The birds are silent. The lake is still. Jesus quietly leaves Simon’s house and climbs up into the hills. It’s still dark as he finds a place suitable to His purpose. Alone, He kneels to pray.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Jesus has narrowly escaped death at the hands of a mob. He has called his first four disciples. His preaching and teaching are beginning to send ripples through the community. More and more people are hearing about Jesus of Nazareth. Now, in the village of Capernaum, His popularity has exploded. He has gone from obscure carpenter’s son to Galilean celebrity.
It began one day when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue. Jesus is expounding the Scriptures, when suddenly one of the synagogue attendees loudly disrupts the sermon, crying out, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:24)
Perceiving exactly what is going on, Jesus’ response is straightforward and firm, “Hold thy peace, and come out of him.” (Mark 1:25)
The demon leaves the man, the crowd gasps, and the whispers begin. News quickly spreads that this new teacher can cast out devils!
As the sun sets, crowds of sick and suffering townspeople assemble outside the small home where Simon is hosting Jesus. Amid the throng are those with cuts and bruises and broken bones, some are wracked by fever, others are gasping for breath, while still others lie motionless and pale, on the very brink of death. Then there are those afflicted by evil spirits. Some of them rave and writhe. Others sit still, looking at Jesus with evil and hatred in their eyes.
It is a scene of pain and chaos. It is a striking picture of profound need.
Jesus goes to them, speaking to them, touching them, healing one after another after another. Late into the night He labors, Divine restorative power flowing from Him again and again.
Finally, the crowd is gone. It is well after dark when Jesus, overcome with fatigue, stumbles to His resting place in Simon’s house. But His sleep, though sweet, is short.
Jesus is the first to rise, quietly slipping out into the wilderness. He looks out over the quiet scenery. As the sun begins to dawn, He sees fishing ships pulling up their nets and heading to shore. He sees dark, silent homes beginning to stir along the shore of the lake. There are so many people here, so many of them just surviving from day to day. He has brought much-needed hope and help to these beleaguered Galileans. This is a profoundly needy region, a profoundly needy town. And as God in the flesh, Jesus is more than capable of meeting those needs. The people of Capernaum have gotten a taste of Jesus’s miracles and they are hungry for more.
What an opportunity.
But as He communes with His Father in prayer, Jesus knows what He must do. He is about to turn His back on what seems like an amazing opportunity.
The words of Jesus’ prayer are still on His lips when He hears footsteps approaching.
Simon, Andrew, James, and John have discovered His absence and hunted Him down. They are breathless after their search, but also with excitement. They have news, and they are convinced that Jesus will be overjoyed to hear it.
They tell Him, “All men seek for thee.” (Mark 1:37) Even though the hour is early, a crowd has already begun to gather outside Simon’s door and they are asking for Jesus.
But Jesus knows what He must do and He knows these men will not understand.
“I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also:” He tells them quietly, “for therefore am I sent.” (Luke 4:43)
Capernaum will have to wait. As Jesus leaves behind the adoring crowd and begins to walk toward the next city, He is not burdened by disappointment or regret.
Several years later, on the cusp of His crucifixion, Jesus will stand before a proud Roman bureaucrat. He will ask Jesus, “Art thou a king then?”
Jesus’ response, like that given to His followers outside Capernaum, will be quiet, but full of purpose. “Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” (John 18:37)
In Luke 19, He will tell His followers that He has come, “to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)
All through His time on earth, Jesus will find people confused about His purpose. They will think of Him as a healer, as a resurrected prophet, and as a king. But the reason Jesus was sent is something different, something greater than ruling or giving people better lives. His life is guided by a Divine mission.
He is here to provide salvation and to show the world the Truth.
When I was in college, I had several people give me advice about my summers. Some of them recommended I do specific things, but I got the same general advice from several sources. “Make the most of your summers when you’re in college,” they said, “later in life, work responsibilities, family responsibilities, and everything that goes along with adult life tends to make summers a lot less free than they are between years in college.”
The advice made sense. It’s solid reasoning, so I took it to heart.
One summer, I tried out for a traveling college singing group. It seemed like a perfect summer opportunity and I was excited about it, but… I didn’t make the cut. It was too late to make other plans, so I went home, picked up where I left off working at Chick-fil-A, and helped out at my home church over the summer.
I was determined to try again, so I decided to spend a summer overseas. With the help of the college faculty, I planned a missions trip to Myanmar in Southeast Asia. They helped me find a family who could host me while I was there and provide me with ministry opportunities. I trained for the trip, I tried to learn a little bit of the Burmese language, I even designed prayer cards for myself. Then, everything fell through. My host told me that it wasn’t going to work out after all. I was bummed, but it was too late to make other plans. So I went home, picked up where I left off working at Chick-fil-A… again, and helped out at my home church over the summer.
Don’t misunderstand me. I had some amazing opportunities while I was in college. I got to be involved in some wonderful ministries, I got to travel with the college choir, I even got to spend a semester in the United Kingdom, but my summers did not go to plan.
That summer I was supposed to be in Myanmar, I came across a passage of Scripture that really helped me. In Acts 16, the apostle Paul is excited about an opportunity that arises. The geographic area we now know as Turkey, referred to in Acts simply as “Asia” seems to be opening up for Paul. He dreams of evangelizing the whole region and sets out to do just that. But Acts 16 tells us that he and his ministry partners “were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia”. Door of opportunity… shut.
Not daunted, they turn their eyes toward a specific region called Bithynia, making plans to travel there. But again, “the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:7) Another door of opportunity… shut.
These closed doors help lead Paul west. Following God’s leading, he crosses over into the region of Macedonia and the work of evangelization and church establishment he does as a result serves as Christianity’s first foothold in what we now call Europe.
It’s a good thing Paul didn’t obsess over missed opportunities. Instead, he stayed on task and kept doing what he knew he needed to do wherever he found himself. He was driven by something far more powerful than exciting opportunities. He was driven by godly priorities. He didn’t simply have ambition. He had a mission.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that in the course of your life, moments will come when you miss out. It’s likely that life will bring you some pretty incredible opportunities and you will have to watch them pass you by. Your choice is what you’ll do when that happens. You can obsess about it, living your life waist-deep in regret. Or, you can let it go, recognizing that God has a good path for your life.
Even worse, life might present you with those tempting opportunities and you might choose to seize them at all costs, at the expense of your family, your health, your testimony, even your relationship with God. But life isn’t all about experiences and opportunities.
When we hear culture shouting at us, “You only live once! Carpe diem!” We need to be like Jesus, able to calmly respond “I must” because we recognize, “therefore am I sent.” They probably won’t understand, and that’s all right.
When you’re living according to godly priorities, you don’t need to obsess over missed opportunities. Did Jesus miss out? He might have missed out on an opportunity, but He certainly didn’t miss out on fulfilling His purpose.
It’s ok if you miss your big break or your fifteen minutes of fame because you’re following God’s prerogatives for your life. That’s a life that can truly be free from regret.
Exempla 