Tasting the Gruel of Love

Let’s Be Realistic

Dr. Larry Thorson
October 11, 2009

Mark 6:30-44

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."

37 But he answered, "You give them something to eat."
They said to him, "That would take almost a year's wages. Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"

38 "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see."
When they found out, they said, "Five—and two fish."

39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Let’s be realistic, do miracles really happen today? A miracle is not the Angels getting past the Red Sox in the playoffs. A miracle is often defined as the suspension of the laws of nature. For example if I crawled along the sanctuary rafters and fell but the law of gravity was temporarily suspended I might float down to the floor instead of falling in a painful thud. That would be a miracle. A miracle is the suspension of the laws of nature.

Today we’re going to revisit once again that famous miracle of Jesus when the laws of nature were suspended and bread and fish were multiplied enough to feed at least 5,000 men. The background for that miracle in the Gospel of Mark is Jesus’ disciples having just returned from a mission trip. It was a great trip. They saw all kinds of people’s problems solved. The blind received their sight, the lame began walking, and evil spirits turned wicked criminals into saints. They had some of those incredible spiritual highs one can only get from ministering to other people.

We read in Mark 6 starting at verse 30…The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

Listen to what Jesus was saying “Come with me by yourselves…” or another way to say it is “Come with me for yourselves.” Come and get rest from the battle. Come and allow God to minister to you in the way that you’ve been ministering to others. “Come with me for yourselves.”

If you’re involved ministering in people’s lives, you know that it can be tiring. Broken families, abusive spouses, rampant drug addiction, lost jobs, lost homes, the diminished health of a loved one, lost loved ones and the list goes on everyday. That’s life and it’s hard. If you’re involved in ministering to this hurting world, you get tired, real tired like the disciples were.

Jesus knew they were getting hungry and tired. Mark says “Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat”. When you’re serving people who are hurting, you’re serving Jesus. Jesus knows that after awhile you’re going to get tired and sometimes calls you to “come with him for yourself, and not for anyone else. Caregivers have a hard time with that sometimes. But it’s true and this is a good example of that.

32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. The Guadalupe River in San Jose was my solitary place as a young Christian. Chino Hills State Park was my place as a new church development pastor. The wash in Seven Hills is my present solitary place. It’s that place where I can be quiet and allow God to minister to me. No new bad news. No new struggles. No new problems to have to worry about. Just quiet.

33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

But…like so many solitary places…they get discovered. When Martha and I were in seminary together at Fuller we lived in an apartment in a crowded downtown Pasadena neighborhood. We so desperately wanted to find a solitary place to be quiet. We went west and north and south but found nothing quiet. Finally the smog receded one day so that we could see the nearby mountains and headed up Lake Ave. into the Angeles National Forest. We thought we had found the perfect solitary place until a group of young people showed up with their boom box and beer cans. I did not think thoughts of compassion for them that day.

I think if I had been Jesus with my very tired disciples, I would have started yelling at the crowds who were coming for healing. “Get out of here right now!” “We need time to rest.” “I said go now!” “Hello, do you hear me?” “Go away.”

But it says “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Clearly, this is an example of how I am unfortunately not like Jesus. He had compassion on the sheep. But what about his hungry, tired, hard working disciples? Didn’t he also have compassion on them?

Listen to the tone in the voices of the disciples. They’re tired. They are not feeling any of that Jesus compassion. “Send the people away…” Do you hear the fatigue? Let them “buy themselves something to eat.” “Send them away.”

Let’s be realistic here. The disciples have worked hard and they’re hungry and tired. We all know that the needy are always, always, always there. No matter how many situations we help in a day, there are always five more to take their place, every day. There is never, ever a day when I go to work that there isn’t at least two or three new problems to deal with that day. That’s the reality of living in a fallen world. It doesn’t matter whether it’s upscale or low income. I’ve served in upscale Arlington, Virginia, Chino Hills and Plano, Texas and it’s the same there as it is here. We’re going to get tired ministering to problems. That’s human reality.

But Jesus doesn’t say “Yea, you’re right, I know you’re hungry and tired yourselves, I’ll send them away.” No. Instead

… he answered, "You give them something to eat." I know that some of you are really good in the kitchen and can whip up a banquet for 5000 or more people after a long day of work without batting an eye. But most of us would say to the boss “Ah…let’s be realistic.” They said to him, "That would take almost a year's wages. Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"

They were being kind. Here they were way out in Morongo or Mojave or some forsaken place like that. Do you know how far Wal-Mart is from there? This is supposed to be our retreat. We’re going to have to hike all the way back to town, find a secret stash of money, wake up some merchants because all the bakeries are going to be closed, find a wagon, load it with enough food to feed Jesus’ new multitude, pull it back all away around the Sea of Galille and then start serving it. That’s reality.

38 "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see." When they found out, they said, "Five—and two fish." Give me a break. After surveying the people all they can come up with is five loaves and two fish? That’s it? No one else bothered to even pack a snack? Is that how you travel?

That reminds of a time when we were going hiking up a mountain in Scotland. I thought we would stop for lunch first and then drive to the mountain where we’d hike because I didn’t have a very big breakfast that morning. When we got out of the car I looked up at the clouds because that’s where we were hiking to. I told my family I probably would have problems making it to the top because I was already hungry. Before we started up, I looked through the car for a package of crackers, cookies, stale pretzels, I didn’t care what it was as long as I could chew it but there was nothing. We got about half way up into the clouds and I ran out energy. The only thing we had with us was our water bottles and my wife had packed a little tube of strawberry protein powder to put in our water. She put that in our water and it gave me just enough energy to reach the top.

Ok, there went reality. What are the odds of five loaves and two fish feeding 5,000 men? Sit down with your pencil and paper and calculate the cost and the logistics of such a meal. It’s staggering. This was a seriously big miracle.

We always think this miracle was done for the sake of the five thousand. But that’s not who Jesus went out into the wilderness that night to minister to. Remember he took the disciples in the boat across the Sea of Galilee to give them some quiet and rest. Jesus didn’t have Attention Deficit Disorder where he was easily sidetracked from his tasks. He knew perfectly what he was doing and perfectly what the disciples needed.

Rather than seeing the multitude as messing up his plan to help the disciples get their needed rest he saw them as helping his disciples get what they most badly needed. The disciples had just returned from helping all these other people with their problems. God used them to heal their sick and set some of them free from demons. But who had ministered to them?

What they teach you in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is when you go to visit someone who is sick, pay careful attention to their caregiver as well. Everybody is always so concerned about the sick and they should be, but what about the person caring for them? Who’s caring for them?

That’s what Jesus wanted to do for his tired disciples. He wanted to give them something that they needed so badly, a dinner. But even more than dinner, I think he wanted to make a statement to them that he always, always would take care of them. Before he sent them out two by two in Mark 6:8-11 he said 8 These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."

In other words when you serve the Lord, the Lord takes care of you. That’s reality. Sometimes it’s through other people, but sometimes it’s through a miracle. Whatever it takes, Jesus knows what you need. So when you do a random act of kindness to someone like writing a card of appreciation, or picking up the phone and calling to see how someone is doing, or without being asked help someone else, you’re serving our Lord by doing that. When you serve our Lord, he always takes care of you.

Let’s be realistic, do miracles really happen? I believe they do but they happen to people who serve God by serving others.