Scripture Daily

Context No. 1514 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 6:26-36: in context

26The king was exceedingly sorry, but for the sake of his oaths and of his dinner guests, he didn’t wish to refuse her. 27Immediately the king sent out a soldier of his guard and commanded to bring John’s head; and he went and beheaded him in the prison, 28and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the young lady; and the young lady gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard this, they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb. 30The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught. 31He said to them, “Come away into a deserted place, and rest awhile.” For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33They saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. 34Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is late in the day. 36Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.”

After the death of John the Baptist, the apostles return to Jesus from their mission, gathering to tell him all they had done and taught. So many people are coming and going that they have no leisure even to eat. And Jesus says to them: come away by yourselves to a deserted place, and rest a while. They go off in the boat to be alone; but the crowds see them going, run ahead on foot, and are waiting when they arrive. Jesus, seeing the great crowd, has compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and begins to teach them.

Two things sit together here. The first is Jesus' care for his tired workers: come away by yourselves and rest a while. The apostles had been laboring, and the demands were ceaseless, so many coming and going that they could not even eat; and Jesus' response is not to drive them harder but to call them aside to rest. He values the rest of his workers, sees when they are worn out, and invites them to withdraw and be restored. There is a permission in that against the tyranny of endless activity, even good activity. The work of God is not served by workers who never rest; Jesus himself calls them away to recover. And yet the second thing is that the rest was interrupted. The crowds followed, and Jesus, seeing them, had compassion and taught them. This is not a contradiction of the first; it is the tension every servant of God knows, between the genuine need for rest and the genuine claims of compassion. Jesus honored both: he called his workers to rest, and he met the crowd's need when it pressed. The lesson is not that rest never matters, for Jesus insisted on it, nor that compassion may be refused when we would rather rest; it is that both are real, and a life of service holds them in tension, seeking rest as Jesus commanded and yet, like him, moved by compassion when the need is truly before us. Come away and rest is his word to the weary worker; and compassion, when the sheep are truly shepherdless, may still call.

Do I heed Jesus' care for his weary workers, coming away to rest as he commanded rather than driving myself in endless activity, and can I also, like him, be moved by compassion when a real need presses even into my rest?

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