And he healed many suffering from various diseases; and he cast out many demons, and did not suffer the demons to speak because they knew him.
Mark closes a busy day at Capernaum with the whole town at one door. Jesus met every kind of misery brought to Him. Two things stand out: how wide His healing reached, and how He silenced the voices that could have announced who He was.
The people who came that evening were not dignitaries.
The Lord of glory held a great reception that night, but the crowd was not the kind found in the courts of the world's great ones... Truly the day is coming when all nations shall fall down before Him, but those who honoured Him then were only a company of invalids. Nor did they seek His face in vain.
He was within reach of anyone who came.
With the great men of this world it is far otherwise. The greater their authority and power the less accessible they are to the poor and needy. Nor is the Lord any different today: though high in heavenly glory we can "tell Him," and bring "to Him," all our sorrows and our needs.
The verse names two groups and keeps them apart.
A crowd of these two kinds of people gathers around Him: the sick, and those held by demons. The account keeps the two apart with care, and names them twice over. They all find deliverance at His hands, without fail.
This power ran in two directions at once.
Divine power rests in man over the devil, as well as over disease. Such was the form of the ministry of Jesus.
The demons told the truth about Him. He still refused to let them speak.
He refused that mixed testimony. It must be Divine for Him to accept it.
He did welcome witness, but only from above. He also saw an accusation coming.
He did accept the fourfold witness of John the Baptist, the Father, His own works, and the Scriptures (John 5:32-47). But He, the Holy One of God, refused all testimony from beneath... He saw in advance the groundless charge that He cast out demons in league with Beelzebul... So He renounced in public every link with the works of darkness. Then all could know that He did these things in His Father's name alone.
Beaten in open opposition, Satan tried a different tactic — endorsement.
Satan could not oppose the power. He had to admit it was the power of the Son of God and of His Kingdom. So he would have a share in it — indeed, take the lead in recognising it. Then the work would carry his stamp, and he could keep his controlling influence over the minds of men as far as possible... The spirits knew it, and the chief spirit would have used this knowledge to hinder the Lord's kingdom in subtle ways... but the Lord "would not permit them to speak."
Another writer gives a simpler reason: He did not want the attention.
In Mark's Gospel we must not view these deliverances and healings so much as evidence of His power. They display the great love and goodness of the Servant... He loved to be unknown. He did not want the applause of men, nor the witness of the unclean spirits.
The word behind "knew" here carries weight. It is not a guess about His identity.
Demons had the inward conscious knowledge of who He was.
That knowledge did not change what they were.
He commanded demons to be silent, and when He cast them out they pleaded with Him not to send them into the abyss... Here we have the saddest truth of all. Satan may fool people into the foolish trick of unbelief, but he cannot do that with evil spirits. "Even the demons believe—and shudder!" (James 2:19)
He turned no one away that evening, and the scene pointed forward.
Not isolated cases now: all the sick and suffering of Capernaum came to the great Physician, and He healed them all — every one. It was truly the beginning of a new week for them. It was also a happy sign of a coming day for Israel. Then the glorious Sun of righteousness would rise and drive away all darkness, disease and death. Even then He was present with healing in His wings.
- Access. The whole city came to one door, and none went away unhelped. His place in glory has not made Him harder to reach.
- Reach. He met both kinds of misery — bodies broken by disease, lives held by demons. No part of human ruin lies outside His power.
- Refusal. He silenced words that were true but came from the wrong source. He took witness from the Father, the Scriptures, John and His own works — never from beneath.
- Motive. Commentators differ here. Some see Satan seeking credit by backing Him. Others see the Servant refusing applause.
- Warning. The demons knew Him with full inward certainty, and they stayed His enemies. Knowing who Jesus is did not change them.
And rising in the morning long before day, he went out and went away into a desert place, and there prayed.
A full day at Capernaum ended with the whole town crowding the door at sunset. Long before dawn, Mark shows the same Man slipping out alone into the dark. Why would someone who had just commanded diseases and demons need to pray at all?
The contrast between His power and His prayer is the lesson.
Again we have to thank Mark for telling us how He was occupied. He who had shown such power was found as a man in the attitude of dependence on God. He had cast out demons and healed diseases in His own name; He spoke, and it was done. But now He prayed. Using power, however wonderful, should never make a man give up his place of dependence. If anyone could have rightly done that, it might have been He. But He has set the example of the opposite.
Several writers connect this morning with Isaiah's picture of a servant whose ear is wakened day by day. That link explains where the words of the previous day had come from — and where the next day's would come from too.
This shows us that dependence upon God, expressed by prayer, is another mark of the perfect Servant. Prayer in secret gives the power for service in public… So we learn that prayer lies behind His teaching (v. 21) and His preaching (v. 39). It is well for us to follow His perfect example and begin our day with God in prayer, before we face other people in public. In the burden and heat of the day, a "solitary place" is hard to find.
Getting alone was not convenient. It had to be bought at the expense of rest and comfort, in the coldest hour of the night.
This privacy could only be secured by such an act of self-sacrifice as this. The needy crowd surrounded Him in the evening, and a similar crowd would seek Him in the early morning. So the Lord went out into the night chill, always sharpest in the hour before dawn, to secure a time free from interruptions. In this way He put the activities of His service under the confession of His dependence upon God. What an example for us in the strenuous life of today!
Everything in the previous chapter might have argued that He had no further need to ask. That is exactly why the verse matters.
He had been anointed with the Spirit for His work. He had heard the Father's loving approval, defeated Satan, cast out demons, and healed many diseases. Yet He is still the dependent One. Independence in service for God is a snare, the very spirit of Satan. The perfect Servant had His times for quietness, retirement and prayer, in which He cast Himself afresh upon the One whom He had come to earth to glorify.
The hour also carries comfort, not only rebuke. One writer read the verse and saw that the needs waiting to break over Jesus that day had already been carried to the Father before they arrived.
The Lord had many towns to visit, much service to do in them, many needs to meet and sorrows to soothe. The miseries of the crowds would surge around Him when the day woke. But they would not take Him by surprise or overwhelm Him, for He had risen up before them all, and was ready for every one of them. The supplies in Him matched the day's demands. He viewed the whole range of those demands in communion with His Father. Each individual case passed before Him, and was the subject of His intercession in that solitary place where He went to pray.
What follows tests the reality of the prayer. Simon hunts Him down with news that everyone is looking for Him — and the answer shows what the solitary hour had settled.
But this public attraction to the Lord Jesus was reason enough for not going back. He did not seek the applause of man, but the praise that comes from God… If all men sought Him, He must go where there was need, not honour. So He says, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." He always remains the perfect, lowly, dependent servant of God here below.
- Before — He rose before the day, the crowd, and the needs He would meet. Prayer came first, and everything else followed.
- Below — He spoke and demons obeyed, yet He took a man's place of dependence on God. No power we hold excuses us from that place.
- Behind — prayer in secret stood behind His teaching in verse 21 and His preaching in verse 39. The private hour supplied the public power.
- Bought — the quiet cost Him sleep and the cold of the darkest hour. Time alone with God has a price.
- Beyond — He walked past the applause of a whole town and moved on to the next ones. Prayer had already fixed His course.
And Simon and those with him went after him
Mark moves fast here: a night of healing at Capernaum, the Lord slipping away before dawn to pray alone, then Simon and the others going after Him. Two questions follow: why did they chase Him down, and what did they want when they found Him?
One writer traces the ordinary Greek word for pressing after something, then reaches its strongest form. He renders our verse with that word, where the ESV has "searched for him":
There is a stronger word than dioko, "I-press-after": it is kata-dioko, meaning "I-earnestly-press-after." It appears only once in the New Testament, and that is in Mark 1:36. There the disciples woke to find that their Lord had risen long before daylight and had gone off to a lonely place to pray: "and Simon and those who were with him earnestly pressed after Him." As far as I know we are never told to "press after" Christ. But we have this beautiful example of His disciples of old who earnestly pressed after Him.
Commentators differ on how to read that eagerness. Another writer hears in it a hunt that broke in where it was not wanted. He points to the word's one good use, in the older Greek version of Psalm 23, where the ESV reads "follow me":
Here a very strong word is used. Simon and others pursued Him, for that is the meaning of the word. In the whole New Testament this word occurs only here in Mark. It usually carries a bad sense. The one place I know where it carries a good sense is the Greek version of Psalm 23: "Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me." It is the same word here. They broke in on His time alone.
Mark names Simon first and leaves the rest as a group. That detail is the man's character showing through early:
Simon's eager and leading character shows itself early. Here, so to speak, begins that relationship between the servant and his Lord which later showed itself in so many blessed moments between them. He did not think it beneath Him to go and stay with His poor disciple. His Father's house and His Father's bosom, even here below, were His natural home. Yet He accepted in grace all that His poor creatures offered Him.
They were looking for someone who had gone out of His way to be alone. That privacy cost Him something:
Only an act of self-sacrifice like this could secure such privacy. The needy crowd surrounded Him in the evening, and a similar crowd would seek Him in the early morning. So the Lord went out into the night chills, always sharpest in the hour before dawn, to win a stretch of time free from interruptions. In this way He placed the activities of His service under His confession of dependence on God. What an example for us in the busy life of today!
Simon's news sounds like good news. Behind it lay his own hopes for the kingdom:
When the eager disciple found the Lord, he said to Him in his excited, impetuous way, "Everyone is looking for You." Bright visions of the glorious kingdom filled this newly called fisher of men... In the Capernaum crowd his overflowing imagination saw the first instalment of the thousands of Israel, flocking to confess themselves subjects of the Saviour-King. The Lord did not rebuke Peter for vain thoughts, or crush his enthusiasm as ill-timed and misplaced.
The disciples read the crowd as a reason to go back. He read it as a reason to move on:
The disciples follow, and having found the Lord, they say, "Everyone is looking for You." This brings to light another mark of the perfect Servant — the refusal of mere popularity. Nature might argue that if everyone is seeking us, this is the time to stay. But that was the moment when the Lord said, "Let us go on to the next towns." As the Servant of Jehovah He was not here to win popularity, but to do the will of God.
One writer names what did attract the Lord and what pushed Him away:
Misery attracted Him, suffering drew Him. But sensationalism, and all that spirit at work in so-called religion today, repelled Him.
- Pursued. Mark uses the New Testament's strongest word for chasing someone, and uses it only here. The disciples did not just look for Jesus. They hunted Him down.
- Interrupted. They broke into prayer that had cost Him sleep and the cold before dawn. He put His dependence on God before the demands of His work.
- Misread. Simon's report carried his own bright hopes of a kingdom starting there and then. The Lord did not crush his enthusiasm, but He did not act on it either.
- Refused. A crowd seeking Him is the one thing nature calls a reason to stay. That was the moment He chose to leave.
- Redirected. He went on to the next towns instead of the town that cheered Him. The Servant's business was His Father's will, not His own fame.
and having found him, they say to him, All seek thee.
At dawn the disciples went hunting for Jesus and found Him praying alone, outside the town. Their news sounds good, but He answers by moving on — which asks what a servant of God counts as success.
The search in this verse ends at a praying Man. One commentator links that prayer to the victory and the healings that came before it:
But positive strength is also needed in dependence on God. So we are told, "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." There, just as He rejects the enemy's testimony, so He leans fully on God's power. No personal glory, and no title to power that belonged to Him, was the smallest reason for relaxing His entire subjection to His Father. Neither was it a reason to stop seeking His guidance day by day. So He waited on God after He had defeated the enemy in the wilderness. He had already proved the value of that victory by healing those the devil oppressed. It is while He is doing this that Simon and others follow and find Him.
The finding was not casual. The verb Mark uses for their pursuit is a strong one:
There is a stronger word than dioko, "I press after." It is kata-dioko, and it means "I earnestly press after." It appears only once in the New Testament, in Mark 1:36. The disciples woke to find that their Lord had risen long before daylight and had gone off to a solitary place to pray: "and Simon and those who were with him earnestly pressed after Him." As far as I know we are never told to "press after" Christ. But we do have this beautiful example of His disciples of old who earnestly pressed after Him. And if we truly love Him, will we not imitate them too?
Simon's message was a report on public opinion, and opinion was running in Jesus' favour. One writer weighs how thin that enthusiasm was:
The tide of popular favour ran high for Him that day in Capernaum. To anyone who courted it, this would have been the moment to return to the city. That is all the more true because Luke tells us, "the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them" (Luke 4:42). If they could, they would have compelled Him. But neither Simon, nor those with him, nor the people knew what the Lord was. What He could do they had seen. What He was had yet to be learned.
A rising reputation would keep most people in town. Here it was a reason to leave:
But this public attraction to the Lord Jesus was reason enough for not returning. He did not seek the applause of man, but the praise that comes from God. The moment it began to be talked about, so to speak, the Lord Jesus withdraws from the scene. If all men sought Him, He must go where it was a question of need, not of honour.
Jesus answers the report with more work, not with rest. One writer roots that habit in the nature of service itself:
Service is never perfect without that hiding of self. A servant is not to know himself. He is to know only his master, and to be quite willing that others should also not know him, but only his master. And so it is with the Lord. He goes on with His work. If that attracts notice, His way is still to go on and to hide Himself again under fresh service. We see this in chapter 1. Simon and other disciples follow Him into His privacy and say, "Everyone is looking for You." It is as though the crowd would make Him public, make Him the center of attention — but He only hides Himself under fresh labours.
Time alone with the Father shapes the reply that follows. One writer links the two, and notes what Jesus says He came out to do:
Simon and those with him followed Him and found Him. Now beginning to feel the importance of His ministry, Simon expresses it: "Everyone is looking for you." This (in such a case) was nothing to Jesus. He did not seek the place where He was important; He had His Father's will to do. He came ever fresh from His Father's heart... Surely this had a connection with that hidden fellowship with the Father: "for that is why I came out." And what was on His heart was this: "that I may preach there also." He does not say, "do miracles."
- Prayer first. No title to power excused Him from depending on His Father. The disciples found Him already leaning on God before the day began.
- Pursuit. The word behind their search means to press after earnestly. It is the one recorded example of disciples chasing hard after Christ.
- Popularity. The whole town wanted Him, but they knew only what He could do, not what He was.
- Purpose. Applause was His signal to move on. He went where there was need, not where there was honour.
- Pattern. A servant is content to be unknown as long as his Master is known. What came out of His time alone with the Father was preaching, not miracles.
And he says to them, Let us go elsewhere into the neighbouring country towns, that I may preach there also, for for this purpose am I come forth.
After a day of healing crowds in Capernaum, Jesus went out alone to pray. Peter found Him with news that everyone was looking for Him — and His answer set the shape of His whole mission.
Jesus did not make this decision in the crowd. It came out of the quiet hour before dawn.
He rose early the next day, not to begin the day with service, but with prayer in a solitary place. How vital a need this is for every servant of God! Indeed, one would say, if it was necessary for Him, how much more for us! Morning by morning He received guidance from God (Isa. 50:4). But Simon and others with him were a little too anxious about service. If they had followed His example and prayed, they might have discerned the mind of God more clearly, as He did.
Everyone looking for Him sounded like the best reason to stay. Jesus treated it as a reason to leave.
But this public attraction to the Lord Jesus was enough ground for not returning. He did not seek the applause of man, but the praise that comes from God. As soon as it came to be published abroad, so to speak, the Lord Jesus withdraws from the scene. If all men sought Him, He must go where it was a question of need, not of honour. So He says, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." He always remains the perfect, lowly, dependent servant of God here below.
Another writer reads the same moment as the mark of a Servant who would not trade obedience for applause:
Nature might argue that if everyone is seeking us, this is the time to stay. But that was the very moment when the Lord said, "Let us go into the next town." As the Servant of Jehovah He was not here to win popularity, but to do the will of God.
The miracles had drawn the crowds. The verse names something else as the reason He came.
The Lord's hour of triumph had not yet come, and He knew what was at work in the hearts of the people, while Peter did not. Jesus did not commit Himself to men in Galilee any more than in Jerusalem (John 2:23-25). Not seeking popularity or importance in the eyes of men, He expressed His will to go forward in the service of His Father… Preaching, not miracles, was the chief end of His mission. So we find Him continuing His blessed service throughout the synagogues of Galilee, preaching and casting out demons.
One writer explains how a crowd could get in the way of the souls He came for:
The crowd might instead get in the way of His access to souls. It might misrepresent the grace that was seeking men, to bring them with their personal needs before God. This could best be done in quietness, not in the crowd. The seed of the Word had to be spread far and wide, to find the good ground that would receive it… He passes over the wonders that have attracted the masses, to stress the preaching of the Word as His true object.
One writer quotes a fuller form of the same reply, from an older translation.
But He said to them, I must announce the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also. This is why I have been sent forth. The great object of the coming of Christ was to preach God's kingdom. It was bringing God and God's power before men — God's power visiting man in mercy. No healing of diseases or casting out of demons could satisfy the Lord. And when He had attracted attention in any place by His miracles, that was all the more reason for going to another. He did not seek His own fame… For our Lord Jesus, to attract a name was a reason for departure, not for staying.
Some treat gospel preaching as a small thing. One writer answers them.
We are well aware that in some quarters there is a strong tendency to pour cold water on the work of evangelism. There is a sad lack of sympathy with the preacher of the gospel. As a necessary result, there is little active co-operation with him in his work. Further, some speak about gospel preaching in a way that shows little sympathy with the heart of Him who wept over unrepentant sinners. At the very start of His blessed ministry He could say, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor."
- Prayer first. The day's direction came out of the solitary place before dawn. The disciples were anxious about service instead, and did not discern the mind of God as He did.
- Sent, not self-moved. "That is why I came out" points back to a sending. The sending settles where He goes next.
- Word over wonders. The miracles drew crowds, but preaching was the declared object of His mission.
- Wider, not louder. Popularity in one town became the reason to move to the next. The seed of the Word had to go wide, to find good ground.
- Fame refused. He went where there was need, not where there was honour. That is the pattern for every servant of God.