Like Jesus | In Stillness
About this series:
Jesus calls each of us to become more like him - by being with him, learning from him and imitating him. This is sometimes known as the process of spiritual formation or the process of sanctification, where we progressively leave a self-focussed life and adopt a Jesus-focussed lifestyle. That’s because, just as he called his first disciples, he calls us to “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19), a journey John Mark Comer describes as being with Jesus, becoming like him and doing as he did (see Practicing The Way).
And deep within every true Christian is a desire, put there by God, to change in a Christ-like direction. In the new covenant we are transformed into people who want to be with him and want to become like him - “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33); “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:27).
But this process of transformation is not only the work of the Holy Spirit within us. In partnership with God, it is the fruit of us aligning ourselves with his plan to transform us to be like Jesus. How this all works and how we are changed to become more like Jesus will be explored through this series.
About this talk:
Stillness is very elusive in today’s world. Still bodies - even less, still minds - are rare because it takes an inner peace to be able to rest without stimulation of some kind. Many people struggle to engage with God, to contemplate him in the midst of life, to meditate on the words of Jesus or to pray because they are relentlessly distracted and therefore have no ability to be at peace just with themselves and God. Perhaps we even wear our busyness and tiredness as a badge of honour: ‘Has it occurred to you how often we talk about our fatigue? I sometimes have the feeling that if I don’t tell my friends how tired I am they will doubt I am doing anything worthwhile’ (Gordon MacDonald). And yet ‘without solitude (or stillness) it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life’ (Henri Nouwen).
Mark 6:31 picks up where 6:13 left off. The disciples had gone “out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed with oil many people who were ill and healed them.” They now “gathered round Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.” In that atmosphere of excitement (cf. Luke 10:17), what Jesus does next is fascinating. “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest’” (v 31).
The disciples have been so successful in their ministry throughout the villages that with “so many people coming and going” (so many “that they did not even have time to eat”) that we might have expected Jesus to want them to get on and serve yet more people. But instead he invites them to get away from the ministry opportunities and get some rest with him.
We know Jesus frequently found time to get away from the crowds to be with his Father - for example, “the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:15-16). Even with only three years to conduct his ministry, Jesus knew the importance of stillness. Though Jesus clearly served in a hugely sacrificial manner (in so many ways), the demands of the crowds and the ‘successes’ of his ministry did not become a trap for him or send him into a spiral of frantic activity. He was evidently able to build in times of stillness to his daily life.
Yet it takes enormous discipline to do so; and probably more discipline to do so in our day than in any previous age. Many of us are either addicted to being stimulated by devices and screens, or feel guilty when we’re not doing something productive, unable to sit and do nothing for even a brief period of time. Even our personal devotions can be interrupted by frequent distractions, or, worse still, become another item on our ‘to do’ lists. What that says about the state of our souls is extremely concerning.
The whole of Psalm 46 reminds us of why we can “be still and know that I am God” - the sovereign God is in control, even when we are “in trouble” (v 1), when “the earth give(s) way” (v 2), or when “nations are in uproar” (v 6). In fact, the act of being still reflects a confidence that God reigns and all things are in his hands.
In fact, if we are to love God and love people, we must realise that ‘Hurry and love are incompatible’ (John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry). Comer proposes a course of action that will help address our issues here: ‘the solution to an overbusy life is not more time. It’s to slow down and simplify our lives around what really matters.’
And so there can be little doubt that if we are to be with Jesus, we will need to find times of stillness; that if we are to become like him, we will need to find time and space in which he can speak to us, challenge us, correct us and comfort us. All of which will require stillness.
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