Mark 6:30-34
Sheep Without a Shepherd
30Meanwhile, the apostles gathered around Jesus and brought Him news of all they had done and taught.
31And He said to them, “Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
32So they went away in a boat by themselves to a solitary place.
33But many people saw them leaving and recognized them. They ran together on foot from all the towns and arrived before them.
34When Jesus stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.
Berean Standard Bible
The Twelve come back off the road and they are full of it. Mark says they gathered around him and reported everything at once, what they had done and what they had taught. They had gone out with no bread and no money.
His answer is not the one the moment seems to call for. He asks for no numbers, he sends nobody out again, and he tells twelve excited men to stop.
Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.
The reason comes in the same breath. There were so many people coming and going that the Twelve had not been able to sit down and eat.
The man saying that had been turned away by his own hometown, we have just read what was done to John, and here are twelve worn-out men in front of him. His answer to all of it is a boat and an empty piece of shoreline.
It does not work. People see the boat pull away, work out who is in it, and run on foot from all the towns, so that the crowd is standing on the shore before the boat lands.
Whatever Jesus was owed that afternoon, he did not get it. What Mark gives us instead is one sentence with an old phrase buried inside it.
When Jesus stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Those last words have a history. Moses used them when he learned he was going to die and asked God to appoint somebody over the people so they would not be left that way. Micaiah used them seeing Israel scattered on the hills with a king who was leading them nowhere. Ezekiel used them in a long, furious speech where God charges the shepherds of Israel with feeding themselves while the flock goes unhealed, unsought and torn.
Every one of those is about leadership that is missing or unfit. So the sentence is not a soft remark about a crowd that looks lost. It lands on whoever was supposed to be looking after them.
And Mark has just told us about a man who was supposed to be looking after them: a king at his own birthday party, with a prophet's head carried in on a platter because he could not stand to look small in front of his guests.
Then this. A tired man who wanted an afternoon off, standing in front of the people that king was responsible for, beginning to teach them.
How We Know
Sheep without a shepherd is a fixed phrase, and its history is established across three passages. Numbers 27:17 has Moses ask God for a successor so the congregation will not be like sheep without a shepherd. First Kings 22:17 has Micaiah see all Israel scattered on the hills that way, with the king about to die. Ezekiel 34:5 uses it of a nation whose leaders have failed it.
Every one of those is about leadership that is absent or unfit.
So verse 34 is not a comment on a tired crowd. Mark reaches for a phrase that in his scriptures always means the people have no one over them worth the name, and then has Jesus begin to teach.
Questions
1 Jesus planned a quiet afternoon and the crowd got there before he did. What happens around here when other people wreck a plan we were looking forward to?
AnswerMost of us get short with whoever is nearest. Whatever that looks like around this table, it is the exact moment Jesus is standing in when he comes ashore, and he does something else with it.
2 What does Jesus say to the Twelve when they come back off the road?
AnswerTo come away with him somewhere quiet and rest for a while. Not to go out again, and not to give him a fuller report. Mark says people had been coming and going so constantly that they had not had time to eat.
3 Where do the words about sheep without a shepherd come from?
AnswerMoses used them asking God to appoint a leader after him. Micaiah used them seeing Israel scattered on the hills under a king who was leading them nowhere. Ezekiel used them accusing Israel's leaders of feeding themselves while the flock went unhealed and unsought.
4 Mark has just told us about King Herod. What does that do to the last sentence here?
AnswerIt sharpens it considerably. We have watched a king kill a prophet at a party to avoid looking foolish, and then Jesus looks at the people that king was responsible for and sees a flock with nobody over them.
What This Means for Us
He was tired, he was interrupted, and he looked at those people properly anyway. Most of us go the other way. Our patience gives out at exactly the point where our own needs are unmet, and we treat that as weather rather than as something to hand to God.
He is not against rest. Rest was his idea, and he asked for it out loud on behalf of twelve worn-out men. When it did not come, he looked at the crowd instead of through it. So in the moment when you are most entitled to be short with somebody, look at their face first. The answer may still be no.
Prayer
Father, we are not kind when we are tired, and we tell ourselves that is just how it is. Thank you that you looked at people who had ruined your plans and saw what they needed. Give us rest when we need it, and something better than irritation when it does not come. Amen.