“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” (Matthew 14 v 22-23)
He didn’t get time to grieve properly the death of John the Baptist for his disciples arrived with their excited stories from their mission trip and the crowds arrived in need of a Shepherd. Sometimes you don’t get a minute to yourself!
So Jesus makes the disciples leave him. The word is that he compels them to leave. This was a significant moment for Jesus. The death of John, the forerunner, was the moment Jesus knew the baton was firmly in his hand and he would begin to move into the Gentile regions and then ultimately follow the road to Jerusalem and the cross. A turning point and he needed to be ready.
He has just performed a Moses miracle and more. According to John (6:15) the crowds who have had a free miraculous meal want to make him king and do it by force. They adore Jesus and are ready to applaud Jesus into a new chapter. Matthew writes that he dismissed the crowd. He says it twice in fact.
Here is the thought: perhaps today you need to make a distance between your responsibility and you. You need to compel the work to move on without you. You need to say NO. You carry on but I am not coming with you this time. Or maybe you need to dismiss the applause and the accolades and to come away from the political nonsense. Maybe you have to do both!
Time for you.
Compel the responsibility to let go of you and dismiss the tempting praise from the crowds.
Why? There’s a mountain to climb to get away from it all. To the place of pray.
To the place to grieve; or to think; to listen; to be refreshed; to be filled.
Sometimes God is not in the work nor in the applause but He is on a mountainside waiting to replenish you.
Missions Paul 