"In the morning, while it was still very dark he got up and went to a deserted place, and there he prayed "

Have you ever really thought what Jesus looked like? His mage has been interpreted and painted by many well known artists throughout the centuries. Many pictures show him in beautiful pastoral scenes carrying, perhaps, a lamb around his neck or with a few well-behaved children beside him. Others present him as a solitary figure staring serenely into the distance, seemingly set apart from all the bustle and stress of the world Is this how you picture him? Serene, otherworldly. I wonder!

I think, as we read through Mark's gospel, we get a very different picture of Christ. Mark shows him pursued relentlessly by huge crowds wherever he went with people begging him to heal them, desperate just to touch his clothes. People would walk for miles to see him. Sometimes the crowds got so pressing that Jesus had to resort to teaching them from a boat on the lake!

People even followed him into the homes he stayed at, making it difficult for him to find time to rest and space to eat.

One group even dismantled the roof of a house to get their sick friend to Jesus!

The scenes Mark describes have more ~n common with modern paparazzi pursuing celebrities than with those pastoral scenes depicted by artists.

However St Mark's gospel dispels the artistic myth and offers us a glimpse of his pressurised life.

We read that Jesus had just left the synagogue where he had not only been teaching, but had cast out a demon, causing a great stir among the people. With that having been done during such a draining morning I am sure that he would have been ready to w~nd down, have a meal and grab some rest.

However, before there was the slightest chance of this, someone else desperately needed his help: Simon Peter's mother-in-law was very sick with a fever. Jesus dispels her fever and heals her.

Healers always generate public interest, so once the word was out about the cure, all of the sick of the town assemble at Peter's doorway.

The heart of Jesus goes out to ~e suffering and he is unwilling to turn anyone away who is in need of his help or attention. Everybody is looking for h~m as the answer to their problems and uncertainties.

As he moves through the milling crowd Jesus brings consolation and hope. By identifing with the sick Jesus is clearly indicatung that suffering is part of God's mysterious plan.

The pressure must have been ~ntense and Jesus must have been exhausted, but that night he could only have snatched a few hours sleep because he arose while it was still very dark and walked out to a deserted place to pray. Even there, though, he was followed by Peter and others (the transtation would be more accurate if described as pursued or hunted down).

Perhaps Peter struggled to understand why lesus would disappear when there were so many desperately needy people wanting him.

Maybe the crowds gathering outside his house were getting difficult to deal with when they realised Jesus was no longer there.

Possibly Peter saw an opportunity for lesus to make a name for himself while so many wanted to see him.

Jesus was under intense pressure to go back to Capernaum but, after prayer, he knew that he must move on to preach on other towns if he was to fulfil his ministry.

We hear a lot about stress today: Despite all the new technology which is supposed to make our lives easier, people seem busier and more under pressure than ever.

What help can our faith be with the pressures of life?

What does God understand of living in our hectic, messy world?

jesus may have lived in simpler times, but our reading makes it clear that he understood all about pressure: people were unrelenting in their appeals for his help and not even his friends cared whether he got a break. The need around h~m was never ending:

How did he cope?

Prayer appears to hold the key. Jesus clearly found prayer essential, for he made a massive effort to get time alone with God, arising while it was still night time to escape the crowds, despite having had little sleep.

And remember as he walked out into the darkness, he faced the dangers of the wilderness in order to get time alone with God.

Rather than busyness pushing prayer out of Christ's life, it seems, instead, to have driven him to his Father.

We do not know what he prayed, but we can hazard a guess: for renewal of strength, the a ability to cope, guidance on all the pressing needs around him?

What is clear is that for Jesus prayer was more than a religious habit: it was powerful and made a real difference, enabling him to cope with the pressures bearing down upon him.

Do we try to cope with the stresses of life without God's help? Does our busyness squeeze out prayer

If so, Jesus' example suggests we are missing out on something which will help us greatly with the everyday pressures we face.

If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we?