“Getting Ahead of Jesus”

Mark 6:30-34

July 23, 2006

Associate Pastor Doug Forsberg

  As I read our lesson from Mark this morning, you may have wondered why I stopped at the beginning of the story.  Mark 6:30-34 really serves as a prelude to the feeding of the 5,000.  These five verses tell us how Jesus, his disciples and this great multitude of people wound up in a deserted place without any food.  Most often these five verses are lumped together with the feeding of the 5,000 and that great miracle gets our attention while these opening verses are pushed to the side.

I have been puzzling over these verses for a few weeks, for they tell us something that is important about why we follow Jesus.  What really strikes me about this account is the fact that the crowds get to where Jesus is going with his disciples before Jesus does.  Scholars believe that Jesus and his disciples went about four miles over the water to this deserted place.  The crowd that wanted to be with Jesus would have had to walk 10 miles over difficult terrain.  What drove this crowd of over 5,000 men, women and children to make this journey and to get to their destination ahead of Jesus?  It seems to me that joy is the most plausible explanation.

C.S. Lewis, in his spiritual autobiography Surprised By Joy, writes, “I doubt whether anyone who has tasted [joy] would ever . . . exchange it for all the pleasures of the world.”  In the background of this whole prelude is a deep sense of joy.  Simply put, Jesus brings joy into our lives.  Those who follow him know his joy and their service is an expression of thanksgiving for that joy.  Those who do not yet follow Jesus are attracted to the joy he offers them, for they know in their hearts that such joy can be found nowhere else.

We get a sense of the joy Jesus shares with his disciples in the very first verse of this account.  In verse 30 we’re told that the apostles gathered around Jesus.  At the beginning of chapter six, Jesus had sent his disciples out on a missionary tour.  They preached repentance, cast out demons, and healed the sick.  In verse 30 they come back to tell Jesus of all their adventures.

I imagine that these disciples were bubbling over with excitement as each one tried to tell his story to Jesus.  No doubt their missionary tours involved hard labor and difficult opposition, but when they come to Jesus all of that melts into the background as they share with him the joy of working for his kingdom.  Each disciple wanted to share how the message of repentance was received.  They wanted to tell of their surprise when demons were cast out and the sick were healed.  Can you hear their joy?  It has not been that long since they were simply fishermen, tax collectors or zealots and now because of who Jesus is they are proclaiming the Good News to all the world.  Joy is welling up from within them, a joy they did not know until they followed Jesus.

This kind of joy continues to well up from within those who follow Jesus today.  I hope you were able to hear the report our high school students gave after their return from the Boston Project.  Did you hear their excitement?  Did you hear their wonder as they described what God is doing in Boston through this ministry?  Did you hear the joy that fills their hearts?  I hope you caught a glimpse of that contagious joy, a joy they found in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you’ve had an opportunity to serve in our soup kitchen ministry.  On the first Wednesday of every month volunteers gather to serve dinner to those in our area who are in need.  When you are involved in this ministry it seems as though the first Wednesday of the month comes around pretty quickly.  It is easy to simply go through the motions of getting ready for a dinner. 

Then our guests arrive.  In their faces we see Jesus Christ who had no place to call home and no regular table from which he ate.  Suddenly, our volunteers aren’t going through the motions anymore.  Our dining room becomes a flurry of activity and conversation as servers and guests engage one another in the simple ritual of a meal and discover again that each one is a human being.  Permeating this whole atmosphere is joy.  Joy is what brings both our volunteers and guests back to the soup kitchen.  Yes, food is involved, but both our volunteers and guests are filled with much more than the lasagna we serve, for in this mission we give and receive the joy of the Lord.

Verse 31 reminds us that the joy of the Lord is attractive to people.  Jesus’ disciples can’t even get a bite to eat because people keep coming to Jesus.  People want what Jesus has to offer.  Jesus offers fullness and hope to those who are weary, desperate and broken.  Jesus draws needy people to himself.  Needy people don’t wait for others to finish eating before interrupting.  Needy people aren’t always polite or refined.  It is tempting to push needy people to the side until we remember that we are needy too.  We were once lost sheep and the Shepherd came looking for us out of love and concern.  We who know of such grace ought to be able to extend it to those who, in God’s eyes, happen to be as needy as we are.  Jesus attracts the needy because he came to save sinners not the righteous.  It is good for us to remember this because as we express the joy we know in Jesus, people will see him and want what we have.

Attending to the needs of others saps our strength, and even those who are most able to reach out and serve others, get tired.  The joy we know in Jesus causes us to serve him by serving the world, but none of us can serve without taking time to recharge.  Jesus knew this, and so we find that he calls his disciples to go away with him.  In verse 32 he calls them to leave these crowds they are serving and spend some time alone with him. 

Jesus himself gave the disciples an example of taking time to recharge.  Soon after he met them and began performing all kinds of miracles, he disappeared one morning.  No could find him.  They looked for him and found him in a solitary place where he had been praying.  If Jesus needed to recharge his spiritual batteries, then we know that we will need to do so too.  Just as Jesus invites his disciples away with him in this passage, he invites us to be with him too.

That is one of the special gifts of being a member of Christ’s Kingdom.  We don’t always have to be out doing.  We are also invited to rest and simply be.  As we take time alone with the Lord, our joy is increased as we understand the overflowing nature of his love.  Do you see the design in this prologue?  Jesus sends his disciples out in service and then calls them to be alone with him. 

The design should be the same in our lives.  If you’re wondering how you can fit such practice into your harried life, let me suggest that you continue to come here each Sunday morning to worship with God’s people, for in worship we are reminded of the joy the people of God have, and we are called into continued service in Christ’s name.  Let me also suggest that you be faithful about keeping the Sabbath.  Keeping the Sabbath does not mean that you sit around twiddling your thumbs for a whole day.  Instead, it means that you rest from those things at which you labor throughout the week.  Leave them to God and be refreshed by his presence in your life.

I love it that the crowd that Jesus and his disciples were seeking to get away from beat them to their destination.  We aren’t told how the disciples feel about this, but I know how I’d feel if some crowd interrupted my special time with Jesus.  The reality is that we shouldn’t be too surprised that the crowd got to this spot ahead of Jesus.  This crowd wants what Jesus has.  They’ve seen what he’s done in the lives of his disciples, they’ve seen him heal others; and they know they need him, so they take off and seek him out.  Once people have had a taste of Jesus, they don’t want to be without him.

One of the reasons we offer a Vacation bible School each year is to reach out to families who do not know Christ so that they might get a taste of what it means to follow him.  Most who catch a glimpse of Jesus will want more of him, and at VBS we seek to live out our faith so that both children and their parents will see the joy of the Lord.  In the end, VBS isn’t so much about us as it is about Christ.

Another way in which we seek to share a glimpse of Jesus with others is through our small group ministry.  In small groups people who would never step foot into a church are invited into a relationship with Jesus.  In small groups those who find it difficult to find a place among 300 people can be known by eight to ten people.  Each member of these groups is enabled to see Christ in one another and to see him is to want him more.

Think about the people who are a part of your life.  I would imagine that there are many who do not know Jesus.  How might you share the joy you’ve found in Jesus with them?  How might you be a part of offering a glimpse of Christ to them?  Imagine how it will feel to see others running to get ahead of Jesus because they want what he has to offer.

The final verse of this prelude is reassuring to all those who are running to get ahead of Jesus.  When Jesus sees this crowd that has beat him to his destination, he has compassion on them.  He could have been annoyed with their wearying demands.  Instead, he puts aside what had been planned to spend time with this crowd.  When people run after Jesus, he won’t let them down.

I know that within this congregation there are many who can testify to this fact.  Some of us found the compassion of Christ when we finally reached the rock bottom of life.  Others found his compassion after turning their backs on him for a time only to sense his deep love and forgiveness.  Others found his compassion in the ordinary day to day routine of their lives.  Still others found his compassion after making a complete mess of their lives and the lives of those they loved, and still others found his compassion after experiencing the scorn and rejection of those who had been closest to them.  Jesus had compassion for the crowd, he has compassion for you, and he has compassion for me.

Notice that Jesus’ compassion leads him to teach the crowd, and we know that out of his teaching comes new life, a life no longer tied to a past that seeks to strangle us or rejection that haunts us.  When we accept the teachings of Christ and the life he offers to us, we are a new creation, the old has past and the new has come.  In this new life we know the joy of the Lord and we seek to serve the world because of the joy that has been born in our hearts.

Joy is at the heart of this prologue to the feeding of the 5,000.  Joy draws people to Jesus.  Joy sends those who have been drawn to him out into the world, drawing in others who desperately want what Jesus has to offer.

Go forth in joyful service dear friends.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.