From the book ‘The Power of Stillness:’
It’s common for people contemplating the unique aspects of Jesus’s life to presume they arose largely because, “well, He was the Son of God.
While true, does that adequately explain everything? We often speak of all that Jesus did in His life—service, healing, teaching. But how about the different times when the Lord very clearly stepped away from the activity around Him to find a calm from which to commune?
“But Luke wrote . . . retreat to secluded places is something Jesus often did (Luke 5:16). Sometimes it was to a mountain or a desert, other times to a garden or out to a lake. And as with our lives, these periodic retreats happened at different times of the day. Once He arose a great while before the day” and went off to a “solitary place” to pray. . . . Sometimes quiet time was prioritized before important occasions, such as prior to the Sermon on the Mount (see Luke 6:12). And on other occasions it followed major events. Right after the five thousand were fed, “Jesus went to the mountain for solitude.”
And on one occasion when there was so much “coming and going” His disciples didn’t even have time to eat, Jesus invited them in joining Him in getting away, saying, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert [quiet, solitude] place, and rest awhile (Mark 3:31). On that occasion, it’s worth pointing out, other people foiled His retreat (as happens so often with us!), after they found out where He was going.
As Christian author Bill Gaultiere summarizes, “The priority of Jesus’ solitude and silence is everywhere in the Gospels. It’s how he began His ministry. It’s how he made important decisions. It’s how he dealt with troubling emotions like grief. It’s how he dealt with the constant demands of His ministry and cared for his soul. It’s how he taught his disciples. It’s how he prepared for important ministry events. It’s how he prepared for his death on the cross. From his early retreat into the wilderness to His final, agonizing retreat in Gethsemane, some of the most important parts of Jesus’s ministry involved stepping away to find space to commune.
We don’t often say as Church members, “When life throws you a blow, take some private time for yourself. Go to a quiet place that you enjoy and step out of the demands of your life for a little while and regroup—because that is what the Savior would do.”
But He did. Rather than heal one more person, share one more meal, or teach one more sermon, how remarkable to see the Son of God Himself make precious time for retreat. This silence and stillness, was not a neutral, empty space, but rather, one filled with an infusion of tenderness, communication, and connection with His precious Father. As Gaultiere says, “His time with Abba was one of the most important things to Him.”
What does that mean for us? As Nephi might put it, if the Lamb of God, He being holy, should have need for retreat and communion, O then, how much more need have we? (see 2 Nephi 31:5) ~Jacob C. Hess, Carrie L. Skarda, Kyle D. Anderson, Ty R, Mansfield, The Power of Stillness (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2019), 45-46
