It’s hard to take a break. Right now, many of us are grateful to have jobs, and if vacation time seems short and difficult to arrange even if we have the time coming, we may be willing to accept it. But as the gift of the Sabbath clearly indicates, rest is something God wishes for everyone, and longer rests periods also seem to be part of the divine intent.
In the beginning of our text this week, Mark 6:30-34, 53-56, we find the disciples in verse 30 to tell Jesus all about what they had accomplished during the mission He sent them on earlier in verse 7 to 13. Jesus’ response to their reports in verse 32 is worth pondering.
First, however, think about how a contemporary business manager or supervisor might respond to employees who bring a successful report of sales, production, contracts written or whatever. Wouldn’t we expect a typical pep talk to go something like, “Great work! Now go out there and do it again and see if you can add 5 or 10 percent to your productivity the next time around.”
Most of us would be stunned to have an employer who responded to our good work like Jesus did. Instead of asking His followers to get right back out there and see if they couldn’t do even better, cast out a few more demons, hit a few more towns on the next journey, Jesus said, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.”
There was still plenty to do. That is made abundantly clear by what follows in our text. The needs were overwhelming and the people would not let Jesus and His followers alone. Despite that, Jesus saw the need for His disciples to take a break, to rest even from doing the most important work of all.
Even Jesus Himself needed rest, time away from the crowds, as we see from other Gospel texts. However, in this passage, He Himself takes no break, but instead serves as Shepherd to both the disciples and the masses of people in need. Our text skips the feeding of the 5,000 because the lectionary jumps out of Mark to linger on that miracle in John’s longer account for five weeks. But Jesus is providing sustenance, healing and rest to all those around Him.
We’re the sheep, not the Shepherd. We need to remember that and to accept the rest that He wants to give us as part of His grace. Let’s ask ourselves this week how we may better and more willingly accept from our Lord the precious gift of a rest break like He offered those first disciples.