the Gospel of Mark: on the road with Jesus (19)

“Then”
Mark 6:30-46

1. St. Teresa of Avila lived from 1515-1582. She was a Carmelite nun, monastic reformer, mystic & writer. She wrote - Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

2. as we read through these gospel stories, as we live our lives, lets keep this before us – we are the personification of Jesus to our world.

the apostles gathered around Jesus (6:30)
1. the 12 report back to Jesus from their 1st mission – this is what we did; this is what we taught, here’s how it went. People repented, others were healed & some were freed from demons.

2. Jesus & the 12 are debriefing. Enjoying some down time together.

then (6:31)
1. then, Mark writes, then. Before they can sit back & enjoy what’s happened. Before they can rest. Before they can grab some dinner. Then. They are faced with something else.

2. many people crowding around them. Needy people wanting to hear their words & experience their power. Desperate people looking for help. Curious onlookers.

3. the 12 didn’t have any time to themselves. No time to rest or eat after an exhilarating & demanding mission. No time to pay attention to what their souls were trying to say to them. To what their bodies needed.

4. we have these then moments in our lives:
we sit down to relax, then the phone rings with a call for help
we haven’t even unpacked from vacation & then a neighbor knocks on our door with bad news
we just get our teenage son through 1 crisis & then we’re suddenly thrust into the next one
we just pay off our credit card & then the washer & dryer
both go out on the same day

quiet place (6:31-32)
1. (Jesus) said to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place & get some rest. Jesus is watching after his boys.

2. what they need is solitude. Getting away to be alone with God. Soul rest.

3. Jesus is good at this because it’s a pattern in his own life:
§ 1:12-13 = spent 40 days in wilderness
§ 1:35 = solitary place to pray
§ 3:7 = withdrew to lake
§ 3:13 = went up on a mountainside
§ Luke 5:16 = often withdrew to lonely places to pray
§ 6:12 = mountainside to pray & spent the night praying to God

4. solitude is soul rest. My soul finds rest in God alone (Psalm 62:1). Solitude is creating a space in your life where God can engage you.

5. what does the practice of solitude look like in your life?
6. the crowds foil Jesus’ retreat plans. When their boat landed at the designated solitary place it was run over with people. A large crowd met them.

7. happens to us, too. We make plans for a few hours of much-needed solitude and….someone or something foils our plans. How are we going to respond?

he had compassion on them (6:34)
1. Jesus is flexible. He’s thinking solitude, rest, quiet time for his boys. But he finds a large crowd.

2. he sees them not as an interruption BUT as real people with real lives, real needs & real fears. He sees a bunch of lost & needy sheep wandering around the lake shore without any shepherd to lead them.

3. he had compassion on them. Compassion is the Greek word for intestines. It came to mean feeling something very, very deep within you. Sometimes people use the phrase – it ripped my guts out. This is the idea here. Jesus’ compassion for these people was no shallow, superficial thing. His insides ached for them.

4. I wonder how many of us truly feel compassion these days. Compassion fatigue has crept into our lives. Living in the global world, internet-CNN news world that we do, we are hit with an endless barrage of tragic & terrible situations. There are days where we are unable to care any longer.

5. and that is tragic & terrible. Because compassion is a Christ-like characteristic.

6. some of you listen to the music of Steven Curtis Chapman. He & his wife have adopted 3 orphan babies from China. When they traveled to China to adopt their 1st orphan they were overwhelmed by beds of full of orphaned babies. In a book he co-wrote with Scotty Smith he writes, one bed at a time…that’s how we’ve got to think about the daunting challenge of caring for so many orphans. One bed at a time. Jesus is not expecting any of us to put our arms around the whole orphan crisis. But we can fill our arms & empty an orphanage, one bed at a time, one bed at a time. In our family that has led to 2 more empty beds in China.

7. 1 crowd at a time
1 well at a time
1 Food Pantry Saturday at a time
1 Habitat for Humanity house at a time
1 Dental Clinic in West Africa at a time
1 Aids victim at a time
1 starving family at a time
1 needy friend at a time
1 hurting neighbor at a time
1 written out check at a time
1 First Friday hour of prayer at a time
1 smile at a time
1 hug at a time
1 kind word at a time
1 mixed-up kid at a time
1 word or deed of witness at a time

8. do you have a “1 empty bed at a time” cause or passion or mission that God is calling you to? And are you going away with Jesus to drink in his compassion?

so he began teaching them many things (6:34)
1. compassion is followed by – (Jesus) began teaching them many things. We don’t often think of compassion fleshed out in teaching.

2. Jesus was a teacher. Truth mattered to Jesus. What people believed & thought & based their lives upon mattered supremely to Jesus.
3. Jesus’ main message was the Kingdom of God – The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent & believe the good news (1:15) – I think it’s safe to assume that he taught them about the Kingdom of God – the present in-breaking reign & rule of God personified in his life & in people like the 12.

you give them something to eat (6:35-36)
1. its getting late in the day. The 12 ask Jesus to send the crowd away so they can go eat.

2. and Jesus replies, You give them something to eat. Sometimes Jesus forces us to face our limitations, to do more than we think we can. The 12 didn’t have 8 months worth of wages between them to go buy over 5000 people dinner.

3. we can easily feel daunted by the great needs of our families, our church, our community, our world. In the face of need has Jesus ever said to you, You give them something to eat!
You teach that class
You take on that troubled kid
You become an elder
You start that ministry
You be an advocate for the homeless
You start The Canby Center

4. how many loaves do you have? Jesus asked them. What do you guys have to eat? They pooled together 5 loaves of bread & 2 fish for over 5000 people.

5. all Jesus expects of us is to take what we have, no matter how small, and ask God to bless our efforts & resources. Jesus says, give me what you’ve got & let me bless it.

6. we bring to God the 5 loaves & 2 fish of our lives – of our
leadership abilities
teaching skills
wavering love for our spouse
used-up love for our kids
trust in him for our dreams
strength to finish a work project
courage to confront a paralyzing problem

7. Healthy spiritual development includes a Christian imagination that believes God that all things are possible (Spiritual Formation Bible).

Bret Lott stories
1. Bret Lott is editor of the Southern Review & a professor of English at Louisiana State University. He writes novels, like Jewel, which was featured in Oprah’s Book Club. He’s a follower of Christ.

2. he went on a church missions trip to Moldova in eastern Europe with his wife & 2 teenage sons to run a bible camp. He was the camp activities director. They were planned for 140 children & brought supplies for 160. During the week they had upwards of 170 kids show up. They had more kids than what they had supplies for.

3. relay race. One day they ran a relay race. Each kid ran to a paper bag, put on a pair of garden gloves, reached into the bag to pull out a pack of gum, pulled a piece of gum from the pack with gloves on & ran back to tag the next person on his team.

4. as they got to the end of the relay race his son yelled to him, Dad, we’re going to run out of gum! Bret Lott hollered back, Pray! And then prayed himself that there would be enough gum for each kid. AND THERE WAS ENOUGH. God performed a miracle – he multiplied the gum.

5. T-shirts. On the last day there they tie-dyed T-shirts. They only had 140 shirts. They knew there were over 170 kids. The whole team prayed over the shirts AND stepped boldly into their tie-dyeing event. At the end of the day they had precisely enough T-shirts, 1 for each of the over 170 children.

6. Bret Lott’s concluding comments, Do I really believe that God reached out his hand to us and, as those 5000 people who’d gathered on the shore of the Sea of Galilee were given food from 5 loaves & 2 fish, gave us some extra gum & a big wad of T-shirts? Yes, I do. Count on it.

7. now as then, Jesus is where we look to find answers for our physical & spiritual needs.

8. what needs are staring you in the face today? What 5 loaves & 2 fish do you hold? Step out in faith & ask Jesus to bless your efforts & resources.

9. Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.