Jesus Withdrew

What Did Jesus Do?

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king,
Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
John 6.15

Right ends cannot be accomplished by wrong means. Jesus truly was King, but not by virtue of the enthusiastic impulse of a crowd, and not of the kind of kingdom the crowd envisioned. Jesus was not a rabble rousing anti-Roman insurrectionist, His kingdom would not come by violence, other than the violence done to Him.

And so, though the compassionate Christ would see that five thousand would be fed by five loaves and two fish, He was not about to allow that crowd, spurred by their misunderstanding of who the One was who performed the miracle, to forcibly take Him and make him a king. Right ends cannot be accomplished by wrong means. Withdrawing beyond the reach of the energized, but misunderstanding crowd, Jesus would continue His ministry until the moment arrived when He would allow himself to be taken by another uncomprehending crowd and be crucified by them. Right ends cannot be accomplished by wrong means; but sometimes seemingly wrong means can be the divine choice of God to accomplish his will.

Jesus withdrew to desolate and lonely places both to separate himself from the throngs who continually jumped to wrong conclusions about Him, and about the kingdom, and to draw closer to the Father. (See Mark 1.35) Knowing when and how to move forward, and when to withdraw makes all the difference in the progress of the kingdom. The kingdom advances in God’s timing, not ours; by God’s will, not ours; according to God’s purposes, not ours. Jesus understood this perfectly; yet He wrestled with His own personal desire to withdraw when the time came for Him to fall into the hands of the mob. (Matthew 26.37-42) Right ends are accomplished when we submit to the means ordained by the Father.

Has your enthusiasm ever led you to run so fast that you got ahead of God, in effect attempting to force the kingdom forward by your striving? I must confess to having been the perpetrator of some high-minded failures by virtue of rushing ahead when I should have withdrawn and waited upon God. By keeping our eyes on the Father, and our mind on things that are above, we can know when to advance and when to withdraw for the good of the kingdom and the glory of God. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4