Even Jesus withdrew

This morning I was reading in Matthew. In chapter 14 there is the account of Herod beheading John the baptizer. As that alone is an interesting study, what really spoke to me was what happened in verse 13. It goes like this: Herod lets his sin consume him and foolishly makes a covenant with Herodias' daughter. Seizing the opportunity, she asked for John head on a plate. Herod did as he promised. John dies and his followers go tell Jesus what happened. Now we get to verse 13, I say that when Jesus heard this, He (watch this) withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. We do not think of Jesus needing to be alone. We really do not think of Jesus "withdrawing." That seems almost non spiritual. But I want you to notice why He withdrew. Jesus just received word that John was dead. Notice that Jesus did not say, OK and move on His way. This news deeply affected Him. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus had deep emotions. Not deep like our suppressed emotion. Jesus is recorded to have been angry and everyone around Him knew He was angry. Jesus is recorded to have cried and everyone around Him knew He was crying. In Matthew 14, Jesus is deeply affected by the death of His fore runner. Jesus is so affected that He does something that we read as weakness or even unbiblical, He withdrew. Jesus did not just withdraw to a corner in view of everyone, Jesus got on a boat and went to be alone. That means by Himself. Just Jesus. No disciples, no crowd, just Jesus. In doing so He left those on shore to think what they may. This is the purest person in all of creation, the source of all things, going away and being alone. And yet it did not affect who He is. It did not make Him any less of a person for doing so. But rather afforded Him the time to process and debrief this traumatic event. Everyone knew that Jesus was really affected by this news. Again, Jesus never hide His emotions like we do and are encouraged to do. As a pastor, I encourage people to deal with their emotion so that those emotions do not destroy them. As a pastor, I understand the pressure to suppress emotions. People want you to be emotionally neutral while they are emotionally volatile. People want you to suppress your emotions to prevent the reality that you too are human. That scares people. But when I read the accounts of Jesus' life, I see the Son of God dealing with emotions as He created us too. He does not harm anyone in doing so. He probably challenged some with this, but He demonstrated to all of humanity that we have emotions and we all should properly deal with them. Jesus did not want to be around people as He processed the information about John! And guess what, He still went to the cross for all of those people. Jesus was no less a Savior for withdrawing and being alone. It maybe that in this time of withdraw He drew the strength to return to shore! And return He did. Verse 14 says when He stepped ashore, He saw the crowd, felt compassion for them, and healed their sick. Jesus did not leave! He withdrew and returned with a clear view of what needed to happen. He withdrew and when He returned those around Him were greatly affected. Withdrawing is ok, being alone is ok. But if we understand anything from Jesus' life, each has an end. There is a time to be restored and a time to restore. There are times of withdraw and there is a time to row back to shore, get out of the boat and get back to the business at hand. Jesus did.