Disciples Brought the Crowds and Jesus Delivered
[30] The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. [31] And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. [33] Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. [34] When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. Mark 6:30–34 ESV Read More
Jesus has finally hit ridiculous rock star status. Not only has He been going around preaching and healing and casting out demons, but His 12 disciples have just gone out in groups of 2 doing the same. The message of the kingdom is now reaching far and wide around northern Israel.
Jesus didn’t just tell the disciples to go out and tell about Him, He told them to take the whole message of the kingdom out. Since He proved through wisdom and miracles that He IS the king of that kingdom, everyone that believes is drawn to Him. Like when a great violin player says “my teacher is coming to town for a concert,” you drop everything to go see the teacher.
Ultimately, any message about spirituality, good or evil, ethics, or virtue that does not lead to Christ is a burden. He is the only one that empowers us to do truly good things. The disciples didn’t cast out demons because they knew how to recite the right words. They spent time with Jesus, learned from Him, and received power from Him. They didn’t have wise teaching about life because they were philosophers. They were fishermen, and mediocre ones at best!
Before they were sent out, they spent a lot of time with Jesus. As they went out, they prayed to the Father for help and they longed to return to give Jesus a report. In their teachings, they got to spend the whole day thinking and talking about what Jesus had taught them and what things He had done.
It’s no wonder that when they returned, everyone that was open wanted to be around Jesus!
Jesus, of course, is so awesome that He doesn’t retreat to get some peace and quiet for Himself. He really wants to give the disciples a break and hear about all that they saw. He wants to give them some rest because they’ve never done anything like this before.
The best rest for them turns out to be more teaching. Jesus tells them to chill out and He takes over teaching the large crowd. How great it would be to hear Jesus re-tell something that He taught you and then see somebody in the crowd wink at you because they heard it from you too. The crowd is like a homecoming and the fruit of the disciples’ labor all around the countryside.
Jesus’ compassion and love are amplified because of all of their exhaustion. He stays true to the message that the disciples have been preaching and continues to advance the Kingdom of God among the people. He said that whoever seeks will find, and to whoever knocks, the door will be opened. Here He stands by His promise to all of the people that run or read to seek to learn from Him.
He always has time and energy to teach us more.
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