Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. 31 Many people were coming and going, so there was no time to eat. He said to the apostles, “ Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while. ” 32 They departed in a boat by themselves for a deserted place.
33 Many people saw them leaving and recognized them, so they ran ahead from all the cities and arrived before them. 34 When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.
53 When Jesus and his disciples had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret, anchored the boat, 54 and came ashore. People immediately recognized Jesus 55 and ran around that whole region bringing sick people on their mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went—villages, cities, or farming communities—they would place the sick in the marketplaces and beg him to allow them to touch even the hem of his clothing. Everyone who touched him was healed.
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
LORD , my rock and my redeemer.
It’s during the reigns of the first kings of Israel that the nation establishes itself as a nation. It’s one thing to conquer an area and claim it as your own. Colonists did that within a hundred or so years of first landing in the New World (well, as long as you discount the Leif Erikson episode). It’s another thing to decide that you deserve the same luxuries and comforts that your neighbors have. Like a king. A capital. A temple.
The most popular interpretation we hear about God not allowing David to build the Temple involves God reacting to the Bathsheba episode, but I’m not sure that’s what’s going on here. I have a certain sense that it’s more complicated than that.
I read Ezekiel later, with the creatures spinning on wheels and floating with wings wherever the breath of God leads them, and I realize that God can’t be contained in a box. A tent, a tabernacle is much more fitting for a moving, living God.
I read the history of Israel to this point and I see God trying and trying to slow the people down, to help them depend upon YHWH alone, and I wonder if establishing a Temple isn’t just a step away from God rather than a declaration of God’s presence with Israel.
I read David’s character, impetuous and reactionary, and I wonder if God isn’t saying, “Listen, man, just chill and get your head together right now. You’re overreacting just a bit.”
And I read God’s love of David, particularly juxtaposed with our gospel reading, and I wonder if God isn’t just saying, “You know, this isn’t about what you can do for me. This is about what I want to do for you.”
I know that a lot of us know how to run ourselves ragged. Some of us find our identity in doing so. “I wouldn’t know what to do if I stopped working.” “I’d feel lazy if I wasn’t constantly on the go.”
We quote things to ourselves like “God helps those who help themselves,” which is Benjamin Franklin, not the Bible.
In fact, Biblical teaching is quite the opposite.
We’re really good at claiming to uphold the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, but we’re really bad at actually doing so. Remember, one of the ten is to sabbath.
So what is sabbath?
We use the word sometimes as a noun and sometimes as a verb. Sometimes sabbath is a particular day, most popularly Sunday, even though the Jewish sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. But sometimes sabbath is something we do.
I want to focus on that, because I think the practical application of sabbath as a verb is more meaningful to us today, and because I think that’s what Jesus is aiming for when he talks and does things about sabbath.
Sabbath is rest. Sabbath is refreshing, not in the sense that a Coca-Cola is refreshing, but in the sense that having a date with your spouse while the kids are with a babysitter you trust is refreshing. It reminds you of an energy, of the source of an energy that can be very easy to lose track of.
That is why we sabbath. We sabbath to refresh our spirit. Because our spirit is not a self-generating energy source. We need to stay connected to the Source of our strength, and that’s not possible to do when we’re out doing ministry all the time.
Even Jesus couldn’t pull off self-generating spirit.
30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. 31 Many people were coming and going, so there was no time to eat. He said to the apostles, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” 32 They departed in a boat by themselves for a deserted place.
We need rest. We need to recharge. We need to reconnect.
Which is exactly what our culture tells us not to do.
If you need rest, you’re lazy.
If you need to slow down, you’re stupid.
If you need to take a break, don’t even bother coming back. We can find someone to replace you.
But God says, Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy; Don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow has enough troubles of its own; and God says to each of us, you are beloved, unique, priceless, irreplaceable. I love you.
Come and rest.
Unfortunately, sometimes the world and its cares and its need for Jesus beat at our door even when we’re trying to find rest. That’s what happens to Jesus in our story today. And Jesus doesn’t turn them away.
Because love trumps command.
But Jesus doesn’t stop trying to find time away. This is not the only time he takes the disciples aside and makes them take a breather.
Sometimes the world doesn’t want us to slow down. And that’s why it’s even more important to intentionally sabbath.
Forget what folk tell you about specific days. That’s not the point. What I want you to do, this week, is to make - not find, but make - a day apart when you can stop and sabbath. Find that thing that gets you close to God, that makes you aware of God breathing life into you. Commit a day to that. And do it next week, too. And the next. And the next. And see if God doesn’t have a miracle in store for you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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