The Withdrawals of Jesus

• Matthew 4: 1: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness . ... • Mark 1: 35: Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed. • Luke 4:42: Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place . ... • Luke 6: 12: Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. • Matthew 14:13: When Jesus heard it, He d eparted from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. • Luke 5:16: So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. • Mark 3:7: But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. • Mark 6:31: And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile.11 • Luke 9: 10: Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. • Matthew 14:22ff: Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.

And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on a mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. • John 6:15: When Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone. • John 7:53f: And everyone went to his own house.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. • Mark 7:24: From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it . ... • Matthew 17: 1: Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led the,n up on a high mountain by themselves . . . • Mark 9:30: They departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it. . . . • John 10:40: And He went away again beyond the Jordan . ... • John 11 :54: Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness. . . . • John 12:36: These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them. • Matthew 26:36: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane . .. • Luke 22:41: And He was withdrawn from them . ...

1 Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1985), 126.