The world we live in often leaves us feeling harassed and anxious, it can leave us feeling desperate to take control of our lives and bring them into order. I feel like this a lot. Many times the chaos in my life is my own doing, and I often need to stop and reflect and ask myself about my priorities. But sometimes, maybe more often than I am comfortable with, these interruptions have another source. And I think this is especially true when those interruptions are people. Sometimes these “interruptions” are not interruptions at all they are brought to us by God himself.

As I was reading the passage for today, this story caused me to stop and reflect a bit on my assumptions about “self-care” and “time management”. It caused me to re-think what “walking the way of Jesus” really looked like for the disciples, and what it might look like today. And by today I really do mean today as in this actual day.

To set up today’s passage, it is important to understand that Jesus has just been informed that his cousin John the Baptist has been beheaded by Herod for the most outrageous reason imaginable. This passage picks up from there:

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there

Jesus understandably and desperately wants some time alone with his Father to process the loss of his cousin and contemplate the evil that brought about his insane and gruesome death. His instinct to find a quiet place to pray and process is not only correct but important in a time like this. However, it was not to be.

But when the crowds heard it,

In spite of his own feelings and even needs, Jesus had compassion on them and healed their sick. On what was likely the worst day of Jesus’ life to date, a day when he wanted nothing more than to take some time to process the loss of family, he sees the suffering of others and puts their good ahead of his own.

Wait… what?

Everything I have ever been told or taught about grief and suffering is screaming at me right now that Jesus did the wrong thing. But is that right? It was a very costly thing for him to do to be sure, but was he wrong to do it? Here we have to be careful how we judge, the compassion that Jesus showed for the sick is the same love he showed us all at the cross. Instead of spending his remaining energy trying to repair his own wounds he uses it to heal others. That is love.

But this story does not end there, his disciples are with him and they also knew John, they were also grieving and hurt. They were very likely frightened as well by such a vicious attack on a godly man for the most trivial reasons. Look what happens next:

Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said,

Everyone was tired, the people were tired, the disciples were tired, and I am sure Jesus was beyond all tired after giving of himself all day for this crowd. But he does not send them away as the disciples ask, but instead he asks the disciples to feed them. Imagine hearing that someone you loved was brutally murdered on a whim, then as you went off to grieve you were accosted by a huge crowd and against everything you were feeling at that moment we asked to serve them all day instead.

Now imagine when this nightmare of a day was finally coming to an end you are told to do the impossible and feed this crowd without the resources you need to do it. The disciples often failed in the gospels, but this is one time that they actually did remarkably well. They obeyed and they served and trusted that somehow or other, Jesus was going to make all this work.

Compassion or Resentment?

We are all interrupted by other people and their needs just as Jesus and his disciples were. In fact this is just one of many examples in the gospels of Jesus doing miracles and healing while he was actually on his way to somewhere else. The question for his disciples and the question to us is always the same. Are we going to choose others welfare in these moments, or are we going to choose our own?

When we are busy it is a short road from interruption to impatience, from impatience to annoyance, and annoyance to resentment. But the Holy Spirit in us is asking us to choose another path. It is the path of Jesus, it is the love of Jesus in us calling us to set aside our needs for the needs of other. To benefit others at our expense.

This week instead of assuming all interruptions are evil incarnate let’s consider if some them are actually opportunities sent by God to give us the chance to labor along with Jesus even on the worst days. Do we have the strength to do this? No, but then neither did the disciples, Jesus more than made up for what they lacked in this story. And he will do the same for us each day as we trust him and keep our eyes open for the interruptions of God.

Have a great week!