They were all lying there, side by side, on their mats. They should all be sleeping after a long day. There is calm breathing, sometimes a movement from one of them, a hand, an arm. They sleep outside, not far from Simon's house. It is not cold. Is Jesus asleep? Can he sleep after all that happened? Or is he staring into the sky, eyes open?

It all had begun with the baptism. We don't know what was before that. Mark's gospel doesn't have anything about Jesus' birth and childhood. We know he was baptized. Then Jesus had called first disciples. Simon and Andrew were the very first. From now on they shouldn't fish for fish anymore, they should fish for men. And they had followed him. Jesus had won two, they were now three. Later two others had joined the group: Jacob and John. The group of now five went to Capernaum. This is how it started.

Jesus' big journey through Galilee and Jerusalem. All the conflicts with the established, scribes and pharisees. He begins to act in the public. This where our gospel text today comes in. The healing of Simon's mother-in-law, then the healings and the exorcisms of the many from the whole city. We heard it. Like also the verse that says that Jesus got up before dawn, left his disciples sleeping and went away.

I can imagine that situation. To lie awake during the night, to look up. Mostly at the ceiling, sometimes on camps into the stars. This hour before dawn, before the sky turns from black to dark blue, the stars appear weaker. I can imagine the situation that I cannot keep lying, I have to get up. To leave the group, because I need to be alone, right away. To walk away, to find some loneliness in the very early morning, out in the fields. Breathing gets easier, the burden gets lighter.

Dear congregation, I wonder what Jesus felt. How was he doing? You may realize, I don't want to talk about Simon's mother-in-law, nor about his sentence that he wants to go to other cities to preach. Because that's what he came for, as is said in the gospel of Mark. Nor do I want to talk about other aspects of today's text.

I want to look at Jesus. I think that this text shows us nothing less but the nature of Jesus. We are told in short words that Jesus did not only have one, but two natures. True God – and true man. The true God, who could do divine things. Healing the mother-in-law, only by taking her hand and lifting her up. Her fever vanishes, she can serve again. She won back her dignity. Very fast the news seem to spread out, there is one who can heal. Many, maybe even the whole town Capernaum comes and gathers outside Simon's house. Jesus does what is godly: He heals and drives out the evil spirits that possess people. He can do that, he just has to give the spirits the order to leave.

I have to say that this was not purely divine. In those days in that region many healers and exorcists walked around. Many had disciples. So Jesus wasn't as unique as we probably think – in our days when miracles seem to be more seldom. Healing is not a sign of divinity. Nevertheless, Jesus was godly. He was the one who spoke God's word, he was not anyone.

But – and this is important – Jesus is not only godly. He is real, true man, too. I see this shown in his seeking for loneliness. What is going on with Jesus?

As I've said, I know it pretty well. The longing for being alone. Do you know it as well? When do you have to be on your own? To make decisions, to deal with big questions? To win distance from someone or something that puts pressure on you? --- I need to be alone for things like these. So that I regain my ability to act. Sometimes, when stress really possesses me there is no other way. I get away for a while and I can do something again. I go away, into the forest, the park or somewhere where I can feel alone. --- When do you need this?

Jesus – true man. He has to face big and hard things. Is there pressure on him yet? How can he deal with it? His time, his public appearance has just begun. I am sure, he knows about the meaning of his life. And he is a feeling person, I know he can be afraid, he can be upset, embarrassed. He knows the emotions we all know. He cannot sleep. He leaves before dawn – to pray.

Jesus is weak, too. And he is lonely. I don't mean the moment on the field until the disciples found him. His mission makes him lonely. Even the disciples, those who are closest to him, do not understand. They realize that Jesus has left, but they don't let him go, trusting that he'll come back. He is the leader, like a teacher with his pupils. The pupils need the teacher to be around, they are hardly of any help for him. Yet they are no relief. Like the leader of a group, a firm or a family who has to face his responsibility that only he can see.

Dear congregation, Jesus as true man and true God. Both in one person. This question has brought a lot of uproar and argument to the early Christians. In the fourth century theologians debated this question: How are Jesus the man and Jesus the God related to another? Is this one person with two natures at one time or one person who is God or man from time to time? There were many answers to this problem. Christians were debating because it was about nothing less than the unity of the church itself.

Officially the dispute ended a the Council of Chalcedon. The so called 'Two Natures Doctrine' was declared to be true. But not all supported this. Those churches who are today called 'oriental orthodox' still stated the thesis of the one person Jesus Christ who is God and man all in one. Those churches are the Copts in Egypt and Ethiopia, the Church of Antioch, the Syrian Orthodox Church and others in that region. (They will be mentioned in the prayers today.) The so called 'eastern orthodox' churches (the Greek and other eastern European churches) and the western churches (the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Churches) were with the two natures, they went with Chalcedon.

What does that mean for us today? The trouble I tried to explain is long ago. But it has to do with us. It may seem very abstract and far away from us. Who can someone – Jesus – have two natures? My scientific image of the universe does not allow such a view. It is not logical. In our world today there are no beings who have more than one nature at one time. Man is man, I may add woman is woman. But this is to easy.

The Two Natures Doctrine isn't meant to be a scientific explanation. It is the answer to a purely theological question without regards to biology and other sciences. The early Christians thought different from us, they had other parameters. But they knew – and we can know -, that it is about the relationship between us and Jesus.

Jesus is God. He can do miracles as we read in the Gospels. Healing, exorcisms and the others. He is one with the God who created the world and who calls us all into existence. But as true man he comes into his world, he has become one of us. He faces what it means to be a creature in this world. He experiences needs, hunger, thirst, emotions like fear, joy, anger, desperation. There are examples for this in the gospels. Today we heard the one about his urge to be alone.

He becomes one of us, he understands us from his own experience. After Jesus was in the world God had been there. More that before he knows how we are: our joy, our fear, all that. More than before we can understand him, too. We know what he felt during his days on earth. We can follow him because we know that it is possible. - All the time, from our birth to death, we can trust: God is close to us. Amen.

Copyright 2006, The Rev. Peter Stockmann