Journal the Journey

As I was looking in my subject index in my study Bible to research “time,” I did not understand why it references Mark 6:48 as “time, divided into watches.” Well, I still don’t understand even after looking it up, but I found myself immediately drawn into the story… the very story I’ve been familiar with for over two decades, one of the first I learned as a child, now calling me at 31 years old to take yet another look at it. The story I am talking about is Jesus walking on water, but I’ve developed a good habit of looking at the scriptures before a certain story to see it in context of what was going on.

He walked on the water at about 3 am, after a very long day. That day, He had miraculously fed 5,000 men and their families- another familiar story to those of us that went to church as children. But even that story needs to be looked at in context, so I go back a few more verses. And I see that this miracle of feeding thousands was not His original plan for that day. He found Himself and His disciples at a crossroads. The miraculous feeding was a result of crucifying His flesh at this crossroads where His original plans took a major detour.

In Mark 6:31 I see that Jesus intended to go with His disciples to a quiet place to eat and rest a while. But on their way, the crowds recognized Him. Was He annoyed? It wasn’t His plan to minister that day, not to the crowds at least. But “Jesus saw the huge crowd as He stepped from the boat, and He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things.” (v.34)

Here I see His emotional response to them: Compassion. Not annoyance, frustration, or indifference. I don’t only see “what” He felt, but then I see the “why”: They were lost and searching for a Shepherd. (Oh, blessed are they for searching out the Good Shepherd that lays down His life for His sheep!) And Jesus – God in the flesh – is stirred in His entire being by the lost, by the opportunity to shower His compassion on them. From His emotional and spiritual wells of compassionate love come His physical response: He abandons His plans to physically rest and eat in order to bring spiritual rest and nourishment to these thousands that appeared to Him as shepherdless sheep. The Bread of Life broke Himself and offered Himself not only at the Last Supper and on the cross. His entire life was marked by this sacrificial offering of Himself.

Jesus had every right to tell the people to come back the next day, to let them know He was exhausted and loved them deeply but just needed to refresh physically before He ministers to them. Rest and food are not shameful, and they obviously are necessary for us for as long as we are in these physical bodies on this earth. But He didn’t send them away.

Instead, compelled by love that extends beyond the deepest oceans and the highest mountaintops, He crucified His flesh’s demands of food and rest. And His Spirit empowered Him to spend the entire day teaching. He filled their spiritual bellies to overflowing while His physical belly rumbled from emptiness. And oh, how I am certain this pleased His Father in Heaven who watched and sustained and blessed Him as He did this.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit in total unity have a heartbeat, even in this very moment of time, that longs to flood us with such compassion and love, mercy and grace. May by the power of the Holy Spirit my heart beat in sync with theirs, no matter what my flesh tries to demand at my crossroads today and in the days to come.