The Gospel Of MarkSample

"Rest is important; give your weakness to Jesus, He’ll sustain you in service with His might and power"

One of the most familiar miracles is the huge picnic made possible when one little boy’s boxed lunch was miraculously multiplied after Jesus blessed it. Jesus was becoming known to more people, in part because of the work of the disciples.

So while the Twelve were sojourning all over Galilee without any material provisions for themselves, much less for the crowds of people approaching them for help, they received word that John the Baptist had been murdered. Imagine how quickly the air hissed out of their evangelical balloons leaving them sweaty, disillusioned, and deflated.

Surely most of their get-up-and-go had gotten up and left. They needed to come apart from the hustle and bustle of ministry before they came apart.

Do not miss Jesus making a priority of rest.

As is so often true in our modern day lives, the disciples’ respite didn’t last nearly long enough because the stillness implied by Mark 6:32 was rudely interrupted.

In light of the disciples’ state of exhaustion and the burden to deal with a needy crowd, their energy was in short supply. I understand why they encouraged Jesus to shoo the throngs away. These oh-so-human Christ-followers were understandably at the end of their emotional ropes.

Have you ever felt like Jesus was asking you for millions when you were having a hard time even scaring up a little spare change?

I have the tendency to run too long without refueling and run slap out of spiritual and emotional gas. I’m so glad Jesus didn’t reprimand the disciples for their exasperated protest about sending the crowds away. Instead He gently pushed them a little further than they were used to going with the question, “What do you have that we can work with?”

Just use what you have, and do the best you can. I think Jesus sent out the Twelve to learn that lesson.

The longer I run hard toward Jesus on this earth, the more I realize what sound advice that actually is. We endeavor to bring the best we have to bear when it comes to loving well. But we have to trust Him to provide the rest of what people around us need. We can’t forget that when Jesus blesses it, even the most meager hors d’oeuvres can feed a multitude.

The bottom line of this familiar story is: Our scarcity + faith in Jesus = more than enough.

To read more of The Gospel of Mark, visit www.LifeWay.com/GospelOfMark for teaching videos, further Bible study, and other resources from Lisa Harper.