by Ron Perry

Have you ever noticed that some of the biggest problems in ministry occur in the evening or late at night? Have you noticed that these big problems involve people? Or have you ever noticed that the moment you think you have one problem solved another one appears? Perhaps, like me, you have thought, “Can’t I just minister without any interruptions or problems?” Many of us would be willing to pay a large sum of money for one week completely free from interruptions.

However, no matter how hard we try to avoid them, interruptions will be a part of our lives as long as we minister for Christ here on our fallen planet. Understanding that interruptions are inevitable, we must strive to view them biblically. If we do not, we will find ourselves losing sleep, saying things we wish we could take back, and becoming very frustrated ministers for Christ.

In Mark 1:29-45, we see a wonderful example to follow as we read of interruptions in the life of our Lord. The passage begins with Christ leaving the synagogue after a morning full of ministry. He had taught in the synagogue and healed a demon-possessed man there. Perhaps, much like you and I would have been, He found himself weary and hungry and thus headed to Peter’s house with His disciples. But instead of this weary band of ministers finding a place of rest, they found a home with a sick woman. Without hesitation, Christ ministered to her by restoring her health and then began healing a multitude of people from the city who had come to Peter’s house to see Jesus. His whole day was characterized by His ministering to the needs of people. Early the next morning, our Lord arose and left Peter’s house to spend some quiet time with His Heavenly Father; His disciples followed Him and interrupted His devotional time to tell Him there was more ministry for Him to do.

How easy it is for us to read about these interruptions in the life our Lord and make parallel applications to our own lives in the ministry! What one of us has not found himself ministering late into the night? And haven’t each of us come home to rest from a day of intense ministry, only to find ourselves being called upon to minister there as well? Or haven’t we all felt that what seemed like our whole community was knocking on our door with a host of needs? We can identify easily with our Lord in Mark 1, because we find His situations there so much like our daily lives. However, we must not only identify with the similarity of His situations but more importantly with the principles He teaches us in Mark that apply to our own ministries.

We see the first principle in Christ’s response to His disciples in verse 38: “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.” Christ understood that the whole reason He was on earth was to minister to people. He stated His purpose clearly again in Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.” An individual frustrated with the interruptions of ministry is an individual more concerned with being ministered to than ministering to others.

The second principle we see in Mark 1 is that interruptions are opportunities for ministry. Christ turned each of His interruptions into an opportunity to minister to someone, and the same ought to be true in our lives. When someone bursts into our office with tears running down his face, we should not look at it him as an interruption to our day but rather as an opportunity to minister to him. The phone call we get late at night is not an interruption of a good night of sleep but a wonderful opportunity to minister. Perhaps, if we followed our Lord’s example of recognizing that we are on this earth to minister to people and of turning interruptions into ministry, we would find ourselves actually praying, “Lord, give me some interruptions today. I’m here to minister!”