Asking for Jesus

 "Everyone is asking for you." Mark 1:37

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, we see a glimpse of what Jesus' Sabbath was like. He would preach in the synagogue in the morning, and then take a meal at a friend's home. This time it was Simon and Andrew's home. When He found out that Simon's mother-in-law was sick, He went to her bedside, helped her sit up and healed her. She was the one who prepared a meal for Jesus and 4 of his disciples.

That evening, His work was not done. Many sick and demon-possessed people came to Him for healing. To add to the noise and the melee, there were a lot of spectators, "usisero" in filipino jargon. So the next morning, Jesus went off by Himself before daybreak to pray. But Simon and the others found Him, and urged, "Everyone is asking for you. Looking for you."

Instead of saying, "OK, let's go to them," Jesus says He has to go to other towns and preach there too. It wasn't like today, where Jesus could go on TV and everyone who wanted to listen, could listen. No, He had to go to remote places, so more people would hear the Word.

Yesterday, I attended a free seminar called Joy of Discovery. Although a relative of ours came to our home and taught our family these tools for studying the Bible a looooong time ago, it was good to review these lessons again. One thing that was different from that time was we were all on Zoom, and anybody with a connection from all around the world could join in. Imagine if we could listen to Jesus on Zoom! Another thing that was different was that now it is so easy to delve deeper into the Bible and Bible times because of the online tools available to us! It was exciting to search for and find all sorts of details about sycamore trees, tax collectors, etc. It certainly added more dimension to the story of Zacchaeus who climbed a tree in order to better see Jesus. 

If we are looking for Jesus, He is looking for us too! He traveled far and wide, and all that he said and did cannot be contained in a library of books. “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

What we can be sure of is, whatever we need to know is in the Bible. If we look for Him there, we will find Him!