An Endless Feast (Mark 6:30-44)

I had the pleasure today of taking the 5th birthday celebration service for the Village fellowship at the Tarneit Skies Retirement Village. Below is the message I gave.

Jesus wanted to have some quiet time alone with his disciples. They had all been pretty busy on God’s mission, so a little rest and reflection and refreshment would always be a good idea. So off they went in a boat over to what is described as a “deserted place”. The trouble was ... they had been seen and recognised, and we have read about the hundreds and thousands from all the towns gathering as a crowd when the boat containing Jesus and his disciples arrived.

Now other people in this situation might well have told this big crowd where to go, for they really did need their rest and recuperation – and this really was a bit of a bother. However, we now read what is a really telling comment (in verse 34) which tells us a lot about God ... “As [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd – and [Jesus] had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”.

[If you refer to Psalm 23, you can see there many benefits that a shepherd provides for his sheep - resources, refreshment, peace, restoration, guidance, protection, comfort, safety, a sense of home ... a place of belonging, acceptance and value.]

At least two things to consider here. Jesus represents here how God feels about people who are lost, or lack direction, or who are so uncertain in their lives that they will race after every new possibility to give them some hope or purpose ... Jesus has “compassion” on them. As “sheep” need a “shepherd” to guide them and keep them from harm, human beings need a completely reliable point of reference for the conduct of their lives. This is because many are weary and fragile from the journey, and vulnerable to life’s pressures, and could easily take the wrong track.

Secondly, Jesus also is teaching us how we should feel about the “sheep” amongst us who lack a “shepherd”. As we have already considered, there are many needy people, who for a wide variety of reasons, struggle in life. The “compassion” Jesus brings, and models for us, is a deep gut reaction filled with disappointment, love, and a longing for justice and freedom. From this position of heart-felt concern, Jesus would not be able to turn the crowd away!

So enraptured by Jesus’ teaching that day were this crowd, that all of a sudden there was a realisation that the hour was late. Jesus was not inclined to agree with his disciples about sending the crowd away into surrounding villages to get some food from there. It would seem that the hospitality on offer from God had not been fully explored yet. They had received some teaching, but God’s hospitality is far broader than that – it is holistic and touches all parts of life.

This raised an obvious problem though ... an apparent lack of resources. Where would the food come from? Sometimes when faced with dramatic need, the resources we have on offer seem so few (and so limited). The disciples (refer verse 37) thought that the task was impossible! But is there a greater source we can call upon? Are our resources always to be calculated purely from what we can see and touch? When Jesus was faced with a lack of resources on the ground, the outcome was actually an ‘endless feast’!

We would know that five loaves of bread and two fish would have no chance of feeding five thousand hungry men with their wives and families. Yet when they were distributed, and everyone had enough, there were twelve full baskets left over. What had happened? Jesus had looked up to heaven in prayerful trust, blessing the loaves and fish and breaking them up in the firm hope that they would be enough, and then gave all the pieces to his disciples for distribution.

Simply put, God provides the resources to meet the needs of the crowd. Yet Jesus did utilise the personal human touch by getting the disciples to be involved in the distribution. On a global scale, we know that the poverty endured within so many nations and so many communities, is due to a lack of proper distribution and also a lack of committed consideration, rather than any lack of generosity of God. We can scarcely blame God when we have abrogated our responsibility concerning caring for the earth.

It will be the followers of Jesus who sense God’s attitude of compassion to all people everywhere, and take up their responsibility to make a positive difference. And in doing so, in total reliance upon God to bring forth a wide variety of resources through which to get the job done, we will participate in what can only be described as an ‘endless feast of blessing’. People will come to know Jesus, the One who can introduce them to Creator God, give them the Holy Spirit, and address each and every one of their needs and aspirations.

Something that started modestly five years ago, and is currently celebrating its fifth birthday, has the potential to touch at least five thousand in the years to come. For what happens here, can become of great benefit on a much broader scale across this residential community, and around the local Tarneit community, and right across all the families represented here.