Weekly Meditation for July 19th

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Weekly Meditation
by Michael Desmond

Mark 6:30-34 (New International Version)

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went-into villages, towns or countryside-they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Mark tells us Jesus began teaching the large crowd many things. He doesn't tell us what Jesus taught - exactly. He does, however, relate Jesus' prescription to his busy disciples: "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

Jesus said this after listening to his apostles report to him all they had done and taught.

We can read this (the apostle's reporting) as a lesson meant for us. We tell ourselves to get busy, build the city of God and be quick about it! Report out and then get back to it. Maybe so. I do think there is another lesson for us in this as well. "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Perhaps this is part of the teaching Mark refers to but doesn't tell us about. Jesus often led by example. He often spent time away, sometimes all night. In that quiet place, he probably rested and prayed. Perhaps his rest was prayer? God spoke to him in the stillness. Jesus listened and learned because it was a quiet place. Then, he went back at it and spoke to the multitudes; fed them and generally shepherded them.

So also Jesus calls us in Psalm 23 to lay down in green pastures; to have a meal with him in front of our enemy (busyness?). Yeah, but who has green pastures let alone time to cook? For answers ask Katie Wotowa where her green pastures are, where the inspiration came for the stained glass she and Kathy Wallace have created for the chapel. (Her basement?) Ask Theresa O'Flynn where the inspiration for her music (or mosaic cross for Good Friday) came from. (Perhaps it happens simply when she closes her eyes and sings prayerfully right in front of hundreds of us?) Are these examples of the quiet places Jesus is telling us to go to? As we rest in those places he will speak to us, shepherd us, feed us. We can then go out and get back to building the city of God, knowing we have just been in prayer with Jesus and have been given the strength and energy and direction we need.