The tiredness and exhaustion to evangelize one soul

Mark 4:35-38

The Word of Life

35That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

Jesus’ purpose in coming to this earth is to find those who are lost. In Luke 15 it shows the shepherd who leaves his 99 herd of sheep going from one hill to another in search of one lost sheep. The shepherd symbolizes the Lord who works like the shepherd to find a single lost soul.

In John 4, Jesus decides to take a short rest at Jacob’s well whilst passing Samaria. The bible describes the how fatigued Jesus was through the following verse in John 4:6: Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. He was so tired that he sat down near the well and was resting however, whilst resting we see him concentrating on evangelizing the Samarian woman. By disregarding his physical body and exerting all effort in evangelizing one soul, he was able to evangelize many Samarian people (John 4:39).

Even in today’s main scripture reading Jesus was so tired that he slept up until the point where the boat he was in was full of water. Jesus had worked so fervently for the evangelization of one soul that he was able to sleep even amidst a storm. Moreover, Jesus had so many people to attend to that he didn’t even have time to eat (Mark 6:31). Whist resting in a quiet place and even when he went into his house, people continuouslygathered to see him thus he testified about the Word of God to the people and treated their illness and sufferings.

Even when he was tired and wanted to rest, whenever he saw a lost sheep his heart was filled with grief. The Lord raised his body to comfort the Israelites who were like stray sheep without a shepherd. Just as he said in Luke 15:4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? Jesus exerted all his energy to the point where his body was overcome by exhaustion due to mental fatigue, spiritual anguish and physical exhaustion.

Prayer Title

Pray that we will be able to follow in the footsteps of Jesus who worked and toiled to evangelize a single soul and bear an abundance of fruit by seeking out lost sheep.