Come Away and Rest Awhile (July 21, 2024) Mark 6.30-34, 53-56

We live in busy times. We move at a frenetic pace between work, activities, meetings, sports and on and on. We have labor saving devices: computers, tablets and phones. These devices are supposed to make our lives easier, but they just add to the pace so that we find ourselves so busy that we sometimes don’t even know what to think or do. We can work from anywhere at any time. We can receive and reply to emails day and night. We can attend meetings day and night as well. Gary Chapman says in a song that 30 seconds in a microwave and his burrito is done, get his cup of instant coffee anytime he is on the run, get his news from a satellite anytime day or night. Technology that was designed to make our lives easier is making them more draining.

The phone is the most ubiquitous of items that we have today. I would say that 90% or higher of a those who are here today have a cell phone. I have one that is on my hip every day. It’s even there today (though I have it silenced). We can do anything we want on most phones: receive and send email, have a video chat, take pictures and videos, search the internet, watch cute cat videos, you name it and we probably have the capability to do it. They are a part of our lives. Once my mother got aggravated that I was looking at my phone and asked what we did before we had cell phones. My reply was that she worried about us until we called when we arrived at where we were traveling to. She was not amused.

Have you ever taken some time off from the phone? Or if not a phone break, maybe a break from some of the things on the phone like social media. For something that is supposed to bring us together more, social media can be a toxic wasteland that drives us apart more efficiently than a face-to-face argument. It allows us to be anonymous if we wish so that we can say what we want without facing the consequences of what we say. So, taking a break from some things on the phone from time to time would be a wise and sensible thing to do. Maybe I should try it.

Have you ever taken a break that was more than just getting off your phone? I am sure you have. All of us have gone on vacation. But even that is not taken seriously. Most people in the United States get two week’s worth of vacation time and many do not take even that much time. We would be better off, I believe, if we followed some nations in Europe who give four to six weeks and require that you take them. It has been found that when people take the time off, they are more relaxed, less stressed and therefore better workers. But even when we take vacations, we sometimes are on the clock. Again, we have our phones and our computers so that work can reach us at any time. What makes it so hard for us to take some time off and enjoy a break?

Jesus knew that taking some time off was good for the body and the soul. He is often seen as taking some time for himself during his ministry. He seems to have known that going full steam ahead all the time was a recipe for burnout. And so, he is taking a break in today’s text.

But Jesus is not the only one who needs to take a break. His disciples are in need of a break as well. If you remember, Jesus sent them out to preach the Good News and calling all to repent, to cast out demons, to anoint the sick and heal them. Now they have returned to tell Jesus all that happened, all that they had seen and done and taught. I am sure they were excited. They did things that showed them that they were given the authority to do what they did. They saw things that were probably mind blowing for them, common men, to be doing. Imagine a classroom where all the students are returning from a field trip and telling the teacher what they saw and did on the trip all at once. That would be akin to what Jesus is hearing.

And again, Jesus feels he needs a break. His friend, relative and colleague John the baptizer was dead, having been beheaded for telling truth to power. John Buchanan says this about what might have been going on: “The news must have shaken Jesus to his core. Whatever Jesus believed about his own future; John’s death surely must have reminded him of harsh reality. Challenging autocratic power can be deadly.”[1]So, Jesus was probably thinking that he needed some time to get away, to ponder his ministry, the implications of his teachings and the deeds of power he was doing. And so, he says to his disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”[2]

There is a reason that Jesus wants to get away to a deserted or uninhabited place. There are people all around: people looking for healing, people looking for a miracle, people looking for hope. It was such a crowd that Jesus and the disciples did not even have time to eat! So, Jesus and the disciples get into a boat and head to a place where they can have some peace and quiet, where they can rest awhile.

Only they do not get away that easily. The people see them put out in the boat and recognize them. Someone must have realized where they were going because the crowd follows on foot and meets them at the place where they were supposed to get some R&R. I can only imagine the disciples annoyance at this because they were probably looking forward to some time away from the work that they were doing. They also were probably looking forward to some time alone with Jesus. But that is not what they got. No, they got a crowd of needy people.

Jesus sees the crowd and has compassion on them. Now compassion is a slippery word in our society today. For most of us it means we have pity on someone. We have pity and then move on. But what does it really mean? Douglas John Hall says this about compassion: “…we need to consider the meaning of compassion. We might begin with the word itself. English, with its latinization of basic human experiences, obscures (for most of us) the picture behind this word. German is much more direct. The German word for compassion is Mitleid—quite literally, “with-suffering.” Of course, that is the literal meaning of “compassion” too, but most of us do not hear it. … You do not have compassion, really, unless you suffer with those to whom you refer. The precondition for compassion is unconditional solidarity with the ones for whom you feel it.”

Do you see what is happening here? In the Greek the term for compassion means emotions that come from the gut. One commentator says it was gut wrenching for Jesus to see the people. You know how we say we feel for people? For many that is an intellectual exercise. We “think” we know how people are feeling. But when we have compassion, we are feeling what they are feeling. We understand where they are coming from because we have been there ourselves. We have suffered what they have suffered, if not exactly the same, then enough to know that they are suffering. This is what Jesus is feeling here. He sees that the people are “like sheep without a shepherd”. He as a carpenter, one who works with his hands, knows what it is like to live hand to mouth, knows what it is to live at or below subsistence level. He knows how the people long for someone to come and deliver them from the rulers of the day. And here again an understanding of the Hebrew scriptures comes to fore.

In Numbers, the children of Israel are described as just this, sheep without a shepherd. Moses is going to be going away and Joshua is to be appointed as the one to lead them. In today’s readings from the Hebrew scriptures there are prophecies of a shepherd of the people. David and his house are to be appointed as shepherds for the people in 2 Samuel. The psalm for today is the 23rd which as we all know is about the role of the shepherd taking care of the sheep. In Jeremiah, new shepherds, ones who will not lead the people astray, are going to be appointed by God. These are in the mind of Jesus and Mark when the text says that Jesus had compassion on the people.

As Jesus is teaching, the disciples come and tell him to send the crowds away as it is getting dark, and they have no food to feed the crowd. Here is the best known of Jesus’ miracles, the feeding of the 5,000. Now I believe this story has been grossly undernamed. If one looks at the text one realizes that the 5,000 is only the number of men who were fed. What about the women and children that were most likely there? However many people were there, they are all fed to their hearts content, something they would never have been able to do on their own. Even with them eating all they wanted, exhibiting that there was a lot of food, there is little left over from the meal. We are so impressed with 12 baskets left over that we miss a point here. With food for over 5,000, there should be more than 12 baskets full. This miracle shows that God can provide for a vast crowd and have little waste. Truly a miracle of profound proportions.

After feeding the people, Jesus and has the disciples get in the boat and head for the next destination. Here is the miracle of walking on the water. Again, the disciples miss who Jesus is.

In the last section, we see Jesus having compassion still on those who come to him for healing. When Jesus gets out of the boat, it is like the sighting today of a rock or a movie star. People sprint off to tell others, “It’s Jesus, it’s really Jesus! Go get mom and bring her here now!” (imagine this scene today with everyone texting or calling people. The same kind of chaos would be palpable). And in the midst of this, Jesus is touching, being touched and all who do this, having the faith in the healing touch, are healed.

We want time to rest awhile. We are busy people and rest is a commodity that is in short supply. But have you ever pondered that coming to Jesus is what we need to have rest? Jesus tells us in Matthew that we are to take his yoke on us, and he will give us rest. Sometimes things get so busy that we miss the fact that we are to serve Jesus. And when we do serve him, sometimes we are so busy that we miss that we are serving him.

What does it mean that the people were without a shepherd to lead them? They were looking for a leader who would not oppress them or lord their power over them. They were looking for a shepherd who would lead them, as Psalm 23 says, to green pastures and waters where we can rest. We are like sheep today. We rush here and there and everywhere wondering how we got so busy and what we can do to slow down and take a rest. We need a leader who will take us under their arm and lead us to rest. William Placher writes that, “ We certainly need such political and ecclesial shepherds today, when too many of us pursue immediate, selfish concerns even as we demand that selfishness come to an end. We need leaders who will not pander to what we think we want but will have the vision and eloquence to lead us to the place where we find what we truly need.”[3]I hope that I can be a leader who will not tell you what you want to hear but will lead to where and what we truly need. Let us call on our leaders, both political and in the church, to stop fanning our fears and look to the good of all people rather than the ones who will keep them in power. I know that I need that as well. We can find that in Jesus.

Rest for awhile. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? We are offered rest, but we are also called upon to show compassion and work with people where they are, not where we believe they should be. It is resting in Jesus that we find peace in the one who showed compassion to us, by coming down and being in the hurly burly of daily life, living under conditions that we have no clue about, so that he could have compassion for us. Amen.

[1] Green, Joel B.; Long, Thomas G.; Powery, Luke A.; Rigby, Cynthia L.; Sharp, Carolyn J. Connections: Year B, Volume 3: Season after Pentecost (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) (p. 177). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. [2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [3] Placher, William C. Mark. Ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010. Print. Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible.