Title: The Trouble with People
Text: Mark 6:30-44 / John 6:1-14
Thesis: When Jesus saw people he valued them, felt for them and did what he could to help them.
Introduction
Recording artist Seth Glier sings in his The Trouble with People” album, “The trouble with people is they drive me nuts…”
You may remember the line Charles Shultz penned for Charlie Brown, “I love mankind ... it's just people I can't stand!!” (Charles M. Schulz, The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960)
I think David Goodis nailed it when he said, “The trouble with people is they don't understand people.”
Hopefully we can learn a bit about understanding ourselves and other people from the account of The Feeding of the 5,000. The first thing we may surmise is:
I. People are Exhausting, Mark 6:30-32
Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest a while.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t have time to eat. So they left by boat for a quiet place where they could be alone. Mark 6:31-32
When we read around the Mark account of the feeding of the 5,000 we see that there were at least three factors that contributed to the weariness Jesus and his disciples were feeling. From Mark we learn that they had just received word that John the Baptist had been beheaded by King Herod Antipas at the behest of the queen. (Mark 6:14-29) The tragic death of a friend or colleague or relative is exhausting. In addition, the disciples had just returned from their ministry tour and were giving Jesus an update on their work. Mark 6:6-13 and 30) Plus, there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and the disciples didn’t even have time to eat. (Mark 6:31)
The challenge for Jesus and his disciples is not unlike our own.
Tension: The challenge is the tension between work vs. relaxation.
It seems there is always too much to do.
A. Too much work
But many people saw them leaving and ran ahead along the shore and got ahead of them. Mark 6:33
A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. John 6:2
It is not just a matter of having a backlog of things to we need to do, sometimes is feels like people are just asking too much. Consequently we feel like we are in a war zone.
I first became familiar with the term “R & R” during the Vietnam War. War is an intense and exhausting experience and service personnel were granted time for rest and recuperation / relaxation / recreation.
All US military personnel serving in Vietnam during hostilities there were eligible for one R&R during their tour of duty (13 months for marines, 12 months for army, navy and air force service personnel). The duration of R&R was five days leave to R&R destinations to places like Bangkok; Hong Kong; Manila; Singapore; Taipei; Tokyo… even Sydney, Australia and Hawaii.
So we understand how Jesus felt. He and his disciples were due some R & R. He suggested they take a break and get away to a quiet place so they can rest and recuperate from their weariness. Jesus wanted a little vacay away.
It was a great plan but despite our need for some space we do not always get it.
B. Too little solitude
Many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and the people from many towns ran ahead of them along the shore and got there ahead of them. Mark 6:33
Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. John 6:5a
The people who were tapping into Jesus’s ministry were relentless.
One of my favorite commercials is the one where the ice cream truck is coming down the street and the kids ask their mother if they can have some ice cream… she says, “No, we’re going to have dinner soon.” Just then the front door bursts open and the dad races after the ice cream truck. The picture ends with the truck continuing on down the street with the father and two kids chasing after it.
Jesus was something of an ice cream truck… he was an engaging teacher and miracle worker and they could not get enough. They were relentless in their pursuit of the ice cream truck.
Jesus and his disciples were exhausted so they got into a boat intending on arriving on the other side of the lake where they would get a little R & R.
However there would be no R & R on the other side.
II. People need Compassion, Mark 6:33-34
Jesus saw the crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. Mark 6:34
I am not and hopefully will never be a shepherd… those I’ve know who owned sheep say they require a lot of attention. Commentator William Barclay says sheep without a shepherd cannot find their way. They get lost. Sheep without a shepherd cannot fend for themselves. Someone has to take them to where they can find food. And sheep without a shepherd are defenseless and even senseless.
I recently read about a group of shepherds who were eating their breakfast outside the town of Gevas, Turkey when they saw one sheep just jump off a cliff and fall to its death. But they were even more stunned as they watched the rest of the flock, nearly 1,500 sheep, leapt off the same cliff. Apparently the 450 sheep that died cushioned the fall for the other 1,000 plus who followed.
Sheep obviously vie for all the time and attention of their shepherd.
Whenever there are people or things vying for our time there is a new tension in our lives.
Tension: The challenge is a tension between resenting people vs. responding to people.
Jesus and his disciples had to be feeling the pinch of people.
When we are feeling the pinch of people we may respond in one of two ways.
A. People as nuisances
My guess is that the disciples were a bit irked. People can be bothersome and irksome and make nuisances of themselves. But there is a reason for that…
B. People as needy
…he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Mark 6:34
The word used here is actually pity… Jesus was not disgusted by the people. He felt pity for them.
There was no philosophical or political discussion about the poor. There was no discussion about their lack of foresight in leaving home without a sack lunch. There was no discussion about whether the people should be working instead of chasing Jesus around the lake. There was no discussion about whether they qualified for or had misused their food stamps. There was no discussion about whether or not the people were working the system.
Jesus just felt pity for them. He felt pity for people who likely had resources and who would not starve to death if they had to walk home on an empty stomach. He simply felt pity for a bunch of people who were about to miss the evening meal.
We all know that whenever people have needs… meeting needs requires resources.
III. People require Resources, Mark 6:35-44
Turning to Philip Jesus asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people? John 6:5
Whenever once having realized that there will no rest for ourselves and that we do in fact feel compassion for people we are faced with a third tension;
Tension: The challenge is the tension between doing nothing vs. doing something.
So what to do?
A. Send them away or do something?
Late in the afternoon the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.” But Jesus said, “You feed them. Mark 6:35-37
Nice. Jesus attracts this massive crowd of needy people so what do we do?
An article written by Cynthia Hubert of the Sacramento Bee reported that over the past five years, Nevada’s primary psychiatric hospital has found a novel way of dealing with their mentally ill patients; they put them on Greyhound busses and ship them to cities and towns across the country. Since 2008, Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas has transported more than 1,500 patients to other cities… sending at least one person to every state in the continental United States. One man suffering from Schizophrenia arrived in Sacramento, California without medication, identification or access to his Social Security payments. (Cynthia Hubert, “Nevada buses hundreds of mentally ill patients to cities across the country,” the Sacramento Bee, 4/14/13)
It is always easier to send people away.
The challenge of helping people is in figuring out how and with what…
B. What do we not have or what do we have?
“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people.” Mark 6:37
“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.” Mark 6:38a
“We have 5 barley loaves and 2 fish…” Mark 6:38b and John 6:9
There is a happy ending to The Feeding of the 5,000 account. They found among those 5,000 men plus women and children that one boy had bothered to bring a lunch… it wasn’t much, 5 pieces of bread and 2 fish (it was like 5 crackers and 2 sardines).
But rather than dwell on what they did not have, Jesus took what little they had and did what he could.
Sometimes we cannot do much but we can hopefully give a little time to listen, maybe spare a couple of bucks or at least pray.
Often when pastors get together our conversation will drift to our latest experiences in dealing with people who need some kind of assistance.
In his book Pastoral Graces Lee Eclov tells of such an incident in his pastoral support group. One of his colleagues was very heavyhearted as he told of a mother-daughter duo who was constantly coming to him for money and help. They called the church for assistance. They never came to church or showed any interest in spiritual things… they just wanted the church to help. The pastor asked his colleagues to pray for him because he felt so sad about the many needy people who called or came to the church door.
Instantly his pastor friends jumped on it. “You can’t let these people get to you…” “You can’t get involved in every needy situation…” “These kinds of people just make the rounds…”
Then Eclov realized he was not asking them for advice… he was asking them to pray. Eclov realized that by loving those difficult people, people the rest of the pastors preferred to ignore, his friend was sharing in the suffering of Christ as he suffered with and for needy people. (Lee Eclov, Pastoral Graces, Moody Press, 2012, pp. 39-40)
You may think like I sometimes think and ask, “What can I do? How can I make a difference?” An amusing African Proverb suggests, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending a night in a closed room with a mosquito.” African Proverb
Conclusion
In a classic episode from The Andy Griffith Show, Andy Taylor, who is the sheriff of Mayberry is out of town. He left Deputy Barney Fife in charge and deputized Gomer Pyle, the local mechanic.
In this scene Barney and Gomer are walking down the street one evening when they notice someone is robbing the town’s bank. They hide behind a car. They are afraid and don’t know what to do. Finally Gomer looks at Barney and says, “Shazam! We need to call the police.”
In utter exasperation Barney shoots back, “We are the police!”
We are the police!
Surely if we think about it and pray about it we can always do something. When Jesus saw people he valued them, felt for them and did what he could to help them.
