July 19-23, 2010

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while” Mark 6:31

And after bidding them farewell, He departed to the mountain to pray. Mark 6:46

This week we continue to follow Jesus as He keeps His busy schedule. Traveling, teaching, healing, administrating were just a few of the duties on His job description. Finding time for rest and relaxation was nigh unto impossible. But Jesus understood the need for “down time,” which in Jesus’ case was “up time.” Jesus understood where His strength came from and made sure He got alone with His Father and refreshed Himself in the Spirit. If Jesus would have waited until the time was available, He would never have found time to seek His Father’s presence. The tyranny of the urgent would have been His continual driving force and burn out would have been the end result. It was not just the crowds Jesus needed occasional rest from; there were times He needed to get away from His best friends!

After a glorious, but taxing day, Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him to Bethsaida. As much as He enjoyed teaching and nurturing His followers, Jesus knew there were times He needed to concentrate on His own needs and not the needs of others. Knowing what His Father was saying and doing was crucial if He was going to say what the Father told Him to say and do what the Father told Him to do, and the only way of knowing that was to spend time with Him. When the storm arose on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night, and the disciples were struggling against the winds in an exhausting effort to get safely to the shore, we find Jesus observing their plight from His prayer mountain. There is something intriguing when Jesus set out across the water in the direction of the floundering boat. What was He doing? Was He going to their aid? Was He coming like a knight in shining armor to rescue them from the stormy villain that was fighting to take their lives? Wouldn’t that seem like the logical response? But as we continue to observe what is written, we discover that He had every intention on passing them by!!! PASS THEM BY?!?!? What kind of help is that?!? Obviously, Jesus was hoping to have a little more time to be alone with His father. On several occasions, the Word tells us that Jesus was either walking, or doing something as He was praying. He didn’t have to be in a kneeling position to commune with His Father. If He just passed close enough for them to see Him, perhaps they would remember all that He had been teaching them, and it would also jar their memories of the miracle they had just witnessed. But instead of encouraging their faith, it fired their fears, and their cries of despair carried over the waters to His attentive ear.

I wonder if we aren’t much like the disciples in the boat. We’ve seen the miracles, experienced Christ’s authority and power, and yet in times of crisis, our fear clouds our vision and we fail to walk in the power and authority of what we’ve learned. And instead of our walk becoming a natural walk of faith, knowing that Jesus has the authority over every situation we face, we flounder in panic and demand another miracle. Although Jesus was merciful enough to calm the seas - AGAIN - He knew that they had failed to learn the lesson from the bread He had supplied in the hour of the people’s need.

Jesus was truly the Teacher of teachers. When His followers failed to understand what He had taught them, He was kind enough to teach the lesson again. We have sat by the shore of the Sea of Galilee as Jesus broke five loaves of bread and two fish, and fed 5,000 men along with their wives and children. Had it escaped the disciples notice that there was twelve baskets of leftovers; just enough for each of them to have their own basket. Had they not seen that, although Jesus ministered to the needs of the crowds, they were the apple of His eye? Didn’t they understand that no matter what He did, He was committed to be there for them? But Jesus did to them what He does to us when we fail to learn the lesson; He taught it again. This time there were only 4,000 men with their wives and children, and there was seven loaves and a few small fish, but once again, there was more than enough. This time they had seven baskets of leftovers. Hmmm! Why were there only seven baskets left over this time? Five loaves + two fish = twelve baskets of leftovers. Seven loaves + a few small fish = seven baskets of leftovers. Do you think there might be a lesson in all this? No doubt there is!!! And the best thing each of us can do is to meditate and chew on the facts and let the Spirit teach us. Or are we like the disciples who failed to look for the eternal truths in the circumstances, and only saw them if someone bluntly pointed them out?

When the Pharisees could not discern the source of Jesus’ authority, Jesus “sighed deeply in His Spirit.” If you are a parent, you don’t need a whole lot of explanation as to what that kind of sigh it was. We parents have sighed that way many times! Usually the sigh is followed by the words, “Will they ever learn?” The Pharisees could discern the weather by the condition of the sky, but failed to discern the Messiah by the wind of the Spirit. As much as we are tempted to shake our heads in disbelief that they could be that hardheaded, we have to ask ourselves if we have learned from the experiences of our life. Have we observed the miracles He has accomplished and the provisions He has made, or do we tend to place little value on God’s “leftovers,” forgetting to savor the message that God is more than enough, as we carefully chew on each morsel? I wonder how often the deep sighs coming from His lips today are a result of our failures to discern His words by His Spirit. Be assured, the merciful Teacher loves us enough to teach the same lesson again, but don’t be surprised when He puts you through the same test to see if you learned it. Hopefully we will get tired of going around the same mountains, or crossing the same stormy seas and begin to appropriate His words.