How many of you have a hard time taking a vacation? We all want a vacation. We all need a vacation. But do you have trouble finding the time for one? Do you have trouble leaving work back at the office when you go on vacation? Do you feel like your vacation is re-charging you or draining you?
Futurist and author Faith Popcorn claims that, compared to the rest of the world, Americans suffer from a condition called “vacation starvation.” The average employee of a large business gets about two, maybe three, weeks of vacation each year. The average employee of a small business—that’s most of us—gets about eight days off each year. In Europe and Australia, the average employee gets four to six weeks of paid vacation each year. (1) Are you already imagining what you would do with that much time off?
Of course, just because you take time off for a vacation, you can’t be guaranteed that it will be a stress-free time. A woman named Julie Lynch from Ithaca, New York, wrote to Reader’s Digest about an incident on her family’s vacation to California.
Her family was visiting the Getty Museum in California when her 10-year-old son, Nick, complained of being tired. Lynch told him to find a place to sit down. Moments later, an alarm sounded throughout the museum, and security guards sprinted through the building toward some unseen threat. That threat turned out to be Lynch’s son, Nick, who chose a “priceless” Louis XIV chair in the one of the exhibits as the perfect place to get some rest. (2) Be careful when giving instructions to your child--especially in a museum of priceless objects.
Another woman named Cristina Beitz wrote to Budget Travel magazine to tell about taking their honeymoon with a bunch of unexpected guests. Beitz’s in-laws offered to pay for her and her husband’s honeymoon. After they accepted this generous gift, the in-laws informed them that the honeymoon would be at Disney World. And they would be accompanied by their in-laws, the mother-in-law’s two best friends, the best friends’ three children, a sister-in-law and her husband. Of the trip, Beitz wrote, “I can’t say a lot of honeymooning went on.” (3)
It’s tough when you really need a little rest and relaxation, and you just can’t get it. Jesus and his disciples knew what that was like. The disciples had just returned from their first solo mission, which was very successful. They had much to tell Jesus about their experiences. But Jesus could tell that their exertions had worn them out, and that they needed some time away for rest and solitude. So he suggested, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while.” So Jesus and his disciples sailed off to get some time alone, away from the crowds. Perhaps they were looking forward to having some time to talk about their experiences together.
Jesus would not make it as CEO of a major business today. The success mantra of business leaders today is to “grind it out.” Work seven days a week. Never stop pushing. But Jesus believed in living in balance with your needs: work, rest, worship, time spent with friends. After his disciples’ first successful foray into ministry, Jesus didn’t have a strategy meeting to figure out their next move. Instead, he tried to take them away from the crowds to rest for a while.
But this was one vacation that just wasn’t going to happen. Even while they were still aboard the boat the people on shore recognized them, and word spread very quickly that they were there. The word spread so quickly, in fact, that by the time Jesus and his disciples disembarked, there was already a considerable crowd waiting.
It reminds me of a story about Pancho Villa, one of Mexico’s greatest rebel heroes. Villa was the leader of a rebel army that fought in a civil war that lasted from 1910 to 1920. What the history books don’t record is Villa’s insatiable desire for publicity. He took a camera crew along to most of his battles. Sometimes he even delayed a battle until the cameras were rolling. He also refused to lead his troops into battle at night, because then he couldn’t be filmed in action. For one particular battle, he refused to let his troops attack until the producer gave him the “OK.” Eventually, Villa sold his battle footage to a movie producer, and it was turned into the movie The Life of Villa. (4) Villa would have made a terrific politician in our land.
Jesus and his disciples were not at all seeking to be famous, but their ministry was attracting a lot of attention anyway. So they couldn’t exactly get away and rest as Jesus had intended for them to do.
Now I’m sure that most of you have experienced what it’s like to have your vacation interrupted. It’s very frustrating, isn’t it? And I’m sure that when the disciples saw the crowd waiting for them on shore, their hearts sank. They probably felt a lot like modern celebrities who have to beg reporters to leave them alone for a day or two.
But Jesus didn’t seem to be annoyed. He took it all in stride. In fact, he stayed there with the crowd and taught them. Maybe he knew why the crowd was there to see him. Let’s try and take a look at this from their point of view for a moment.
Let’s focus, first of all, on the crowd’s hunger. There was something about Jesus that made people want to be near him. There was something missing in their lives that they couldn’t obtain through their day-to-day living. They were looking for something better, and they sensed that Jesus held the key to what they needed. They were hungry for what he had to offer. Do you know someone who hungers like that? Do you know someone who is stumbling through life, looking for the road to happiness— but looking in the wrong places? Do you know someone who is hungering for what Jesus alone has to offer? Someone who longs for what we have already discovered in our lives?
Many football fans consider Tom Brady to be the NFL’s greatest all-time quarterback, with six Super Bowl championships. Back in 2005, after Brady’s third Super Bowl victory, he sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes. In the course of the interview, Brady said, “There’s times where I’m not the person that I want to be. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? . . . I mean this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean I’ve done it. I’m 27. And what else is there for me?”
The interviewer asked, “What’s the answer?”
Brady responded, “I wish I knew. I wish I knew.” (5)
I respect Tom Brady’s honesty. Even the most successful of us hunger for a deeper meaning to life. We hunger to know that we are loved. We hunger to know that our life has a greater purpose. We hunger for transcendence, for experiences that go beyond our ordinary lives and give us a sense of awe and wonder.
Danny Sugerman, who was manager to the 60’s rock band The Doors, had a great insight into our hunger. He said, “From the time we can speak, we are bombarded with the message that we alone are not enough: take this; buy this; have this; feel better, stronger, safer, sexier, more desirable, more secure, more powerful, and none of it works because we’re looking in the wrong place. . .” (6) If the manager of a successful rock band can diagnose our problem, surely we can, too.
If you are searching for the right place or the right way to fill the emptiness inside of you anywhere but in Jesus, then you’re going to be disappointed. But when you bring your hunger to the right person—Jesus Christ—he can fill your need for a sense of purpose and peace and wholeness and joy. Jesus understood the hunger of the crowds in his day; he also understands what we hunger for today.
But there is something else we need to see: Jesus was filled with compassion for the crowd who was hungering for what he alone could provide. When he looked at the people crowding around him, he viewed them as sheep without a shepherd. In John’s gospel Jesus proclaimed, “I am the good shepherd.” That might not make any sense to you unless you understood Jesus’ parables about sheep. Jesus told the story about a shepherd who was tending a large flock of sheep. If one sheep was missing, the shepherd would diligently search until it was found.
Shepherds in Jesus’ day didn’t work in gated communities. They tended sheep out on the hillsides, in the wilderness. The sheep and the shepherd were in constant danger of attack from lions or bears, or human thieves. So that idea that the shepherd would leave the flock and go searching for one lost sheep would provide a vivid picture of Jesus’ love for the people. Every single one of them was important to Jesus. Every single one of them was worth saving.
Being followed by a needy crowd would be a nuisance to you and me, but not to Jesus. Jesus saw the people and was filled with compassion for them. He loved them. They weren’t an interruption to him; they were his mission. His compassion for them led him to action.
There’s an old story about a wise monk who answered every question with another question. One day a visiting monk came to him and said, “I’m here on retreat, and I was wondering: could you give me a question to ponder?”
The monk thought briefly and responded, “My question for you is this: what do they need?”
The colleague went away disappointed and a few hours later returned for clarification. “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear before,” he said. “I’m here to work on my own spiritual life, not to reflect upon my calling. Could you possibly give me a question to ponder along these lines?”
“In that case,” the monk said, “the question would be: what do they really need?”
It’s hard for us to be honest about our deepest needs, isn’t it? Why risk being that vulnerable? Will others back away from us? Can we really trust anyone enough to share with them our deepest needs?
That internal struggle we have with vulnerability and trust and authenticity is why it’s so important for us to understand Jesus’ compassion for us. Jesus was God in the flesh. God living in our neighborhood. God walking in our shoes. Why would God choose to empty Himself of His power and authority and majesty to become like one of us? That one action is overwhelming and undeniable proof of how much God loves us. So, compassion was Jesus’ mission. He understood what we really need, and he gave up everything, including his life, to meet that one need.
And this brings us to the conclusion of this story: Jesus alone has the power to satisfy our hungry hearts. We end our Bible passage the same way we began it. After a day of ministering to people, Jesus and the disciples still hoped to get away for a while. So that night they took a boat and went to the other side of the lake. But again, as soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized them and flocked to them. People came from all over to see Jesus. Sick people were set out in the streets so that Jesus would heal them. And Jesus did heal them. No matter how much he needed a vacation, if there were people who needed his healing, he was there for them, both spiritually and physically, and he ministered to their deepest needs.
And this is the critical point for the day. We cannot wear Jesus down with our problems. He sees our hunger. He has compassion and he will respond.
The disciples had hoped for a short vacation, a time to be alone with the Savior, but instead they saw another dimension of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. There will always be people who hunger for that which only Christ has to offer. He does not weary in caring for those he loves. He has the power to feed our hungry hearts. Have you found new life, comfort, peace, strength and purpose from giving your life to Jesus? If so, then he has called you to share in the ministry of caring for the needs of others. Think about the people you come in contact with regularly. What are they hungry for? What substitutes are they using to fill this hunger? How can God use you to meet their needs and satisfy their hunger for new life?
Back in 1976, Hamilton Whaley was a partner in a prominent law firm in Tampa, Florida. He was happily married. Proud father to five kids. He and his wife, Betty, were wealthy and successful and comfortable. Until the day Hamilton Whaley was injured in a car accident. It wasn’t a serious accident, and his injuries were slight. So it seemed funny at first when people began calling Betty Whaley to express their condolences over her husband’s death. Was this some kind of joke?
Not according to the Hillsborough County Bar Association Bulletin. After his minor car accident, an editor at the Bar Association Bulletin had accidentally published an obituary for Hamilton Whaley. And after Whaley read the obituary, he didn’t think it was too funny anymore. He began to think about his legacy. What was the purpose of his life? Would anyone be better off because he had lived? Hamilton Whaley developed a singular hunger: to know that he was living the life that God had made him for.
That hunger eventually led Hamilton to give up his successful law partnership. He and Betty and their teen-age son, David, became house parents at the Bethesda Home for Boys in Savannah, Georgia, one of the oldest orphanages in the U.S. They were put in charge of one of seven cottages. It was in following the example of Jesus that Hamilton Whaley and his family found the answer to their hunger. As he says, “Now I'm where God wants me to be, in a life that began, instead of ending, with my obituary.” (7)
If you have found new life in Jesus, then you know how he can meet your deepest needs. And I hope you are looking for ways to share Jesus’ love and comfort and strength with others.
If you are hungering for love and meaning and purpose and truth, then please pray right now and give your life to Jesus. He came to show you the life that God created you for. He came to show you that a compassionate God is ready to meet your needs.
1. Faith Popcorn and Adam Hanft, Dictionary of the Future (New York: Hyperion, 2001), pp. 365-366.
2. Submitted by Julie Lynch, Ithaca, New York in “The Funniest Family Vacations Stories That You Will Sadly Relate To” Originally Published: July 02, 2019 in Reader's Digest, https://www.rd.com/list/vacation-stories/.
3. Cristina Beitz, El Cajon, California from Budget Travel. Cited in “The Funniest Family Vacations Stories That You Will Sadly Relate To.” Originally Published: July 02, 2019 in Reader's Digest, https://www.rd.com/list/vacation-stories/.
4. Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo. The Hollywood Walk of Shame (Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1993), pp. 13-14.
5. David McLemore, https://www.thingsofthesort.com/sermons-2/2019/9/30/mark-1017-31-the-rich-young-man.
6. http://revbickers.blogspot.com/2012/12/philippians-44-7-secret-of-true-joy.html.
7. Church Management, May/June, 1983, p. 59. First published in Guideposts, November 1982.