It has been a full week. Jesus has been teaching and
healing, pursued by crowds everywhere he goes. The disciples have just returned
from a very successful healing tour.
Now John has been beheaded.
This small band of friends does what anybody would do in
these circumstances. They carve out some time to rest, recuperate, process, and
decompress. They climb into a boat and head across the lake to a deserted area.
If there are no people, no one can disturb them.
The wind must have been still that day. The crowd watches
them get into the boat, sees where they are headed, rushes around the edge of lake,
and gets there faster than the boat can carry its passengers across the water.
That deserted place is suddenly populated. Rather than tell the
crowd to get lost, Jesus has compassion for their desperation to be near him.
He sympathizes with their frenetic desire to squeeze every ounce of teaching
and power out of him, even when he has nothing left to give. He pushes the boat
back out into the water, pushes his own needs aside, and begins to teach those
gathered on the shore.
He teaches through the day and into early evening, until his
disciples notice that people are hungry.
Jesus tells them to give the people something to eat. They say they
don’t have enough money.
What follows defies any description. An abundance of food,
enough to feed five thousand people with plenty to spare, appears from the
humble supper of thirteen men. Two fish and five loaves of bread, and everyone
present fed.
That’s the end of the story. Mark doesn’t give us any
reaction. The story ends without response, almost as if what has just taken
place is completely normal.
Text for the day:
Things to think
about:
When Jesus asks the disciples to feed the people, they
respond by talking about money. What relationship do money and ability have
with one another?
Things to do:
Consider the difference Jesus can make with the resources
you have at your disposal.
Jesus, use the things we have to feed your people.
