6:30-34
Taken Aside
On the one hand, we find that the apostles returned of their own accord to Jesus at Capernaum after their tour of service; on the other hand we find that the Lord upon their return took them aside for a season of privacy. This was the Lord's own arrangement for their well-being as His servants. An Eastern house is open to any one who will enter, and meal-times form no exception to the freedom of general access which every one expects to be allowed. Jesus said therefore to the apostles, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” They had no ‘leisure,’ or rather they had no convenient opportunity to eat, on account of the incessant intrusions of the people. 'Leisure' may be thought to imply absence of occupation, but the turn here seems to be that there was no suitable occasion even for meals, on account of persistent interruption.
It is well to note that the Great Master, who sent out these men into active enterprise, also led them apart to rest awhile. Not that their work was all finished. The harvest was as plenteous as ever: the laborers were still few. A world of need was around them. But the same voice that said on one occasion, “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:44I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. (John 9:4)), also said to the same persons, “Come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile.” Need it be said that He is the Lord, and that He will say to us 'Work' or ‘Rest,' as He in His perfect wisdom sees best. It is ours to respond cheerfully and readily to either of these calls or to any.
“Strike, Thou the Master, we Thy keys,
The anthem of the destinies.”
In point of fact the apostles had been passing through a perilous experience: They had been preaching their first sermons, and performing their first miracles. They were therefore exposed to the deadly snare of the novice (1 Tim. 3:66Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:6)). Is it extravagant to suppose that they, like the seventy shortly afterward, were highly elated at the outward signs of what appeared to be their brilliant success? “The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us in thy name” (Luke 10:1717And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. (Luke 10:17)). But the Lord showed them how, by reason of their immature, judgment, they had failed to grasp the true proportion of things. The endowments of grace far exceeded in value the equipment for service. Their names were written in heaven and not in the dust of the earth; and this enrollment for heavenly blessing was the fit subject for their rejoicing rather than their delegated power over unclean spirits. For a like reason, mayhap, the Lord said to the twelve, Come ye yourselves apart, and rest awhile. The rest would sober their spirits.
The Lord had many things to say to His servants, but He could not say them there where so many were coming and going. Communications that could not be made to the twelve on the seashore were made on a former occasion indoors (Matt. 13:3636Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. (Matthew 13:36)), but when the house became overcrowded privacy must be sought elsewhere. An individual might secure this privacy by entering into his closet, and barring his door (Matt. 6:66But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:6)), but the circumstances were different in this case. There were a number of them, and the Lord turned wide to the solitudes of the wilderness with His little company.
Instances are not wanting in Scripture history which establish the necessity for seasons of retirement in the public life of men of God. In the presence of fellow-men, the manifold activities and responsibilities of mutual relationship tend to exclude the sense of the invisible and the eternal; but in privacy, faith, hope and love are quickened into exercise and strengthened for the day of conflict. It was by the river Chebar that the heavens were opened to Ezekiel the priest, and he saw visions of God. And it was while exiled in Patmos that John beheld the glorious Son of man among the seven golden candlesticks, and saw vistas of the future depicted in the gorgeous imagery of the Apocalypse. Moses found the “burning bush,” not in Egypt but in Horeb, and forty years of sheep-tending on the untenanted slopes of the mountain was a needful part of his training to become the leader and lawgiver of Israel.
And so the Lord's call, Come apart and rest awhile, was no new element in the method of divine training; but the call is the more impressive, coming as it does, from the lips of the assiduous Servant of God whom Mark portrays. Let it be the more carefully to be remembered that it is in seclusion that the deep-lying principles of divine life are deepened, strengthened and developed for days of activity. Apart from these seasons of silent and secret growth such fruit as may appear is likely to be unripe and untimely.
SHEPHERDLESS SHEEP
The Lord accordingly went away with His apostles in the boat, which, apparently, was one allotted to their use (cp. 3:9; 6:45, 51). Their destination was an uninhabited district on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where the required privacy might very well be found. It was, as Luke tells us, near the town of Bethsaida (Luke 9:1010And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. (Luke 9:10)). This was not the Bethsaida near Chorazin upon which the Lord's woes were pronounced (Matt. 11:2525At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. (Matthew 11:25)), but is generally believed to be a town some miles to the eastward known as Bethsaida Julias.
They did not depart unnoticed. The people were too much alert. They had received many benefits through the mercy of the Master, and some seem to have kept watch upon His movements. The embarkation of the little band was observed, and many “knew Him.” They recognized the Benefactor, and with characteristic impetuosity, and with some labor and fatigue, they followed on land for some ten or twelve miles the progress of the boat, being joined by many others from the neighboring villages. Mark, with his customary graphic detail, records that the people “ran” such was their earnestness; and, moreover, that they ran “afoot.”
And Jesus coming forth either from the boat on landing, or from the place of retirement having arrived first, saw this great multitude, and was filled with compassion. He knew their case, marked their eager and laborious pursuit of Him, appreciated their mute but eloquent prayer that He would do them some good, and as a consequence He was filled with compassion. What an heart of infinite capacity His was to be filled! How great the volume of pity when He was filled!
The multitude was a great one, but the Lord knew the burden and the need of each person present. God's love was there below, and there is
“No creature, great or small,
Beyond His pity which embraceth all,
Nor any ocean rolls so vast that He.
Forgets one wave of all that restless sea.”
But this occasion however was more than an illustration of His universal love. It exemplified His particular concern. In His general providence the heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air (Matt. 6:2626Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:26)). But this company was of more value in His eyes than they? They were not like the busily curious idlers in Capernaum from whose incessant coming and going' the Lord had turned away. These persons had been seeking Him with some pains and inconvenience to themselves. They had traveled some miles to reach Him. They were now before Him, faint in body and weary in spirit. Had they not been as sheep going astray?
Were they not now returning to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls? And He was filled with compassion for them.
Who was there in all the earth to care for these poor ones of the flock of Israel? A Gentile emperor at Rome ruled them with a rod of iron. An Edomite sat on the throne of David. Were Annas and Caiaphas high priests such as the people needed—men who would bear gently with the ignorant and with them that were out of the way (Heb. 5:22Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. (Hebrews 5:2))? There was no compassion in the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees who devoured widows' houses and loaded men's shoulders with heavy, burdens grievous to be borne. The grave had but just closed upon the mutilated corpse of the last of the line of the prophets of God. Truly Israel was without prophet, priest, or king. The people were as sheep not having a shepherd (Num. 27:1717Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. (Numbers 27:17);1 Kings 22:1717And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace. (1 Kings 22:17); Ezek. 34:5, 65And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. 6My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. (Ezekiel 34:5‑6)). All this the Lord saw very fully, and He was filled with compassion for them. Their own shepherds did not pity them (Zech. 11:55Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. (Zechariah 11:5)), for they were but hirelings, and did not own the sheep, who were therefore afflicted because there was in point of fact no shepherd (Zech. 10:22For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd. (Zechariah 10:2)).
We may ask ourselves who was it there by the Galilean sea with these compassionate thoughts for Israel? Was not this Jehovah echoing what He spake of old through the prophet Isaiah? He was saying, Surely, these are my people; I will be their Savior. He had come down to be afflicted in their affliction, to redeem them in His love and pity, to bear them and carry them as in the days of old (Isa. 63:8, 98For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. 9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:8‑9)). His arm was not shortened that it could not save; His ear was not heavy that it could not hear.
The Lord's heart of pent-up goodness needed but to find a channel, and it found a suitable channel in this indigent friendless people; so He “began to teach them many things.” They were to Him the poor of the flock, and He began accordingly to feed them. He was Himself their living food, come down from heaven. As He said, “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
“Blessed Master, how lovely to have Thy character to rest on, to study, to feed on! Oh, may we feed so richly on it, that when we meet Thee, Thou mayest be to us a known Jesus, and the sympathies of Thy Spirit may be with what Thy Spirit has already matured in our hearts, and seeing Thee in glory as Thou art, all the inward springs and depths of Thy character may then be revealed to us.”
[W.J.H.]