He Knows What's Best: Mark 6:45-47
Living a life constantly caught in the tension between the will of God and the desires of the people can be interesting. On one hand, glorifying God is our chief goal. On the other hand, God wants us to be among the people and encourage those around us to grow closer to Him. Sometimes that is easy, often it is not. It can be difficult to navigate those waters.
Immediately after the crowd is sated, Jesus makes His disciples get into a boat. Mark doesn’t tell us why, but in John 6 we find the reason. After seeing Jesus feed the multitude, He feels they want to force Him to become king. The multitude wants to force a conflict with Rome. Jesus isn’t ready; the time isn’t right. Jesus needs more time to mentor His disciples.
Jesus knows the possibility of the disciples getting caught up in the crowd was too great. He’d spent too much time teaching the disciples to think differently than the world; He couldn’t afford to have them lose what they’d learned and return to the easy path of the world. The disciples needed to go away while Jesus dismissed the crowd. Jesus is protecting them. Sometimes we’re not ready for what the world has for us. Sometimes God tells us to stay clear of a situation because it will harm us.
If God wants, He can protect us through anything. That doesn’t mean God always wants us in harm’s way. Sometimes God says no. Sometimes God wants us to realize certain situations aren’t for us.
Once the disciples are gone, Jesus dismisses the crowd. We’re not given much detail about how that happened. John doesn’t give much detail in His gospel, either. We know somehow Jesus convinces them to turn around, go home, and forget their plans to make Him king. Jesus is God, and a multitude of five thousand people is not too much for God to handle.
Once the disciples are safely away from the crowd and Jesus is safely away from the crowd, Jesus turns to a desolate place and spends time communing with the Father. Once more we see the cycle of ministry at work, even in Jesus. Jesus worked through a harvest as He taught the crowds and then put on a grand display of the power of God. He knows how important a harvest is; He also knows how draining a harvest can be. A harvest is often intense and exciting. Jesus knows He needs to take a little time to allow the Father to fill Him back up because He had just spent so much of Himself. A new harvest is always coming; Jesus needs to get ready. To help Him get ready, Jesus goes into a desolate place to commune with the Father. Living a life constantly caught in the tension between the will of God and the desires of the people can be interesting.
