Led and fed

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." And they said to him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?" And he said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fish." Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. - Mark 6:30‭-‬44 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Jesus' Compassion

Jesus sent the disciples out to minister to people. In this passage, they have come back from serving others. They were exhausted from ministry. Jesus takes them to withdraw and rest. But the people see this and intercept them where they are heading. The disciples were looking to recharge. This would have been dismaying to say the least. Jesus is not frustrated or upset. Jesus has compassion on them.

We may have heard of something called compassion fatigue. When you are serving people in great need, you get so tired that you become numb or sometimes even resentful. But Jesus does not suffer from compassion fatigue, his compassion never runs out. Jesus is never gets tired of hearing about your needs, troubles, or suffering. Jesus has compassion on each of us individually. He always welcomes us.

Jews of that day would have heard "sheep without a shepherd" would have thought of Ezekiel 34. This was a rebuke to the leaders of that day and age.

Jesus' sufficiency

After talking to them all day, Jesus feeds them by way of a miracle. The disciples asked were they to go to buy food from town and spend a year's worth of wages. This was likely spoken with sarcasm. The disciples did not have that kind of money. So they are presented with a clearly insufficient amount of food. A laughably small amount of food. Jesus then feeds them using this. Jesus confronts his disciples insufficiency with His sufficiency. 

It is easy to serve God when you have talents or resources. It is easy to get excited. But what about serving when you don't have enough talents, skills, resources... Serving when you don't love or care enough... When we come to God with a couple of anchovies and some stale loaves of bread, that's when we see God work. God can do great works with the little that we have. Don't stare at our insufficiency, but instead submit it to God's hand. 

Jesus: the greater Moses

Jesus led the people next to the waters and then feed them via a miracle. But Jesus was not here to free the Israelites from political oppression but eternal life & freedom from sin.