Mark 6:45-47

Passage

Immediately, Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and head over to the other side while He dismissed the crowds.  After He had dismissed the crowds, He went up the mountain to pray by Himself.  When evening came, the boat was out on the sea while He was alone.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Immediately.  Here is that word again.  It’s been a long time since we’ve seen it, but here it appears.  Once more Jesus responds immediately.  In this case, it is immediately after the miracle.  What’s going on here?  Immediately after a miracle occurs, Jesus directs His disciples to leave.  I think there are two things at work here.  One we’ll talk about today; one I’ll save for tomorrow.  First, I think Jesus is protecting His disciples.  John 6:14-15 tells us that the crowd was thinking about taking Jesus at that moment and declaring Him king.  His disciples didn’t need that kind of temptation.  It would be too easy for His disciples to get pulled into that kind of crowd.  They weren’t mature enough in their spirituality.  So Jesus sends them away to protect their young faith from human temptation.

What role do spiritual mentors have with respect to protecting their mentees?  How can this passage teach spiritual leaders to try to put their mentees in positions where their faith can be nurtured and grow?

Second Thought:

Once His disciples were gone, Jesus dismissed the crowds.  Jesus dealt with the crud of human beings trying to mold Jesus into what they wanted Him to be.  Jesus deals with the organizational junk.  As the Son of God, Jesus knows that He can deal with people and not lose sight of the overall vision.

What can this passage teach us about the need for leaders to stay true to the vision?  What can this passage tell us about the importance of knowing the vision so that we can stay true to God’s plan?

Third Thought:

Jesus goes up the mountainside to pray.  He first took care of His disciples.  He then dealt with the crowd.  Now He needed to commune with the Father.  The crowds no doubt wore Him out as they were trying to take Him and make Him king and force Him into the “Messiah” that they wanted Him to be.  He needed to have some time to abide with the Father.

Do you see Jesus modeling the importance of “abiding with God?”  What is so important about having time with the Father?  How does it make you feel to see that even Jesus needed to have time to recuperate from His interactions with the world?

Passage for Tomorrow: Mark 6:48-52