness" of Jesus Christ, we sometimes fail to note the need that He had for colloquy with the Father. But, even if we fail to recognize this need, Jesus is Himself well aware that the ministry He has come to accomplish will certainly fail unless He speaks with the Father and listens to what the Father has to say to Him.

It is always dangerous to excise a tiny text of Sacred Scripture, build it up out of proportion, and then draw important conclusions. I have no desire to do so with the text in question: "In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place, and prayed there" (verse 35). But this instance is by no means the only one in which Jesus is said to pray, as readers of the New Testament are well aware. An important example is given in the precious sixth chapter of Mark's Gospel.

This chapter, one of the classic pas sages of Sacred Scripture, opens with Jesus withdrawing to His own country side, His disciples following Him. Those who heard Him teach in the synagogue wondered how He came by His spiritual insight. " 'What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him?'" (verse 2). Then follows an account of Jesus' teaching the disciples how they are to evangelize—no extra baggage, "no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses" (verse 8).

It is precisely here that the evangelist shows himself a literary master. Instead of having Jesus send the disciples out one moment and having them return in another, Mark diverts the reader's attention by inserting an extended account of the beheading of John the Baptist, preceded by comments on John that arise as Herod comes to hear of the works of Jesus. By the time the story of John is concluded the reader is ready for the disciples' return. "The apostles re joined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught" (verse 30). Surely Jesus would say to them: "Fine! That's round one; here is what you will do on round two." But instead, Jesus pulls out the rug ever so gently: "Then he said to them, 'You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while' " (verse 31).

Jesus knows very well what the disciples probably do not understand—one does not go on endlessly evangelizing, good and virtuous as that is, without a time apart to draw renewed strength by communication with the Father.

However, both Jesus and the apostles are foiled in their attempt to escape. "People saw them going, and many could guess where; and from every town they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them" (verse 33). When Jesus disembarked and saw the great multitude, He pitied them, "be cause they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length" (verse 34). The hour for eating slipped by, and it became necessary for the disciples to remind Jesus that the people had not eaten.

Then occurs one of the accounts found in the Gospel of the multiplication of loaves and fishes. "They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men" (verses 42-44).

"Directly after this," continues Mark, "he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away" (verse 45). Why, the reader asks, should He send the apostles away now? Is it perhaps because Jesus still wishes them to step aside from the crowd, to give themselves over to that quietness and apartness to which He had earlier invited them, only to be interrupted?

We are all sufficiently familiar with the Jesus of the Gospel to imagine His behavior with the multitude. When He dis misses the crowd we do not visualize Him simply waving them off all at once; rather, we imagine Him moving in and out of the crowd, taking leave of them, perhaps in groups, in the warm, familiar way that we have come to associate with His concern for people. We are seeing, in other words, a Jesus who has spent Himself at great length, who has listened to the enthusiastic accounts of the disciples, who has traveled with them by boat to "a lonely place," who has given long instruction and provided food for the multitude, who has at last dismissed the crowd that had interrupted His planned time with the disciples. Notice Mark's next words: "After saying good-bye to them he went off into the hills to pray" (verse 46).

It is difficult to miss what Mark is telling us here—the more occupied Jesus is with the good news He has come to preach, the more He needs to speak with His Father and to listen to Him. Surely no one will accuse Jesus of disinterest in what is going on in the marketplace, yet, however great His concern may be with sheep that have no shepherd, He clearly recognizes the need for prayer in His life.

Ours is an age that keeps reminding us of our need to be conscious of the marketplace. Not a day passes that our obligations to the body politic are not brought home to those of us engaged in ministry. How easy it becomes to consume oneself in a constant and seemingly unending round of busyness. But how effective will our ministry be, how much shall we be modeling ourselves after the Jesus of the Gospel if we, in our preoccupations, fail to step aside frequently as Jesus did to commune with the Father? "I am the way," said Jesus to those who were concerned about fol lowing Him. To walk in the way does not mean simply to do the good works that Jesus did. It means also to give oneself to earnest prayer and to recognize that the very process of evangelization itself is virtually impossible without the refurbishing of the spirit that comes through dialog with the Father.

"'Everybody is looking for you,' " the disciples urged when they discovered their Master in His place of secret prayer following a long and busy day. But Jesus knew that it was only in the strength of that time spent alone with His Father that He could answer, " 'Let us go else where, to the neighboring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because this is why I came'" (Mark 1:37, 38).