Rest Interrupted
Do you ever want to just get away for a while?
Do you feel guilty when you do?
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. - Mark 6:30-32
Today's reading includes a well-known story, the feeding of the multitude with only five loaves of bread and two fish. But it begins on a much different note. It begins with a brief escape form the crowds.
What Jesus intended was a rest with his friends, a chance to get away to a deserted place and just be together, to do nothing.
We don't remember that part of the story because the people followed and gathered around them, wanting to get close, to hear him speak. The demands of his calling pulled him away from his desired rest and piled enormous responsibility on him, to feed those who had come into this place without provisions.
If that had happened to us, how would we feel?
In the end, after all is done and the people have gone, Jesus sends the disciples ahead, and he goes off alone to pray. He gets the moment of peace and rest that he sought at the beginning of the story.
I think that is important, don't you? We need to take a break. We can't be on all the time.
You could argue that the message here is that work will find us wherever we go, that we cannot hide, but I think there is another way to look at this.
Yes, they set out to rest and the world followed them, made demands on them and left them weary and tired. But it all began with Jesus wanting them to take a break, to get away for a while and rest.
True, the work will find us. It will seek us out and bring us back, track us down on the beach and dump a cold bucket of ice on our vacation. It always does, but that doesn't have to be a downer.
when the work is done, we can get back to what we set out to do and regain our peace of mind, our peaceful rest.
The lesson for me in this reading is to stay focused on the goal, to get back to the plan after being distracted, to claim my space and seek my peace, knowing others will invade my space and seek my counsel.
Life is a series of interruptions,a nd we need to be able to get back to center after each one, or the world will drive us insane.
Now, time to rest.
More to come...
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