Life Interrupted

Scripture: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

You’ve heard the saying, “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Let’s just say – life happened a lot for Jesus. None of his vacation plans ever seemed to work out quite the way he intended. He tries to go out into the desert wilderness for a little R&R… the crowds follow him. He tries to take a nice little cruise across the lake… they’re waiting for him on the other side. He couldn’t even go have dinner at one of his disciple’s houses without having to cure an ailing mother-in-law.

If only shutting out the world’s problems for a day were as easy as turning off his i-phone or saying “Sorry, you don’t have an appointment.” Human hurt doesn’t seem to ever give consideration to date-books and office hours. And have you ever noticed, it’s never just one thing at a time? Always seems to be a bunch of things that happen all at once. The weight of your own problems intermingled with other people’s sometimes just seems too much to handle.

Such is the life of one called and sent by God into a hurting and desperate world. For the great shepherd can’t turn his back on His needy and aimless flock, these “sheep without a shepherd.”

People who had spent their lives chasing after every leaf, needing direction, trying to find themselves and their purpose in life.

Maybe not too different from many of our lives today. There are a lot of voices, a lot of people rising up to be our leaders and shepherds. In the story that precedes this one, we hear about the story between Herod Antipas and John the Baptist. Herod is hosting a large banquet that feeds the leaders of Galilee. Essentially a state dinner of sorts. In the midst of this he makes a stupid promise to his wife’s daughter and fearing what his family and the other leaders might think of him if he doesn’t follow through, he orders John the Baptist beheaded.

As far as shepherds and leaders go – Herod probably wasn’t one of your better role models. Hence Jesus’ comment – the people of Galilee are “sheep without a shepherd.” A common statement used throughout the Old Testament to describe the people who lived under abusive shepherds or kings who no longer cared for their sheep. As our Old Testament scripture for today stated, “it is you who have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.”

For a shepherd to not care for his sheep means to let them starve, wander around aimlessly with no direction, no clear voice to follow, no protection.

Jesus on the other hand shows up and does what their leader has failed to do. He feeds the people – with his teachings and with actual food. Providing them with both spiritual and literal bread from heaven. The lectionary opted to omit the feeding of the multitude portion of the story for now as it will come up again in another week or so, but the distinction Mark’s gospel is drawing between the differences between Herod and Jesus are clear.

Herod feeds the leaders. Jesus feeds the people.

Herod gives into fear and pressure and kills a man. Jesus shows compassion.

The pressures Jesus gave into were the pressures of human suffering he saw all around him. Herod causes human suffering and death.

He delayed his time of respite in order to meet the needs of these people who so desperately need some direction and care. Who desperately need compassion. A people who feel forgotten and ignored by their leaders. 

People who sought Jesus and his disciples out – their hopes pinned on this man that he could somehow make their lives better. Listen to his teachings, hear his words of promise and hope, to be cured of what ailed them. 

Jesus’ life is a life interrupted. Interrupted by the happenings of pain and suffering that for many is their daily reality.

Many of us today know what this is like – you’re going along, just doing your regular day to day things, have all sorts of things planned out, and then… something happens. You get that phone call in the middle of the night. You’re in a car accident. Any number of things…Illness. Financial worries. A devastating storm. Death. These things intrude upon and interrupt our lives. Sometimes momentarily, sometimes forever.

For most of us, the shooting at the Colorado theater was enough for us to pause in the midst of our day and go, “How awful!” Utter a few statements about what this world is coming to, then continue on with our lives.

For those living in Aurora, Colorado, the interruption is a bit more severe. Lives have been forever changed – some lives cut unexpectedly short. Doctors, nurses, policemen, pastors – all getting those calls in the middle of the night that there’s been a tragedy and a lot of people desperately need their care and help. It brings up a lot of unwanted memories for us as well – remembering the Von Maur shooting in Omaha not all that long ago.

The problem we face is that with so much tragedy, unless it’s our own immediate suffering we are needing to deal with, we begin to suffer from what psychologists call “compassion fatigue.”

For most people, life will, if it hasn’t already, resume its normal rhythm. The interruption was a blip – on to the next tragedy that will soon captivate our headlines and 24-hour news networks.

This compassion fatigue is what the disciples suffered from. The last time we saw the apostles, they were being sent out two by two, official emissaries of the Lord. They went from town to town and village to village teaching and healing. They were exhausted, weary and tired. To add to their problems, the elevated trouble of Jesus’ ministry with John’s beheading has also become a stressing concern.

What blessed relief to hear Jesus say, “come away and rest a while. Come away to a deserted place, all by yourselves.” You can almost hear the sighs of relief.

Problem is – escaping the needy crowds isn’t so easy. They try to get away – and the crowds, having heard about them, show up. While the disciples were probably at the point where they just wanted to send them all away, let them get their rest and relaxation in – Jesus has compassion upon them.

So he stops, takes the time to teach them then orders his apostles to feed them, despite the fact that the exhausted apostles were urging Jesus to send them away and let them find food for themselves. They needed their R&R.

But for Jesus, there is no rest until he has finished attending to the needs of these lost sheep. He couldn’t turn his back. He couldn’t walk away. He couldn’t say, “I’m sorry, I’ve just dealt with too many things, I need my time off, come back tomorrow.” He stopped and he dealt with it.

Just another example of how we’re not God incarnate. Jesus doesn’t suffer from compassion fatigue. Yes, he’s tired, and eventually he gets a little time away, a few hours during the night where he is able to find solitude on the mountainside and pray.

But what about the apostles? There is the suggestion that he did the teaching and work that day he fed the 5000 by himself so his apostles could get their much-needed respite until they returned at dinner time. But we’ll cover that story in another week or two.

It suggests to us something very important – the idea that God not only knows our need to get away from things for a while, but says, “Don’t worry – I’ll handle this for a bit. You don’t have to do it alone.” God’s work continues even while we rest.

So we have something of a double lesson going on here. The first is that along with the abundance of grace that is showered upon us comes a responsibility to our fellow human being. A responsibility that doesn’t recognize schedules or calendars. It reminds us that becoming a committed Christian means your life is no longer your own. It means your private time being interrupted and intruded upon. That when we surrender ourselves to the gospel, however and whenever it calls, we respond whether it’s convenient or not.

The second is the acknowledgement and need for rest. While we’ve been empowered to do the work of the gospel, sent into the world as God’s emissaries of compassion – it is a reminder that we can’t do everything forever. Will vacations get interrupted? Yes. But we still need time to rest and rejuvenate – and let God be the shepherd – and sometimes let him take care of things for a while.