You Feed Them

 

Mark 6:30-46 (Daily Office Reading, Tuesday 7-27-21)

Whose food was it? What did Jesus say? — “You feed them!”

The point is not that there wasn’t enough food, it’s way simpler than that.

These disciples have just been on their first solo mission, without Jesus, to spread the Word and the Way. They’ve just come back, and they’ve told him about their adventures. They’ve tried to avoid the crowds by sneaking away in a boat, but the crowds figured it out and beat them to their destination.

These crowds were rowdy, excited, and (apparently) had nothing better to do than run around after every novelty and sensation that came along. Jesus took pity on them, and “taught them many things.” (Greek; ‘polys’ — “a lot.”)

So, regardless of whether this was a miracle or not; regardless of whether the crowd had food of their own that they were shamed into sharing; the point was that the disciples expected Jesus to feed them, and he said, “No. You feed them.”

 

“No. You feed them.”

 

The only thing that Jesus did was bless the food, and that was just the thing he always did, nothing special about it.

Breaking it down— Jesus and his disciples were running away from this crowd, actively trying to avoid them. When they failed, Jesus shrugged and gave in, sitting down to do his best to get past their rabid excitement, which had made them go chasing after the Jesus Spectacle, and talk some sense into them. The story doesn’t say whether he succeeded, it only says that he taught “a lot.”

Remember, the disciples were tired. They were trying to find a place to rest. Jesus’s concern was for them: “Come away, away from all this fuss, and rest.”

No luck!

So the real lesson here wasn’t for the “sheep without a shepherd,” it was for the tired disciples.

Sometimes things don’t go your way. Sometimes you have to dig deep and figure out how to do the impossible. Sometimes you don’t get a chance to rest. Sometimes you see a need and it’s up to you to take care of it the best you can. (Remember, it was the disciples who were concerned about what the crowd would have to eat, not Jesus, and Jesus’s response was: “Hey, it’s your problem— you’re worried about this; you fix it.”)

It’s never miracles that are the point.

This Way we follow— it’s not anything special. It’s just how things are. Sometimes there’s no escape from drudgery, in fact I’d say that’s true most of the time.

It’s all in a day’s work, mustering up enough to get by on.

We know, once we’ve been at this for a while, that there’s always more to be had than what we expect.

The lesson is (for me anyway)—

 

Do away with expectations.

Look around.

Listen.

 

What we see in front of us is just what is in front of us.

Always.

There’s never anything to be done, except what there is to be done.

Making a distinction between success and failure is pretty much useless.

Opinions only get in the way.

 

If all we have are some crackers and a can of tuna,

the question isn’t whether we have enough,

it’s  “Are we going to share?”

 

 

Old Man Zen says, “Are we going back to kindergarten now?”