For Sunday, July 19, 2015 – Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
As excited as kids just home from camp, the disciples tell Jesus about their amazing expeditions to the places he has sent them. They went with nothing—no supplies, no money, no instruction manual—and have returned filled with a deeper sense of their own capacity and calling. They have accomplished more than they dreamed possible. What more will they now be able to do?
I’m noticing that Jesus doesn’t say, “Great job! Now get out there and do some more!” No, he suggests another way, a bit of a surprising way. “Come away with me to a deserted place,” he says, “and rest a while.” Um, what was that, Jesus? Do you not understand what we are telling you? We have the healing touch! We’re raring to go! How will resting accomplish anything? We’ll lose our momentum if we don’t nurture the connections we’ve made. Who will follow up and make home visits and heal people? Go to a deserted place and rest? What kind of sense is that?
Certainly not common sense. To turn away from all that still needs to be done is, in fact, quite uncommon for those of us who care. To leave the sick unvisited, homeless folks unhoused and hungry folks unfed, all the unjust “-isms” in our world unhealed, in order to go off with Jesus to a deserted place, just to rest, can leave us edgy and fretful. We even sometimes feel ashamed if we are caught in the act (or non-act) and are quick to defend ourselves. We aren’t just doing nothing—we are clearing our minds to be able to do even more; we are mulling over a new strategy; we are listening for our next marching orders.
There, there, little one. It’s okay just to rest, to trust God to heal the world, with or without our help. The needs will find their way to us, just as they followed Jesus wherever he went. But sometimes it is the right time to just sit down . . . and do . . . nothing. To refuse to rest is like winning a grand sweepstakes (Did you hear? Jesus already saved the world!) and responding, “No thanks, I’m good.” Spacious fields of mercy await us. “Come away with me,” Jesus calls to us still. “Let’s just hang out for a while. Let’s rest.”
