Based on Mark 6:45-52
Today’s Gospel follows the events of the Hangry Disciples, aka the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, from yesterday.
I ended yesterday’s reflection by challenging us to give the Lord just a little bit more; even if we are tired and hangry.
Today, I can only imagine what it must have been like to be a disciple in that boat. No, I’m not talking about seeing Jesus walk on water. I’m talking about being totally exhausted…and then having to row across a lake…in a storm.
Have you ever had a day like that? A day where it seems like everything is going wrong, you finally get a chance to rest, and then something else goes wrong! You know, the day you had a flat tire that you had to change on the way to work..in the rain. At work, both your boss and a customer expressed their displeasure in no uncertain terms. Back home, you cook supper, too long. Finally, after getting the kids in bed, you settle in to read, scroll, or stare into nothingness. Ah, a chance to rest and catch your breath. Then, from your child’s bedroom, you hear the distinct, unmistakable sound of…vomiting. If you ever had a day like that, you have a good idea of how the disciples felt in the boat.
Sure, the disciples had cast out demons, listened to great preaching, and even witnessed a miracle. However, if we read between the lines, these men were tired, wanted rest, and their ego’s may have been a little bruised by Jesus’ words and their snarky reply,
Disciples: “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
Jesus: “Give them some food yourselves.”
Disciples: “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?”
Why do I have this view of the disciples? It’s because of verse 52: They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened. This happens, God multiplies loaves, walks on water, heals, and hearts are still hardened. Why? Very often it is because of pride. We don’t see things the way God does. We want things to be easy, He wants to enlarge our hearts. We want people to be sent away, He wants us to find a way to help them. We want a leisurely cruise, He wants a storm to challenge our faith in Him.
In verse 48 we read something very peculiar, disturbing in fact, “He meant to pass them by.” At first glance this seems cold and heartless. However, we would do well to remember that whenever we read of Jesus “passing by” great things are about to happen. Just ask Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, or the other blind men.
Jesus is ALWAYS passing by. He is on the road, in the storm, by the sea, on the hillside, at our cubicle, in the laundry room, on the jobsite, and every other place we can imagine. Our challenge is to call out to Him, not out of fear like the disciples, but from a place of faith, hope, love, and trust. This is not easy!
Yet even if that cry does come from a place of fear, loneliness, or hopelessness, He is there. In the midst of the bad work day, the loads of laundry, the fussing kids, the illness, He responds as He did so gently to the disciples from the midst of the storm, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”
Christ is ALWAYS passing by even at this very moment. Will you call out to Him?
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James M. Hahn, Author 