Tuesday Thought -- January 8, 2013

Good Morning Friends,

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.  Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’  So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.  But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things.” (Mark 6:30-34)

The account above from Mark’s Gospel immediately precedes the amazing miracle that Jesus did when he took the little boy’s lunch and used it to feed 5,000 men, plus women and children.

The thing that strikes me so powerfully from this story from Jesus’ life is how unselfish Jesus was.  He took the twelve apostles to a quiet and solitary place because He needed some time away from the crowds.  Jesus needed that time for His own good, to spend resting and communing with His Father.  He also needed that time for the apostles, to spend time focused just on them, teaching them and ministering to them.

Those were Jesus’ needs, but when the crowds followed Jesus to the quiet place He had found, He could not and would not turn them away.  The compassion of Jesus for the needs of the people exceeded the priority of His own needs and the needs of His apostles.  He set aside what He needed to focus on what would be most helpful to the crowds.

There are many times when I know what I need – I need rest, I need sleep, I need to be alone, I need to focus on myself, I need to take care of my house.  Those all represent needs that I have from time to time.  And when those needs are on my mind, I’m not likely to be as sensitive to the needs of the people around me.  But that’s not Jesus.  Even in the midst of His own needs, He was sensitive to the needs of the people around Him.

I want to be more like Jesus.  I want to see the needs of the people around me.  I want to be willing to set aside my own needs to move toward helping their needs.  I want to be more like Jesus – don’t you?

His, by Grace,

Steve