Jesus and crowds: prayerfully taking a break, and also loving individuals (reflections from Luke’s gospel)

As you track the life of Jesus, reading one of the gospels, it’s clear that he is hot property especially from the angle of what people think he can do for them. Everyone wants a piece of him. And so, his space and time is crowded by the crowds. But in his relationships with crowds, as I’ve been reading Luke’s gospel in my devotions, I’ve been struck by two things related to Jesus with prayer and individuals.

1. The crowds: Jesus and prayer.

Jesus and prayer in Luke's gospel is a beautifully calm picture of intimacy and rest and priority in the hustle and bustle and busyness crowding him. As I’ve considered the descriptions of Jesus in prayer, I’ve found my own soul desiring the same, especially in busyness and pulled priorities exacerbated by technology. So, consider these verses:

'When it was day, he went out and made his way to a deserted place...' (4v42) 

'Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed' (5v16) 

'During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.' (6v12)

What I loved seeing too was how Jesus drew his followers into a similar pattern:

'While he was praying in private and his disciples were with him...' (9v18) 

'... he took along Peter, John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.' (9v28)

The calm and rejuvenating strength and joy of Jesus before his Father in prayer is super attractive. And I wonder if we feel the need for that even more with our tech related busyness and constant notifications. Do you feel that sapping away at your soul at times? I was struck by the thought that, even if not geographically possible to be in deserted places and mountains… Perhaps those can be partially created by limiting or silencing the constancy of tech notifications and the never-ending accumulation of more information and news, and controversy. None of which truly quiets our hearts before our Father in Jesus. Remember, the aim here is, as followers of Jesus, to enjoy the same calm and rejuvenating joy with our Father in prayer. We need this time with him. Away from all the noise.

Secondly though, this ties into the relationship of Jesus and individuals, even in the crowds.

2. The crowds: Jesus and individuals.

While surrounded by the crowds, as we saw, Jesus often took time out to gather himself in isolation before and under his Father – the time in deserted places and on mountains away from the crowds and with his Father. But, like for those trusting in him, the aim of life is not for us to be in monasteries and isolated moments for all of our lives. I must admit, I feel more godly when it’s just ‘me and God’ – but while good and needed, it’s not where God has called us to live our lives before him.

So, as Jesus was out in the world, even as he withdrew from the crowding-out at times, I'm struck also by Jesus' gentle and specific care for individuals as the crowds surround him. Individuals in the crowds mattered to Jesus – the crowd wasn’t just some nebulous faceless entity. For instance, read the occasions where Jesus took the time to address and care for the woman with the bleeding (Luke 8), or the centurion's servant, the widow's son (both ch 7)... and the list goes on. As I read those accounts, I’m struck by the beautifully intimate care and concerns from our Lord for individuals as he went about his global-reaching mission. So many people around him, and yet Jesus zeroed in on individuals to care and love. That’s the Jesus we know and love and trust in.

But I also wonder if our first point (Jesus and prayer) links to the second point (Jesus and individuals). And I might make a hash in trying to describe this, but I wonder if the withdrawing from the crowds (at times) best fuelled Jesus for the way he would then deal with the crowds. In other words: instead of simply being crowded out all the time by all the noise and clamouring for his attention, with a heart full of his Father’s designs and ways from those times of withdrawal, he could now walk through the crowd and focus on individuals. 

I want to be careful not to just make this ‘be like Jesus’ moralism! Yet at the same time I have found that potential pattern from Jesus helpful for personal reflection: time out of the crowding out, with the Lord in prayer… AND then from there going out into the crowding out, to love and serve specific individuals.