Mark 6: 30-34

“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while. (6:31a)” Jesus intended they might all get away and rest, get a little vacation. Little Byron asked his mother, “Why does the minister get a whole month’s vacation in the summer?” “Well, son,” answered the mother, “if he’s a good minister, he needs it. If he isn’t, the congregation needs it!” I spent some time recently talking with April and some trusted colleagues to fill in for me when we’ll be away for vacation. Maybe it’ll be good for all of us.

Vacation. Do you or you and the family go to the same places when you do go on vacation? When I was a kid, we consistently went to the beach every year. When I was old enough to actually pay attention to the conversations my parents had with each other, I remember my father proposing alterations to our annual vacation routine. He suggested we vacation somewhere else or rent a house somewhere else instead of a hotel room at the beach. My mother addressed those suggestions when they arose by saying it was her vacation too, and she wasn’t about to go somewhere and cook and clean in somebody else’s house and call that a vacation. “We’re going to the beach so the maid can make our beds every day, and we can eat out every meal!” Mom looked forward to vacation.

Jesus wanted all of them to get away and rest a while. Don’t you know they needed it? “Many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. (6: 31b)” They were on the move regularly to the point they didn’t have time to eat. The Old Testament shows us God incorporating rest and relaxation in the lives of his people. We don’t have to go any further than the Ten Commandments. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath (“to cease, desist”) to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work. (Exodus 20: 9-10a)” It was meant to be a day of worship and of rest for the people of God, their servants, and their animals. Included in the four major festivals of the Jewish calendar year (Passover, Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, Feast of Booths or Succoth, Feast of Trumpets) were days of absolutely no work. We were created to know the value of work and the benefit of rest. I remember Jack Welch. He was a cattle farmer and a member of one of the churches I pastored in South Carolina. When I’d mention the sabbath in my sermon he’d greet me after worship and tell me his sabbath on Sunday was to go to church and have lunch. He worked six and a half days a week. If he didn’t work, he’d say, they didn’t eat.

For so many, rest is a luxury. Jesus and his friends got away in a boat to a deserted place by themselves, but many recognized them, followed them from the shore and arrived ahead of them. Rest is a valuable thing. Sometimes you have to carve it out of your week or your year and take full advantage of it. A college girl was on a plane flying home from Pittsburgh to her home. As she stared out of the plane window down at the green countryside below, her heart was heavy, and tears were in her eyes. She was a student returning home for the Easter holidays. Her first year of college was nearly over, and it was a disaster. She was convinced that life no longer held any real meaning for her. Her only ray of happiness lay in the fact that she would soon see the ocean which she loved dearly. As the plane touched down on the runway, the girl wondered what kind of Easter vacation was possible after having such a difficult first year in college. Her grandmother met her at the gate, and the two of them drove home in complete silence. As they pulled into the driveway the girl’s only thought was getting to the ocean. It was well after midnight when she arrived at the beach. She just sat on the sand in the moonlight watching the waves roll up the beach, slowly her disastrous first year passed before her eyes, day by day, week by week, month by month. Then, suddenly, the whole experience fell into place. It was over and past. She could forget about it forever; but at the same time, she didn’t want to forget it. The next thing she knew, the sun was rising. As it did she sensed her feelings starting to peak, just as a wave starts to peak before it breaks. That morning, she, too, arose. It was as though her mind, heart and body were drawing strength from the ocean. All her goals, dreams and enthusiasm came rushing back stronger than ever. She rose with the sun, got into her car and headed for home. After her Easter vacation, she returned to college, picked up the broken pieces of her year and fitted them back together again. In the short span of an Easter vacation, that young woman died and rose again. For the first time in her life, she understood the practical meaning of a true vacation and of Easter.

Jesus wanted to get away with his friends to rest. They made it to a normally deserted place, but those for whom he had compassion met them. They were sheep without a shepherd, and he loved them. 

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What about these people? They weren’t working. Maybe it was their vacation, or they were between harvests, and they had no work. Biblical scholars often refer to these folks following Jesus and his disciples as “people of the land.” They owned no property. They nomadically followed the seasons from harvest to harvest and looked for work where they could find it. During this messianic time, this time of revelation and the miraculous from one man and his friends from Galilee, the people of the land didn’t follow the work. They followed the Son of God and received from him all they could get, and he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. In him, they found rest, and in him they found peace, they found forgiveness, they found wholeness, they found grace and mercy, and he loved them.

I hope you find some days to rest from your routine and vacation, if you’re able. It is remarkable all the things that can happen when you refrain from the work and related troubles, if you’re able, rest your minds and spirits and souls so the Lord can come to you like a shepherd, seeking his sheep who are in need of all he can give them. Amen.

(Preached at Lincoln UMC in Lincoln, AL, July 18, 2021)