Journey Through The Bible
     Old Testament Reading: Job 4-7
     New Testament Reading: Mark 6

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he was amazed at their unbelief (Mark 6:4-6a).

Jesus experienced stressful, chaotic days like ours. Here in the middle of His ministry on earth, Jesus experiences more stress than he will any other time in His life—apart from the Passion Week leading to His crucifixion. From calm to chaos. From peace to perplexity. Within moments, His world is turned upside down.

Jesus returned to Nazareth, His hometown, with His disciples. Nazareth was an obscure town, a place of low reputation and nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament. It was a town of about 500 people where you knew everyone, and everyone knew you.

Jesus had returned to Nazareth a year earlier and was rejected by the people and evicted from the synagogue (Luke 4:16-30). It was certainly an act of grace on His part to give the people another opportunity to hear His Word, believe, and be saved, and yet their hearts were still hard. This time, they did not evict Him, they simply did not take Him seriously.

Rejected by His family and friends, the very people He grew up with, Jesus turned to His new spiritual family, His disciples. He sends them out on a missionary journey, and He celebrates the triumphant return of His followers. But the joy is turned to sorrow as He grieves over the news of the death of a dear friend and relative, John the Baptist.

Rejection turned to jubilation, then to bereavement. Jesus and His disciples needed to get away to a secluded place to get some much-needed rest. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place (v31-32).

But the overzealous crowd would not leave them alone. They followed Him and when they reached the shore, a large crowd had already gathered to greet them. Despite all that Jesus had gone through, when he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things (v34).

Tired and frustrated, the disciples told Jesus, this place is deserted, and it is already late. Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat (v35-36). Instead, Jesus performed one of His greatest miracles feeding 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves and two fish.

Jesus faced an impossible task. Over five thousand people were ready to fight a battle he had not come to fight. They wanted Him to be a king and establish a welfare state of free food and health care. But He came to be a sacrifice for them. They wanted the physical but missed the spiritual.

What was Jesus to do?

Jesus sent his disciples away by boat, dismissed the crowd, and he went away to the mountain to pray (v46b). What Jesus set out to do and what He experienced were separated by an impossible gulf. So, Jesus prayed. He prayed for the impossible to happen. We don’t know what he said, but we know the result. The hill became a stepping-stone; the storm became a path, and the disciples saw Jesus as they had never seen him before.

During the storm, Jesus prayed. The sky darkened. The winds howled. Yet He prayed. The people grumbled. The disciples doubted. Yet He prayed. When forced to choose between the will of the people and the mountain of prayer, He Prayed!

There are valleys in your life that you cannot cross alone. There are hearts in your world that you cannot change without help. There are mountains that you cannot climb until you climb into His presence by Prayer.