Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Reading Mark 6, the entire chapter, we see what looks like a test is really the lesson. But if we know a test is coming, most of us will study for the test. But the tests we pass or fail in life come unannounced. Either we were paying attention in class or we were wishing we were somewhere else.
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Genesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
Two scenarios of having compassion on others are presented here. The first one we are just catching the tail end of that began earlier in the chapter. Jesus sent the apostles out on a mission to go from town to town and teach and heal and cast out demons. He told them to travel light. So light that they would need others to feed and shelter them. They had time to prepare themselves for this mission. They were being commissioned by Jesus, God himself, to go care for the sick and poor and destitute. One could interject that Jesus perhaps was testing them to see what they’ve learned and how they might do on their own.
But then what happens maybe a second testing. This second scenario is being thrust upon them. It seems as if God is trying to give them rest and these people are intruding on their down time. They just got done caring for others and now it was their time. It would be easy to understand if they took the attitude that these people are just going to have to wait.
Both scenarios, God is presenting himself to them. Both scenarios God is commissioning them. Both scenarios God is with them. It just seems like the first one is God ordained. And the second one seems like an interruption. Unplanned. Others being a pest.
Mark mentions that Jesus, “had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”. Jesus taught not only the crowds but his disciples that day, and us today. Sure this was an interruption to their downtime. I’m sure they all felt a bit of annoyance raise their pulse as they saw this ignorant crowd thinking only of themselves and their needs. But that is once again, something that comes naturally to us but is the wrong thing to act on. No one has to teach us to feel that way. That comes naturally to everyone.
Jesus does however teach us to feel something different. Jesus teaches us to feel compassion. To see beyond the inconvenience of the situation and see the humanity that presents itself. The flesh and blood raw neediness of loving our neighbor. Loving our neighbor is never easy. But it is far easier when it is on our timetable and when it is reciprocal. Jesus first sent them out with nothing but the need to rely on the very people they were serving. It wasn’t costing them anything but their time and energy. Those they were giving to were giving back to them. It is easy to be generous towards those who are giving to us and meeting our needs. But now everything that is hard about loving our neighbor is present in this second scenario. Their neighbor has shown up with needs and they were wanting to be alone.
So when this situation presents itself, they are called to take care of the needs of others when they were looking forward to some much needed rest. Perhaps they could look and see these people not just as needy and not just as an interruption, but they could see them as the very people who just opened their homes to them and fed them. Possibly they could see in them who they just were to the people who fed them and welcome them into their home. They had just been through living out a scenario where they were the ones who were needy, and they were interrupting someone’s day, and they were the recipients of someone’s compassion and kindness. A compassion shaped by their devotion to God. So in this scenario, they know what it feels like to need someone to have compassion on them and to understand them.
What have they learned while teaching others? Is their test? Maybe everything in life is to teach us how to love better. The test of our Christianity is always going to show up in the form of the uninvited neighbor with needs. The point is that it is a test I can’t study for and I won’t see coming. And at the end of the day, the only question on the test is: How did I do loving my neighbor today?
