The Lonely Places

by Brian L. Martin

As a result [of the leper spreading the news of his healing], Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. Mark 1:45 NIV

     We live in an era of “Church Growth” and “Seeker-Friendly” presentations of the Gospel, where the Gospel is packaged in slick presentations and made as palatable as possible, in order to attract as many as possible. But isn’t it interesting that, according to our opening verse, the people had to go to a lonely place in order to find Jesus. The NKJV says deserted places—doesn’t sound very friendly, does it?!

Now I’m not saying that our church services need to be dry and drab in order to be Biblical. There is nothing wrong with using the technologies of the day in the ministry (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this). Nor is there anything inherently wrong in trying to identify with your audience in order to reach them. After all, Paul said he became all things to all men, that he might by all means win some. The difference is the “ends” for which these “means” are used. It seems that many of today’s “mega-churches” preach a gospel intended to make the crowds feel comfortable, so that they’ll keep coming back for more. Paul, on the other hand, used his adaptations in order to gain an open door for the Gospel—and perhaps no one preached a harder-hitting, more sin-rebuking, holy-living gospel than Paul. Just ask Peter.

If the point of the Gospel is crowds (I don’t have anything against large congregations), Jesus could have stayed in the towns, where the throngs were. After all, wouldn’t He have had more impact and reached more people that way? But the fact of the matter is that Jesus knew the hearts of the crowd:

Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. John 6:26 NKJV

Had Jesus merely wanted crowds, He could have continued to feed them and entertain them with miracles. The problem with this type of follower is that when anything is required of them, they quickly find someone, or something, else to follow. Further on in Jesus’ dialog in John chapter 6, after He claimed to be the true manna from heaven, and that anyone desiring eternal life must eat His flesh, we read the following:

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” . . . From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. John 6:60, 66 NKJV

The apostle Paul echoes this thought:

For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame — who set their mind on earthly things. Phil 3:18-19 NKJV

The fact of the matter is that it’s not the easy, comfortable path that leads to God, but the path that is so narrow that it is difficult to find:

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  Matt 7:13-14 NKJV

There are few who find it, which implies that an individual must be actively searching for that path. And this brings us back to our opening verse and the fact that the point of the Gospel is not crowds—it is Jesus. Notice that the people had to leave the throngs of the towns and go to the lonely, deserted places in order to find Jesus. But let’s bring it down to a personal level. Are we more inclined to gravitate to the comfortable and self-gratifying forms of Christianity, or do we seek Jesus in the lonely places? If Jesus were to leave your congregation, would you know it? Would you be willing to leave your comfortable surroundings to find Him in the desert? Would I?