August 6, 2006 Mark 6:30-34

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." 32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Are You a Worn Out Miracle Worker or a Shepherd-less Sheep? Come to Christ for Rest

I. Reasons for wear

Imagine that today God came to you in a dream and said, "I am giving you the ability - for 24 hours - to heal anyone of any disease." Where would you go, what would you do? I would imagine that most of us would either travel as fast as we could to get to a loved one that had some fatal disease, or just go to the local hospital and start healing as many people as we could. After getting to think about it, I think I would make a straight line to the children's hospital in Kansas City. But then again, wouldn't you also have to deal with many people who would say, "get out of our hospital! Don't listen to this guy! He's nuts!" This would be an exciting thing - but also exhausting. Imagine doing this for ten hours, fifteen, and then twenty - continually putting your hands on people and healing them - or dealing with those who resisted your efforts - who didn't want your help. Sooner or later you would need a break. This is what happened with the apostles. Earlier in Mark 6 verses 7-13 Mark says, "Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. . . They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them." Jesus Himself had also performed some awesome deeds during the day, including freeing a man from a virtual Legion of demons. After a day full of using these miraculous deeds, Mark said that they didn't even have a chance to eat.

This story displays for us a proverb that Uncle Ben told Peter Parker in Spiderman. It may not be directly scriptural, but it is true nonetheless. "With great power comes great responsibility." When you are given the ability to do great things, people will expect great things from you. This doesn't only apply to chasing out demons or climbing up walls. When you are blessed with money, people call and ask, "would you be willing to donate to our cause? Could you help me out so I can get out of debt?" When you are able to fix cars, your neighbor will call and say, "hey, could you come over and listen to my car? It's making a funny sound." When you have time, your friends ask you to watch their kids. When you are given the ability to patiently listen and understand, people will call you and bend your ear with their problems. This is the way life is. When God has given you gifts, people want you to share them. They come to rely on you - which makes you responsible for them in an indirect way.

Sometimes this can end up being kind of a pain, right? If you've got the most experience at work and you know how to fix almost any situation - who gets called at any time of the night? Who can never get away from work? If you have the expertise in laying cement and were gifted with enough money to buy the tools, you get calls every week for a little "favor." You lose your anonymity and your privacy. Sometimes you even feel like you're being used - that people don't appreciate you - that you could move away and go somewhere where nobody knew you and wouldn't ask for any help. Have you ever gotten angry over this and said to yourself, "that's it. I'm not helping anyone anymore. I'm tired of it." It gets to the point where you might even end up dreading phone calls because all you want to do is sit down and relax. This even happens in the home. Not a minute goes by where a child isn't calling out, "dad, I went potty. Mom, can I have juice? Daughter, you need to clean the kitchen!" Sooner or later - after a few minutes or a few hours - your frustration and lack of energy gets the best of you and you say, "NO! I don't want to. Do it yourself!"

I find it rather interesting that the disciples - who were given this awesome responsibility and privilege - never asked Jesus for a lunch break. Even though they were tired and hungry - after a full day of healing they were still excited to have such great ability and use it - to the point of exhaustion.

Compare that to your response when someone asks you to do something much easier - like giving a ride, mowing a lawn, or just listening on the phone. How selfish would you have to be to wish that people wouldn't ask you for help? Yet when the Lord blesses us with these comparably meager gifts, our own sinful flesh uses it as a reason to complain to God saying, "why do they always ask ME for help? Why can't they bug someone else?" Shouldn't we instead have a sense of gratitude to God for giving us these gifts? Shouldn't we feel honored and thankful that people are trusting in us for help and needing our help - and that we have the ability to help? Even though we recognize that our gifts come from God Himself, we somehow think that these gifts are primarily for our own personal pleasure. Either that, or we don't want to use our gifts because we won't get enough recognition for it. How is it that feeding the poor at a food bank with other volunteers and people who say "thank you" more holy or easier to do than feeding your child who just asks for a piece of bread or your spouse who just wants a glass of water? What is worse - is that not only do we complain about it - but sometimes we even lie in order to not help those in need. We refuse to answer the phone when we see it is a "needy" person. We yell at our children for crying to us for sympathy and help over a bruised knee or a lacerated elbow. We act as if coming to a Bible class during the week or a Sunday morning is just way too much to ask - even though all you have to do is sit there and listen. We tell people we don't have the time to help them. We do all this when during the same week we still spend an average of twenty hours in front of the television for what we deem "down time". In the midst of this, we have the gall to call ourselves Jesus' disciples. Oh, aren't we sad excuses for Christians, much less human beings. Being a disciple means being called to a life of service, not privilege.

II. Jesus sees your wear

Jesus saw His disciples energetically serving with the gifts He had given them, and He noticed that they had not taken the time to eat. Jesus knew what it felt like not to eat. He had gone the first 40 days of His public ministry without eating while being tempted by the devil. He knew what it was like to be hungry and without sleep. Time and again throughout Jesus ministry we see Him going all night healing people and journeying tirelessly throughout the countryside. When He Himself went on working without eating His own family thought He had gone out of His mind. (Mark 3:21) So He knew what they were going through - and He knew that they were getting close to exhaustion. Out of concern Jesus said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. He made sure to give them the rest they needed exactly when they needed it.

God knows exactly what YOU need as well and when you need it. Luke 12:7 says, "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are numbered." He knows what you can handle and what you can't. In our first letter we have from Paul to the Corinthians he promised them in 10:13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." This means that no matter what test you are put to - even the test of being constantly asked to serve people with the talents you have from God - that it will not be too great for you to bear.

Apply this to your life of service. Are you really at the end of your rope? Is it that you are too tired to help, or that you have convinced yourself that you are too tired to help? Is it that you have had a long day or a bad day that you are being short tempered with your co-workers or your children, or that you have accustomed yourself to being impatient and angry? If you really need a break, God knows it. He will provide it when the time is right. You don't need to have a temper tantrum to get it. You don't need to snap or flip out. Yet how many times do we sin against our own family by angrily bursting out when we don't really need to? This calls for a heart of wisdom within the Christian. If life is wearing you out and people are wearing you down by demanding more and more from you - it's ok to be honest with someone and say, "listen, I'm really exhausted right now. I want to help. Would you mind if I put it off for a week or a month, and then got to it? It's not that I don't want to help. I just need a little break." This is being patient, honest, loving and forgiving.

But there's more. Some of us are legitimately worn out from trying to help and serve people - and to bring them Christ. What does Jesus say to us? "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden." Did you notice what Jesus did while the disciples took some R&R? He continued to teach not only the disciples - but all the people on the mountainside of Bethsaida - "a great number of things." Even though Jesus hadn't had anything to eat and even though he too was tired and hungry - He took on the burden and took the teachers under His wings and said, "come, listen to me." This is why we call Jesus our Savior and our Messiah. He is the Lord of lords. He is the King of kings. He is the Teacher of teachers. There is never a time of day that the resurrected Jesus gets tired or says, "call me back in an hour." When you turn to Jesus and you're worn out and you're really hit the wall, He won't say, "I don't have time for you right now." He will say, "come with me to a solitary place, relax a little and let me fill you up!" He is always ready and willing to serve us and come to our rescue - no matter how impatient or lazy we've been. Why? Because He is a God of forgiveness, mercy and love.

III. Only Christ gives you rest with His Word

Now you need to understand, this doesn't mean that Jesus is going to pull up to your house in a yacht and say, "hey, come on in and take a weekend off!" He means to come to Him in the Word and sacrament. How often is it - that when you find yourself really frustrated and tired, that you take just fifteen minutes out of your day and read your Bible? Do you ever think to yourself at times like this, "boy, I really need to get to church" or "I'm exhausted. I could really use the Lord's Supper."? Could it be that you are frustrated and angry because you haven't been to church in some time?

This kind of time - with Jesus - is much more precious than an hour of TV - 8 hours of sleep - or a walk in the woods. It's only in the Bible that you hear God promise you things that you'll never hear from a tree and you'll never hear from your mattress. Dr. Phil won't give you this kind of comfort. When you don't feel you have the strength to stick with your marriage - to keep working at work - to make it through school, read

Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

When you think that God has forgotten you, you hear verses like -

Isaiah 49:15-16 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.

When you are sure that God is punishing you in your life for a sin you have committed but have repented of, God says to you in -

Psalm 103:11-14 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

When you walk into church and you see that baptismal font, and when you hear the Trinitarian formula at the beginning of the worship service, you are immediately reminded, "I am God's property. He's not going to let me go." When you experience Christian fellowship and hear them singing words of encouragement to you, it reminds you that like Elijah you are not in this battle alone. When you receive the Lord's Supper - Jesus promises you that He has died for you and that He is with you until the end of the ages. You can't get these kinds of encouragements - which the Holy Spirit promises to work through - at any other place in life.

That's what church is supposed to be about - a place where you can find rest for your soul - that you can be reassured of God's love and forgiveness and strength. It's meant to refresh you. The boat that Jesus offers is even as easy as just laying in bed and reading the Bible prior to going to bed - or taking God's Word with you to work and reading it during your lunch hour. When you read God's Word - you hear again His promises. As you hear them God works what He promises in Isaiah 40:29-31 -

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

IV. The rest is for all

When Jesus took his disciples aside to Bethsaida to get some rest and relaxation - the people that they were teaching and healing were thirsty for more. Mark writes, When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. That's quite a picture isn't it. Sheep without a shepherd wouldn't know where to go. They wouldn't have anyone to protect them. They would be scared and alone in a wilderness full of predators. They wouldn't last very long at all. Even though the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law claimed to be their shepherds, they were only leading the sheep to dry wells and abusing the people with rules and regulations that were not found in the Bible. I see many shepherd-less sheep in our society today. How many Americans - who even have had a "Christian upbringing" are only led by what they think "feels right." They live by what they "think" about God - without any real foundation of truth. It has come to the point where truth only seems to be relevant to the individual - where there seemingly is not "false belief". What everyone believes is "true to them" - which has really led to no truth at all. Jesus felt a compassionate sorrow over them - He really wanted to help give them comfort. He feels compassion for so many Americans today who still don't know what to believe - and they are being led astray by feelings and just plain humanism.

So what did Jesus do? He healed them. He chased out their demons. "He began teaching them many things." He taught them all about who the LORD really was - who HE really was. When we look at our friends, neighbors, and classmates as "sheep without a shepherd," doesn't it make us want to do the same thing for them? If we have a hard time dealing with the many demands of life - imagine how we would feel without our Good Shepherd? How could we deal with stress if we didn't have the promise of God to take care of us? How could we deal with guilt if we didn't have a cross? There are thousands of people that have to deal with this every day. Our own children have not been trained on how to deal with their anger or guilt. You may not be able to heal their cancer or cure them of a death ending disease. You may not be able to change the nature of your children to worry or panic or get angry. Yet you have been given a gift - a miracle cure - for them. You can give them God's Word. You can assure them that God is in charge. You can help them and tell them what to do with their fears - to take them to God in prayer. In counseling them with the Word, you can chase out their demons - their fears - their sorrows. You can share the hope you have with them. You can tell them about what baptism and the Lord's Supper means to you. By teaching them, the Holy Spirit will give them Christ - who can save them.

Imagine if the end of the world came tomorrow. Imagine if, before your very eyes - you witnessed your neighbors, friends, and some of your own family separated from you by an angel. Imagine if you heard the LORD declare to them, "depart from me, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Imagine if you then saw those former friends and family of you sent down into the eternal fire. What a terrifying and scary thought that is for us on this side of heaven. This is an eternal suffering we are talking about. Our flesh cannot swallow it. The scary thing is that this is what God says is going to happen.

Imagine if you had a cure for these multitudes of people - your friends, children, and neighbors - that could save them from an eternity in hell. Romans 1:16 says, "the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." The incredible thing is that you have a miracle cure in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can be Jesus' miracle worker - but it takes tiring work. It will take time to get to know people. It will take patience to tend to their needs. It will wear you out. You'll want to quit. In that time, say to Jesus - your Good Shepherd,

Precious Lord, take my hand, Lead me on, let me stand,

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; Through the storm, through the night,

Lead me on to the light: Take my hand, precious Lord; Lead me home. Amen. (CW Hymn 451)