By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
Mark 6:35-38
Time slips away. You get caught up in what you’re doing, and the hours just seem to melt. Before you know it, it’s getting late.
We had a guest staying at the house and “the plan” was to take them to nearby gardens for leisurely walk through the foliage. I had been working and I asked for just a few minutes so that I could complete my thought. They graciously agreed and they stepped away.
I then spent the next “few minutes” completing my thought. In what seemed just a minute or two, there was a knock at the door to my office and they wondered what it happened to me. I said what you mean, just been in here finishing my thoughts for a minute or two. They said, “Look at the clock, it’s been almost 2 hours.”
Whether writing is your thing or not, we all have a thing where we can get lost in time. We just get fully engaged and engrossed in what we’re doing. There’s no such thing as being bored when we’re doing whatever it is. For me, it’s writing, for you it might be gardening, working on a car, painting, sewing. It’s not so much what it is, but how it fits us like a glove.
I wonder if that’s what teaching is like for Jesus? He had compassion on them and so he began to teach them many things. Not only would it have the hours gone by quickly for Jesus, but also for the people who were listening to him. I doubt if anyone was squirming or checking their phones for text messages.
Jesus was the kind of teacher who had compassion on people but also had a way of communicating with them. His words reached down into their souls, teaching and changing lives like no one else of his time, or in all of history. He’s a great communicator with large crowds as well as one-on-one.
Just so you know, it was the disciples who came up with the idea of sending people away so they could get something to eat. Jesus’ response is direct and to the point, “You give them something to eat.” They weren’t in the food service industry, nor did they have an Uber eats route. These were not cooks or waiters, these were ordinary people whose only connection with food was eating.
Their response wasn’t how to do it, but how in the world could they do it by just looking in their own pockets? Where were they going to come up with the cash to buy enough bread? How are they going to use their own resources to provide?
The response wasn’t about going out and getting, because Jesus asks how much do they have. Living for Jesus is not about acquiring great wealth, it’s about making available what you have to him.
I know a guy who started a business, and one of the great goals was for him to be able to give away money from that business. I know this sounds great and generous, but the way he treated people certainly soiled his goals. His anger and abusive language was not honoring to God, so I’m wondering how his money was actually going to honor God?
It’s not about the amount, it’s about the availability. It’s not about the volume, but our willingness to volunteer. It’s not about the size of the gift, but about the size of our heart.
If we see ourselves as people desperately needing forgiveness. Having received it through Jesus, it changes everything. And the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae of life is his resurrection from the dead.
It’s getting late. There’s no time like the present to start trusting Jesus. Because he lives, I must and can change the way I live: the way I think, act, speak.
And so should you.
Comments