Responding to Life: Mark 6:35-37
Perspective is everything. One of my greatest frustrations is that I am unable to see the world through God’s eyes. I get focused on things like my agenda, my desires, and my concerns. Life happens around me and I get upset if something affects my agenda so things don’t go the way I wanted them to go. Soon I’m making alternate plans and trying to figure out how to still accomplish what I need, want, or desire. God, on the other hand, is the master of flexibility. Humanity has a knack for interrupting God’s plan and forcing Him to change. Because He sees the bigger picture, He rolls with change and interruption much more easily than I do.
For example, the disciples come to Jesus as He is in the middle of teaching. I’m not trying to belittle the concerns of the disciples. The hour is getting late. People are getting hungry. They’ve been listening for a very reasonable amount of time. The disciples simply try to anticipate the needs of the people. This is a very legitimate concern. One might even consider this a very hospitable concern. They want Jesus to send the people away so the needs of the people can be met.
It might be tempting to think the disciples have selfish motivations for wanting the people to go away. The disciples are probably drained from the work they did when Jesus sent them out. They may be craving time with Jesus so they can finally talk about their experiences with their mentor. Yet, Mark doesn’t give us any reason to think their motivation for sending the people away is anything but pure. The place is desolate, the people are hungry, the hour is late, and there are no places around for the people to get food. The disciples seem genuinely concerned with the needs of the people.
Jesus turns to the disciples and tells them to feed the multitude. Jesus knows there is no reason the people need to go away. He is seeing life through a different perspective. Rather than seeing the needs of the people and the limitations of the surroundings, Jesus sees God’s power and God’s capacity. Instead of the limitation of what is, Jesus sees the potential of what could be.
Jesus is God after all. Jesus sees situations differently than we see them. We’re human. We can’t snap our fingers and make food appear. We can’t call out and expect the wind to obey us. We can’t expect people to be healed simply by touching the hem of our cloak.
When the disciples ask Jesus where they are going to get the money to buy food for the people, they are responding out of their own perspective. When Jesus tells the disciples to feed the crowd, He is responding out of His perspective. The disciples and Jesus come up with different ways to solve the problems of the people because their perspectives aren’t the same. Perspective is everything.
