Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
A Good Shepherd
“…like sheep without a shepherd…” (Mark 6:34)
I have often felt like a sheep without a shepherd. The news of war, hunger, climate change, people who have no safe place to call home, work deadlines, family joys and concerns—they all can take their toll.
Our Gospel lesson today tells us how the apostles could not wait to tell Jesus all that they had accomplished on their mission to proclaim that all should repent, cast out demons, and heal the sick (Mark 6:12, 13). He invited them to come away and rest awhile. Later on in the text, we read about the people who saw Jesus as the boat came to shore and wanted to get a look at him or to “touch even the fringe of his cloak” (Mark 6:56). These people must have felt as the disciples did.
Often, when we are in need, we look for something to fix it, and more often than not, we get ourselves into trouble looking to things that cannot fill the need…drugs, food, alcohol, work, play, spending money, and so forth.
Jesus knew what the disciples and those following him needed: rest, healing, and hearing the good news. Even today, Jesus knows what we need, and like those first-century followers, we, like lost sheep, can follow the will of the great Shepherd, for he has compassion on us.
Jane R. Gehler, director of spiritual care, Marquardt Village
Watertown, Wisconsin