Withdrawing from the Crowds

“The report about him spread all the more,
and great crowds assembled to listen to him
and to be cured of their ailments,
but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.”

Luke 5:15-16

Upon healing the leper from his leprosy Jesus told him to not tell anyone, but instead we are told that news about this spread wide and far to the point where everyone started to come to Jesus to listen to Him and to be healed. But Jesus withdrew to deserted places to pray. Why did He do that? Why didn’t Jesus stay and teach and heal the people instead? There are multiple levels of reasons, but first and foremost is that Jesus is showing that what is central to His life and His mission is His relationship with the Father: His prayer life.

As Christians we must have and maintain our relationship with God, in other words, our prayer life. Jesus withdrew not because He didn’t want to help the people, but because He knew that if His relationship with the Father was not first, His mission would not be possible. In the same way, without putting our relationship with God first, without spending time in prayer with the Lord, we really won’t be able to do much with true charity and love. We must draw from the font and source of Love in order to love, and so like Jesus, we must withdraw to deserted places, to the quiet of our hearts, and pray — to speak to and to listen to God. It is in the withdrawing to those quiet places that we will be given the strength and fortitude to go back to love and to minister to the People of God.

So, Jesus withdrew not to hide, but to speak with the Father. Similarly we ought to withdraw not to hide from the anxieties and uncertainties of life, but rather withdraw to commune with the Father and by doing so receive the grace and strength to embrace those anxieties and uncertainties, allowing God to bring about great good through them.