Pastor Jonah Sage preached Mark 6:30-56. He said that God loves you and will take care of you. Lector: Lindsey Blair
Pastor Jonah Sage preached Mark 6:30-56. He said that God loves you and will take care of you. Lector: Lindsey Blair
As I have grown older, and as our once twenty somethings-filled-congregation reaches our middle years, I find myself talking about boundaries often.
One of our deacons, Lindsey Blair, defined what boundaries are and why they exist really well to me recently:
Boundaries are guardrails that provide clarity so that we might have safe, healthy, and whole relationships.
-Deacon Lindsey Blair
Boundaries are lines created to get us where we're meant to go, like on highways.
And, like highways, not just get there, but get there safe and whole.
From the beginning, God gave us boundaries because he loves us and will take care of us.
first boundary: don't eat from that tree. Why? You'll die!
Boundaries are for the sake of healthy relationships
10 Commandments more boundaries. Why? Life will be so painful if you don't
If you lie: pain. Adultery: pain. Steal: pain.
Boundaries are created either to prevent hurt or heal hurt that's happened.
God gives us boundaries because he loves us and will take care of us.
If healing does not happen, though, hurt will fester. It infects the soul and relationships. Infected boundaries become barriers.
Barriers are walls that disrupt relationships and keep us in a space of self-preservation and self-protection—our relationships will not flourish with barriers up.
-Deacon Lindsey Blair
In the following two chapters of Mark, we will see the difference.
Repeatedly, we will see Jesus breaking down barriers.
Hurt people built walls of religion, theology, ethnicity, tradition, and gender.
By breaking these walls, he shows us the heart of his mission:
Healing the hurts we hide.
He loves us and will take care of us, so he must heal the hurts we often aren't even aware of.
Remember: Jesus was just rejected by his hometown.
Have you been hurt by your family before? Let the church say AMEN.
This isn't the first time, either. His family tried to pull him out of a room, said he lost his mind.
It can be hard to believe God loves us and will take care of us when it seems like no one else will.
Mark jump from this rejection to a royal feast
Homeless John the Baptist is back, telling King Herod he is sinning against God.
John made Herod uncomfortable. Herod didn't how to respond.
Sometimes curious, often uncomfortable.
Herod was afraid to act against John because he saw John was godly.
But Herod's wife wanted John dead. Here are the options:
Offend God or offend your wife. You can guess which he chooses.
Herod's daughter dances for him, and he offers her anything she wants In. Return.
She asks mama...mama says the head of John the Baptist.
Herod's in a real pickle now:
the king deeply regretted what he had said; but because of the vows he made in front of his guests, he couldn't refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner to the prison to cut off John's head
-Mark 6:26-17 (emphasis added)
Herod was an insecure man desperate for power.
He does what he knows is wrong so others will like him.
Ever done something like that?
He could not be made to look weak for his wife or guests...
Where does this lack of confidence come from?
I don't know with Herod...but I know it always comes from hurt.
Insecurity always comes from doubting you are loved and someone will take care of you. Always.
This is why highly accomplished people, even KINGS can be terrified of a spouse, a crowd, or even a homeless man...because the hurt is hidden deep inside, and nothing from the outside can break through the barriers hiding that hurt.
Some hurt whispers "no one loves you, no one will care for you."
Instead of healing, Herod's hurt became a barrier, blinding him to God's nearness, rendering him incapable of making good decisions. Maybe you can relate.
Jesus is rejected at home. Jesus' cousin is executed. The religious people oppose him.
How would you feel here if you were Jesus?
What do you do when you're discouraged and exhausted? ***GIVE SPACE***
Here's what Jesus said to his disciples:
Let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.
-Mark 6:31
I want you to know it's OK to need to find a quiet place and rest awhile.
No one, not even Jesus, can live constantly in go mode.
So many people wanted stuff from him that he didn't even have time to eat.
Ever felt that way? It's OK to want to rest awhile, and it's OK to take steps to get it
So they left by a boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone.
-Mark 6:32
No announcement. No facebook post saying he's prioritizing self-care and will be away for awhile.
But people saw him leaving...and they ran around the lake ahead of him.
Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat...
-Mark 6:34
How would you feel? How would you react? I just needed some space, some rest...
Remember: boundaries are for reconciliation, barriers produce isolation.
REST might be a boundary you put up. I need some sleep, some downtime.
That is not wrong, it's human. But boundaries require great wisdom.
Boundaries require us to continually ask ourselves questions like:
Do I believe God loves me?
Do I believe God will take care of me?
Is this circumstance something God is inviting me to?
Will this help or hinder my faithfulness to God?
Look what Jesus notices about this crowd:
Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
-Mark 6:34
Jesus got in this boat with a good, human, godly desire. Rest.
Did Jesus believe God loved him? Absolutely
That God would take care of him? Of course!
How else would he carry no food or money or sleep on the streets?
He trusted God would care for him.
Is this circumstance something God is inviting me to?
Well..Jesus is the good shepherd. Notice it wasn't the disciples who had compassion
it was the shepherd looking at his sheep.
Another way to answer this question: who else but Jesus could do this?
Too often we cross our boundaries to do something that is not ours to do
I can't explain this fully to you, we need wisdom here.
You'll need to figure this out with people in your life...
But let me give you some examples:
It's not a child's responsibility to meet a parent's emotional needs.
It's not a parent's responsibility to control their adult child's behavior
It's not a church's responsibility to entertain you
If it's not yours to do, if someone else can reasonably do it, honor your boundary.
Is speaking with this crowd around his boat appropriate for Jesus?
Yes, of course. They are lost, and he is their shepherd.
Is this something only Jesus can do? YES. Only he can reveal wisdom from God
So...what does he do?
Even though he's sad, tired, hungry, and wants to rest...
He began teaching them many things.
-Mark 6:34
See, Jesus has the option here: do I cling tightly to this boundary, or do I open myself to God being up to something?
He's open to the possibility that what he needs is more than a nap and a meal.
Jesus believed God would take care of him, which includes giving him the words to say to these people and the strength to say it.
Did he do this every time? NO. Mark begins with Jesus leaving a crowd.
He didn't say yes every time he was tired, didn't say yes just because he was asked
But sometimes he did. Sometimes he pressed through because he trusted God was for him, would provide for him, and this was something uniquely for him to do.
Boundaries are for the sake of healthy relationships, which means sometimes we will cross them for the sake of reconciliation as God leads us.
And I can't say this for certain, but I feel confident that the disciples didn't get it and didn't like it. Watch what happens.
They come to Jesus saying they need to send everyone away for food
Everybody's hungry, which includes the disciples...they came here because they couldn't eat!
Jesus says "YOU feed them." They are exhausted, hungry, and I bet they're fussy...because I get fussy when I'm tired and hungry and confused:
"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
Maybe they believed God loved them, but they didn't people he'd take care of them.
You know the story from here, right? Five loaves, two fish. For thousands of people.
Jesus prays, blesses the food, and began giving it to the disciples so they could pass it out.
They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.
-Mark 6:42-43
How many people total? 10,000? Had to be some quiver-full folk there. 15,000?
But I want you to notice something: who knew how much food they started with?
THE DISCIPLES. The tired, hungry, fussy disciples. Not the crowd.
What did the crowd see? Jesus blessing the food. Of course he would do that.
No big deal. The crowd did not witness a miracle. Do you realize that?
The crowds had no idea what happened. They were happy to get free food.
The crowd did not witness a miracle: the disciples did.
Jesus fed the thousands, yes, but more so he was healing the hearts of the disciples.
He was showing them, and now us, that God loves you and will take care of you
So much of our hurt comes from the belief that we are not loved, not lovable, and no one will care for me.
Why do we call it self-care? Because who else is going to care for me in this world?
So we put up boundaries...but we don't know how to tend them, and so few of us realize what's really going on: so often we use boundaries to keep our hurt hidden
I don't know who you think you are in this story, but I'm pretty sure I'm one of the people that ran across the lake to see Jesus.
I'm pretty sure I am one of the lost sheep in need of a shepherd.
Which is to say I don't know what I need most of the time, I just know I'm hurting
I know I often believe no one loves me, no one will take care of me.
Like the disciples, I get fussy when I'm tired and hungry
It's Ok to want rest and food. It's good to have boundaries...but we must hold our boundaries loosely and with wisdom, trusting God loves us and will take care of us
Will you take the road of Herod? The road of isolation, self-protection, people-pleasing?
your hurts will linger. Your insecurities will grow.
Or...will you take the road of Jesus?
Believe God loves you and will take care of you.
Embrace your good, human desires, and then hand them over to the Lord.
Believe God loves you and will take care of you.
As we do, those hidden hurts will come to the surface, but at the surface your hurts will find themselves in the presence of Jesus, and your hidden hurts will be healed.
Let's pray.