Even The Best Laid Plans Are Subject To Change

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ Amen. Our text for this morning's message, is the Gospel lesson read earlier.

Best laid plans. The best laid plans.

Thought that everything had been researched. Everything had been checked over twice. Everything was set in motion. And then, guess what? Something came up that changed the plan. Something came up that changed the plan.

We've all found our self there, haven't we? We may have planned a vacation and suddenly plans changed. We may have planned a large celebration and things changed. We may have simply just planned a simple day and something changed. Maybe it was a phone call that changed everything. Maybe it was the weather that changed things. Maybe the flight got canceled that you're planning on to get to your destination for the trip you planned out. You see, often times, we don't plan in the change that may occur into our plans, do we? And sometimes, the change is just beyond our control.

Like the past year with COVID that was beyond our control and it really changed an awful lot of plans. It changed plans for weddings. Suddenly they were postponed, pushed back. Or maybe they were moved to head simply just to get the marriage done and we'll celebrate later.

Funerals have changed, funeral plans have changed. And now maybe finally we're getting to where we can have a memorial for a loved one who passed away.

Even the best laid plans are subject to change.

If you look in the really, fine print on a restaurant menu - now beyond the "it's not good to eat undercooked eggs are undercooked meat," it may say "quantities subject to change." So you've got your mind set on ordering this meal, the order goes in, then the attendant, the waitress or waiter comes and says "I'm sorry to say we're all out of that." That little phrase covers it: subject to limitation.

In our text, a plan has been made, hasn't there? A plan has been made by Jesus and the disciples to go off to a desolate place by themselves to rest. The crowds have been pressing against them. Mark tells us such that there was so much coming and going that they didn't even have time to eat. They couldn't even eat. Now, that would make me a real stinker like, hey, I want some time and some space to eat something.

But the crowds they're pressing for who? To see Jesus, aren't they? The disciples just happen to be there, but they're not coming to see the disciples.

And I would imagine they're all looking forward to going off to this desolate place and being by themselves, having quiet, having rest, and probably have an opportunity to talk about what the disciples had experienced when they were off on their own, teaching and healing the sick.

I won't say it may have been probable. I'm going to say it is highly probable that those disciples had inflated egos about themselves and what they could do.

They may have forgotten that the reason they could teach so powerfully and heal the sick was because the power of God was with them. In fact, when we read other gospel accounts of the 12 coming back, they're pretty high on their horse. They're pretty high on themselves for what was accomplished. They're estatic.

And so, maybe Jesus just wants to let a little air out of their balloon in private.

So they're headed off. Let's go to a desolate place. There's a sister camp to our Camp Luther over in Minnesota. It's called Lutheran Island Camp, the theme for that camp is: come away to a quiet place and rest. A quiet place. It is kind of hard to find. So "desolate place" probably would have fit, but nobody wants to go to a desolate place, really, do they? Unless they've had enough of family friends, everything, and they don't want anybody around. So, they're headed in the boat to this desolate place. Now, the desolate place is not named, is it? It's not like Jesus saying, "Well, come on fellas. Let's get on the boat and head up to Rusty's Backwater."

You know where that is, I can tell by the reaction. But they get in the boat and they're headed to this place, and we're told by Mark that the people saw them getting in the boat headed to a desolate place, and they ran on foot and got there ahead of time. Now, I know that if you got on foot and ran, you would not make it to Rusty's Backwater before the boat did. And I don't know how these people knew where the desolate place was cuz I'm sure there was more than one desolate place along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

But anyways, the people get there, and we don't hear anything more about the disciples other than they were excited about what they had done, and Jesus said let's go off to a quiet place. We don't hear anything more about the disciples, but the boat gets there and they get there. And what do they see? That crowd of people! Now, when we go to the end of the text and we see that they fed over 5,000 men, not including women and children, that's an awful big crowd.

That's like Witter Field-sized size crowd, well, maybe not quite, but if the whole stands of Witter Field were filled, that's a lot of people. We're not just talking like, 10s or 20s of people - we're thousands of people there. I guess if you like Hodag or Country Fest or anything else. And there they are staring Jesus in the face as He's looking out the boat. We're here! What took you guys so long?

And we're told by Mark that Jesus looked at them and He had compassion on them. He wasn't like geeze, this was really great, Dad, hoping for a little vacation time, a little quiet time with the disciples. Why don't you all move on back and I'll see you in another day or so.

No, that's not Jesus' reaction. Jesus' reaction is He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. In our Old Testament reading, God says, you know, that the shepherds, he said, over his sheep have abused them have neglected them have driven them away, These people are lost and they're needy and they're hurting. And Jesus has compassion on them so He begins teaching them. Now notice, we haven't heard a word yet from the disciples.

So Jesus is teaching them, and Mark doesn't tell us the time, the duration, but now we hear from the disciples, it's getting late and this is a desolate place. Send the people away to the other countryside, so that they might find food for themselves.

It's kind of like in the balloons above their head, if you had balloons that suggested what they were really saying, it might say something like this: They've eaten up enough of our time with you, Lord. Send them away to get food. And while they're off, scrounging for food, we'll hop in the boat, and we'll go over to another desolate place, so we can be alone with you.

Do you think that might be a possibility, or am I just embellishing the story a little bit? Granted, I am embellishing it a little bit.

But if you were one of those disciples, and Jesus had promised you time away with Him, even though it's a small amount of time, to a quiet place to rest, and you see this massive crowd of people, you know right away that the plans have been shot, don't you?

And the truth of the matter is, when plans don't work out the way we want them to, we do get upset, we do get frustrated. We do get angry.

And we may even lose trust in any plan that that individual might set forth going forward.

But Jesus' response, both to the crowd when he sees them and His response to the disciples are telling. He has compassion on the crowd.

Remember that the disciples, they've just come back from being off on their own, and they've done marvelous things. They've powerfully taught, they've healed the sick. Other accounts say that they drove out demons. Marvelous things. And I'm guessing that they were thinking, hey, we did this all on our own, cuz that's our sinful nature. Hey, I did this all on my own. Boy, I really preached a good sermon all on my own. Yeah, right, like that happens. They were forgetting that God was the source of what they had accomplished. And so, Jesus, I mean, yeah, there's probably some frustration in their voices. But Jesus, instead of saying, yeah go buy 200 denari-worth of bread, or sending them away, He says feed them! They think in the box. They think okay, we got 200 denari, let's buy bread. But elsewhere, we're told that wouldn't be enough to give everybody just a taste. A crumb.

Jesus knows differently. He says to the disciples: How many loaves do you have?

It was important for us, because we make plans as individuals, we make plans as congregations and church bodies.

And we sometimes like to stay in the box and it's like we can't possibly do that, but God knows differently. He knows we already have what's needed to accomplish His purpose.

Jesus already knew there would be five loaves there, but the disciples, they're thinking nobody's got anything, so they find five and they tell Jesus "We have five loaves and we have two fish."

And again, what is that among so many people? Jesus takes them, looks to heaven, gives the blessing. Probably not "Come, Lord Jesus Be Our Guest" but the Old Testament blessing that would be spoken at meal time that God is the source of all of our need and giving thanks to that, and distributes it.

Twelve basket-fulls at the end. Twelve baskets-full of leftovers and they're overflowing baskets: one for each of the disciples.

What happened there is that Jesus was teaching the disciples some important lesson.

He wanted them to understand that the great things that they were talking about weren't done by them alone.

He demonstrates this by asking them to feed these 5,000 people and they realize, hey, we can't do this on our own. But Jesus is also teaching them if you'd only look to the power that enables you to do these things that you're bragging about and realize that they were from God, then you also would have realized that even with those five loaves, God can feed these many people.

In higher education, they probably would have called that Jesus' Capstone project for the 12. Okay, you've been out on your own. You brought all the stuff together. Now let's put it together in a meaningful way. And they failed. They failed.

The crowd got there ahead of Jesus and the disciples because that was God's plan. Jesus had compassion on those people because that was His plan. That's God's plan to have compassion on us.

His plan was to provide for the needs of the people but then also to provide knowledge to the disciples that hey, none of us does this on our own. God is the power behind these miracles and this teaching. And this compassion.

And then also to give wisdom to you and I, that the plans that you and I make in this world, there's no guarantee that they will in many cases, see the light of day. For many, they're just a plan.

Maybe you planned out what your life was going to be like.

Maybe you thought, someday all I want to do for my life is mow lawn. And you're like, 10 years old at the time.

And so you become lawn mower you have a landscaping business, and you realize, hey, this is more hard work than I thought. I wasn't expecting on maintenance on the mower and having to buy fuel and customers other than Mom and Dad, and Grandpa and Grandma, who aren't as accommodating as Mom and Dad, and Grandpa, and Grandma.

Or maybe you are sitting back and it's like, you know, nothing that I planned for my life ever came to fruition. But you know what? I really had a good life. I'm happy with the direction it took. I'm happy where God led me.

And most especially that that plan included my coming to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as my Savior.

And the plans that He's built for me in His son, Jesus Christ. My parents were good, they never really planned anything out for my brothers and I as far as what life was going to be. You know, what direction we were supposed to go in life. They didn't even plan out like you're going to join the little league and this and that and all those things. They allowed us to choose for ourself what we wanted to be involved in and where we wanted to go. God also gives us a certain amount of choice. But once He has chosen us to be His children, He's locked us in that He wants us to enjoy Eternal Life. He doesn't want us to follow away from it. He doesn't want us to turn our back on the promises God's given to us in His son, Jesus Christ. He doesn't want us to go backwards to being those who were without God. As Paul indicates an our Epistle Lesson.

God's plans will always see the light of day. In His timing. He planned, before the foundation of the world, before anything was created, He had planned that we would be able to stand before Him righteous and holy and blameless.

Now, that got shot when Adam and Eve disobeyed, but the plan already was in place, they're not going to obey, they're going to disobey, and I've got this plan that, through my Son, they will stand before me righteous and holy and blameless like I intended for them.

And when the time was, right, that plan came into view.

The Son came, was born, lived, suffered, died, was buried, rose again. Now, part of that plan still has to come to fruition: that is His return. But we believe that that plan will come to completion in God's time. In God's time.

There are no guarantees of any plan planned by human beings. In fact, the scripture is quite clear. In Proverbs, it says man, plans, his paths. And then it goes on: But God gives them success.

Now, that doesn't mean that everything we plan with God's guidance and direction will have His blessing or come to fruition. We may plan something that is contrary to what His plan is for us.

One of the hardest things, I think, for people to deal with is when they're reading those obituary pages, and I read them too, because I want to see just like you if your name is in it. I'm not anticipating mine being in there. And if it is, I'm not going to see it. But we see, you know, so-and-so passed away suddenly unexpectedly. And they were just going to retire. Or maybe they had just retired. Or maybe they're at their retirement party, and they died suddenly and unexpectedly. And all those plans don't come into realization.

Then we sit there, we look at that, and we say to ourselves or to anybody that's in the room: Isn't that too bad? They died before their retirement could be realized.

And yet, as a believer in Christ, what they're realizing is far better than the retirement they had planned for themselves, isn't it?

So, as we go through life and we realize that the best laid plans are subject to change, we can find comfort that the plans of God are not subject to change, because He changes not. And throughout human history, He has brought His plan for your salvation, my salvation, the salvation of the world, to fulfillment and will continue to bring that good work that He began in us to its completion in the day when our Lord Jesus returns. And may He then, keep your heart and your mind in that piece that is beyond our understanding unto eternal life in Christ Jesus, Amen.