LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
Mark 6:32-44
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 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. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. 35 When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And all ate and were filled, 43 and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
When I was a teenager, this was one passage of many that was used as ‘proof’ of Jesus’ divinity. As often as not, the teaching point of the story had been, “Look at what Jesus can do. That’s how we know he is God.” Jesus was separated from ordinary humans because he could do things, other humans could not. Jesus could perform miracles and if you questioned the miracle, you questioned Jesus.
It was one of the many miracles that seem to require suspending common sense as a test of faith. Voluntary lobotomization seemed to be required to be a Christian. I have always been against the procedure.
In the Star Trek television series there was a device, called the replicator, that could fabricate any food you might desire. You didn’t even have to push a button. With a voice command, your wish could be fulfilled. The huge advantage of such an invention is that it solves the problem of human scarcity. There is no need to fight over food if there is always food available. I think it is tempting sometimes to think God works that way. Pray hard enough and all things are possible. And if our deepest desires are not fulfilled, it simply means we did not have enough faith—or we did something wrong—or God was in a bad mood. But God is not a short order cook, waiting to serve us what we desire. Instead of viewing Jesus as presaging the science fiction version of a Star Trek replicator, I think we need to focus on the human struggle to be accountable to one another.
In general, debates about the believability of this miracle have been distractions to my understanding of Jesus. My own bias is to look for the ordinary before I seek the extraordinary. I learn much more about the nature of God when I see parallels between the biblical account and the day to day dilemmas of real life. Try entering the story as one of the disciples.
This passage begins with Jesus’ compassion. Jesus is listening to his disciples report about their work. He saw they were so tired they barely had time to eat. We’ve all been there. How many times have you skipped a meal or just grabbed something on the fly because of the demands of your job? We all do it but it is not sustainable. Jesus sees this and says: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
So they get in a boat to sail across the Sea of Galilee to that deserted place where they can rest. But instead of getting away from it all, the crowds pursued them. They hurry around the Sea on foot and arrive before Jesus and the disciples can make landfall. So much for solitude and rest. This is as ordinary as it gets. I have yet to meet the baby, crying in the night and asking: “Mom, Dad, Do you need a break? Are you too tired to take care of me?”
Jesus again responds with compassion. He sees the hunger of the people and describes them as “like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.” Jesus and, by extension, the disciples chose to set aside their own hunger and fatigue, to be good shepherds to the people. This is a dilemma that every one who would care for another must face. Balancing our needs with the needs of those around us is often inconvenient and difficult. But loving as Jesus loved requires we live in that tension. Both, ‘always serving’ or ‘always watching out for self’ are artificial solutions to the predicament of real life relationships. Real life requires us to tolerate the tension between self care and for others.Some days we must take care of ourselves and some days we choose to put the needs of others in front of our own. The tension always exists. There is no right answer.
It is late in the day and the disciples are now even more tired and hungry. They go to Jesus and ask him to “send them away” — let them take care of their own needs! They want Jesus to lessen the pressures of human needs of over 5,000 people. But Jesus does not fix the problem for them. Jesus replies with the impossible: “You give them something to eat.” The disciples protest, do you expect us to buy food for this crowd? Jesus says: “How many loaves have you?” In effect, Jesus was telling them: Don’t tell me what you can’t do, tell me what you can.
If you have come home from work tired and hungry and your children come rushing to greet you, or you learn the water heater has failed, or you realize there is a church meeting scheduled in an hour—you know the impulse to ‘send them away’. The daily demands on our time and energy are unremitting.
The disciples are in the middle of the real-life dilemma of every Christian. Human needs always outstrip our ability to respond but that should never keep us from responding. Followers do as they are told. They come with five loaves and two fish—hardly a drop in the ocean of need.
Jesus uses this paltry amount in ways they could not imagine. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all.” Jesus shares the food the disciples had brought with them. No matter how daunting the task, Jesus started with the very limited resources of the disciples. It is a vivid reminder that we are called to do what we can with what we have.
There is enough food in the world to prevent hunger. We just won’t share it. The all too human ‘natural’ thing to do is guard what we have for fear we will exhaust what we have. Jesus demonstrated another way. He was calling the disciples to love as he had loved them—to show compassion for the hunger and fatigue of the crowd. Jesus called them into those needs rather than making them go away.
This story incorporates human fatigue in tension with compassion. Some days, we will have very little to offer. Some days we will need respite and self care but we will be interrupted by the pressing needs of those around us. Some days a tidal wave of bad news will engulf us. There will be medical disasters, wars and rumors of war. There will be starving people in our path.
Ultimately however, the story is yet another promise that doing what we can with what we have is the way of life that gives life. The disciples were clearly tired and not in the mood, but they followed Jesus with their very limited resources. When they did what they could do, it turned out, as with the world, there was plenty of food. It just had to be shared.
Jesus calls us to live trusting there will be enough. It is not up to us to determine outcomes. That is left to God. It is up to us to love our neighbor as ourselves and to love our neighbor as we have been loved. This is the way to the life that gives life. Let it be so.
