| Lectionary - Proper 11 - Gospel | | Date Created: Jul 21, 2006, 10:08 AM |
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The Gospel reading for this coming Sunday is Mark 6:30-34, 53-56.
Here's something I probably should have put into the Mealtime Habits book. Late in the book, I wrote about Mark 3:20-21, 31 as Jesus' Jewish mother worrying that he's not eating properly. "...Again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this..." (Mk 3:20-21). What I hadn't noticed when I wrote about it was that the same sort of wording pops up here in Mark 6 as well, though not with the family in mind:
"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...'" (Mk 6:31).
Perhaps I should have explored in the book the idea that the crowds prevent Jesus and the guys from eating. Interestingly, this is the chapter in which Jesus feeds the 5000, but the lectionary routes us around that and focuses on the crowds and Jesus' reaction to them rather than targetting eating and not eating.
The writer of the Gospel, reflecting an eyewitness's perspective (the ancient external sources tell us that this is John Mark recording material related by Peter and that seems to me probable), knows that the disciples got to the point where they saw fame and celebrity as a nuisance and the adoration of the crowd something to be escaped and Jesus is in sympathy with the disciples for their sake. But the Lectionary reading points out through the selection of the verses that Jesus' attitude wasn't exactly the same. When the crowds persist and anticipate the solitude-seekers, Jesus has compassion on them (Mk 6:34) and later, heals crowd after crowd (Mk 6:55-56).
I'm often emphasising how we need to love God for who he is rather than, selfishly, for what he can do for us. But one of the lessons of this gospel reading I need to hear is that we who know the Lord and want to get away to spend quality time with him also need to avoid begrudging others who, because of their unwellness more than because of his identity, want to glimpse and touch him. |
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