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As we talk about prayer today I have a question for you, “What is the connection between Mark 3:7-10 and prayer?”. This is a bit of a trick question but there is a connection that’s important so lets go to Mark 3:7-10:

Mark 3:7–10 – Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.

Can you imagine the scene here? Two thousand years ago when there was no antibiotics, or chemotherapy, or vaccines – and lots of disease, Jesus was healing – and the crowd was HUGE. I think this is one of the points Mark is trying to make here – he mentions it twice (vs 7 & 8) along with the many towns that contributed to the crowd. In today’s setting it might be like someone giving away money. Can you imagine the crowd that would gather if it was known that today at 3:00pm I would be handing out $100 bills in the Walmart parking lot? I’m guessing we would need crowd control.

In this passage it sounds like Jesus was trying to get away with his disciples but the crowd pursued him. So Jesus tells his disciples to have a boat ready so he has a way to escape the crowd, “lest they crush him”.

So, I’d like you to use your imagination. In this setting, what do you think that would look like to have a boat ready? You have a mob pursuing Jesus with his back against the water. The people in the crowd were not wanting to hear Jesus’ words, they were trying to touch him so they could be healed. That, to me, sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. If you were to make a movie of this story, what would it look like to “have a boat ready”?

In my imagination I see the disciples up to their knees in water – or maybe up to the waist – hanging on to a boat, and closely following Jesus as he moves along the beach. At a moments notice thy need to be ready to move in if the crowd becomes too aggressive and Jesus is in trouble. This could get real difficult fast. If the crowd “pushes” Jesus into the water he – or others – could drown. The disciples needed to be awake, they need to be focused, they need to be completely devoted to this – IT’S IMPORTANT.

In the Greek the verb used for “have ready” is a present tense verb that refers to continual action with no end in sight. “Have ready a boat”

So, what’s the connection between this story and prayer? Well that Greek word we just talked about is used 10 times in the New Testament and 5 of these times it is connected to prayer. We should be awake, we should be focused, and we should be completely devoted to prayer.

Acts 1:14 – All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Acts 2:42 – And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Acts 6:4 – But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Romans 12:12 – Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Colossians 4:2 – Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

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1 Thessalonians 5:15–18 – See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Luke 18:1–5 – And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ”