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Morning Meditation
October 15, 2026
Feast Day of Saint Teresa of Avila
Reading: Mark 1:35-39
In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Meditation by Peter Vanderveen
At first glance this short text seems to be entirely incidental – a snippet of an ancient travelogue: it’s a new day and everyone needs to get underway.
So do we all.
But the text is much stranger than this, and meaningfully so.
Let’s just assume that Jesus wandered off at a time around 5:00 AM. Then imagine what would incline his disciples to run off seeking after him at that hour. Under what conditions would this logically or predictably happen? If you can provide an answer that seems satisfactory to yourself, then ask whether it matches what the disciples said when they finally found Jesus. Does their exclamation make any sense at all? How would Jesus, who had settled himself in the silence of the dark, have understood their breathless declaration that “everyone” was searching for him. Did “everyone” mean all the disciples? Or did it mean all the people in that village? Or did it mean everyone everywhere? And anyway, this would have been an astonishing way to greet Jesus at that hour.
This text doesn’t really work merely as a report of something that occurred along the way. So maybe there’s another way to read this.
The text sets up two seemingly opposing scenarios. The first portrays Jesus, who in the stillness of early morning – while all is dark – steps out of the rough and tumble of his itinerant ministry to do only one thing, alone; which is to pray. He seeks God. He seeks God when there is no light yet rising. It’s an act of centering and grounding, not in one’s self but in God.
It’s easy to skip over this because it can seem so ancillary.
And it’s a scenario nearly overrun by the countering restlessness of the disciples, who feel the pressure and the opportunity of possibly having a celebrity in their midst. “Everyone,” they say, wants a photo-op. Everyone wants an interaction. Everyone seems delirious with excitement. Jesus is attracting crowds! Can anything better be said? The disciples want to ride that wave. And it never occurs to them that the prayer they are interrupting has any importance at all. They have to seize the day.
The Gospels are, in part, Jesus’ concession to this frenzy. As in this account, he goes with the flow. But all the while, quietly, his testimony is that all the noise of the crowds doesn’t make for much faith. It can all fall to nothing in an instant. Yet, the essential thing remains, which is to find time to pray, to God, apart from all the sway of life.
This is a valuable text, especially for us, when, increasingly, churches feel compelled to chase after excitement in order to gain crowds. We can’t compete on this level. Nor should we. Prayer, our greatest anchor, occupies a different space.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
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