Jeremiah 23:1-6 (NRSV)
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
Mark 6:30-34 (NRSV)
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
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"The apostles (meaning the original twelve who have been sent out) have returned from the surrounding towns where Jesus had sent them two by two. They are excited by what they have been able to do. They have healed people, cast out unclean spirits and taught them things. They tell Jesus all about it. There is a frenzied, harried quality to the scene. The text says ‘Many people were coming and going so there was no time to eat.”
"The disciples appear distracted and over-stimulated. They are not calm and centered. They can cure people and people flock to them. They are like rock stars who find themselves at the center of people’s adulation. Diversions are everywhere and they are speeded-up to the point of not stopping to eat. Out of balance and ignoring their basic human needs, they are playing with emotional fire.
"Jesus, seeing their condition says, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.’’ He has to get them away from the milling crowds or they will lose connection with their God-given inner reality. Their souls are in danger. They will lose their sense of grounding and get carried away by the crowds of demanding people, coming and going. Large crowds of people, even admirers, powerfully affect us and not necessarily in good ways. It is almost impossible to resist them. We get entranced and find ourselves thinking and behaving in ways we would not think or behave on our own. Jesus knows he must get them away to a secluded spot for their soul’s sake.
[...]
"Jesus pulls his disciples out of the crowd and gathers them into a boat and then gets in himself. He leads them across the lake toward a deserted place. But their attempt at crowd evasion fails. “Many people saw them leaving and recognized them, so they ran ahead from all the cities and arrived before them.” When they arrive at their secluded destination the crowds are there to greet them.
"[...] This didn’t turn out like I expected. Maybe Mark has something else in mind and knows something we don’t. Maybe he knows Jesus has to get the disciples away from the crowd and together around him or they will succumb to the desires of the crowd. Maybe the center of Jesus’ intention was not getting them to a deserted place, like we have thought, but getting them away from the crowd and reassembled with Jesus as their center. I can’t find words strong enough to express the importance of this. Getting the disciples into the boat with Jesus and getting them out to sea away from the crowd mattered way more than their destination. He has to break the gravitational pull of the adoring, demanding and ultimately dangerous crowd or he will lose the disciples.
"This is all extremely important and mirrors the choice we face today and have faced throughout history. Will we follow Jesus or will we go with the culture? It seems clear to me that the culture is the crowd and at the deepest level has no shepherd. We will either follow the “shepherd-less” crowd or we will follow Jesus.
[...]
"Back to the text where the story as taken a shift: “When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus could be open to the crowd because he had already accomplished his purpose in getting the disciples away, centered on him and back in touch with reality. That happened in the boat while they were crossing the lake. Ironically, Jesus had already been a shepherd to his disciples by leading them away from the crowd. [...] As for this leaderless crowd, they are wandering, searching, defenseless, vulnerable, dangerous and lacking in perspective. How does Jesus respond? “Then he began to teach them many things.”"
- Thomas L. Truby, from sermon delivered on July 22, 2018 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Truby-Proper11-2018-No-Time-to-Eat.pdf)
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"Last time, if you remember, Jesus sends out the disciples two by two and gives them instructions and that's where the Gospel ended last week. This Sunday they come back and gather around Jesus. In between [in Mark's Gospel], there's been the story of [the death of] John the Baptist. [...] All of this fits into an Old Testament pattern. Let's remember that before we were looking at how Moses had sent out visitors to the promised land the spies. Joshua had done the same. And we're moving through the last chapters of the book of Numbers, which we'll see in just a second when we come to the most important line in today's Gospel which is: “He had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” That's a direct quote from the book of Numbers and we'll see why that's important.
"Because what happened before Joshua, which is to say Jeshua, which is to say Jesus, started taking the people into the promised land, there were various deaths. First of all, there was the death of Aaron, the High Priest. And with the death of Aaron the High Priest, we get a hint of the death of John the Baptist who, remember, was of a priestly family. So it's not for nothing that John the Baptist's death is described here. And then of course Moses dies towards the end. Actually, he dies in Deuteronomy, his death is not described as such in the book of Numbers. But in the book of Numbers, it does very very clearly say that he's going to die and this is what's really important for today's Gospel: “The Lord said to Moses, go up this mountain and see the land that I've given to the Israelites. When you see it when you've seen it you also shall be gathered to your people as your brother Aaron was because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin.” Okay, Moses spoke to the Lord saying, “Let the Lord the God of the spirits, of all flesh appoint someone over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd.” [...] What's really important in today's Gospel is that Jesus is enacting the fulfilment of Moses's prayer. It's the Lord himself who's come as a shepherd.
"[...] Mark's Gospel follows various incidents in Joshua's career, which wasn't entirely successful. Jesus's enactment of Joshua is going to be far greater than that because it's the enactment of the Lord himself. But before it's got to be made clear that the One whom Moses prayed for is here. We get this in the very first verse of today's Gospel when the apostles come back. It says, the apostles gathered round Jesus - [...] it's the same verb from which we get the word synagogue. And you remember last time that Jesus left the synagogue for the last time - his three synagogue visits in Mark's Gospel - and started working outside the synagogue. So here they are gathering around Jesus. One greater than Moses is here.
[...]
"“He saw a great crowd and he had compassion for them.” This is the Yahweh word 'splanchnizomai' - he was gut-wrenched for them, he had his tripes wrenched, gutted before them. This is the word referring to the Lord's feelings, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And that's the direct quote from the book of Numbers. So he'd come visitating hoping to see that the first Joshua's work had been done, but it hadn't: the sheep were like sheep without a shepherd. Joshua turned out not to be, and his successors had turned out not to be, those who are capable of leading people in and out and giving them pasture. [...] This is Mark saying very strongly: we've done the visitation, now the One who is the true Yeshua. The true One whose name means Yahweh Saves, has come amongst his sheep and he's going to teach them, he's going to show them how to go in and out and find rest. And not only his immediately chosen ones but all those who are around him.
[...]
"So let's call to mind the shepherd amongst us, ask him to show how he's shepherding us, ask him to allow us to share in that shepherding of others, so fulfilling the mission which the new Joshua is always bringing into being as he takes us into the promised land."
- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 16 in Ordinary Time 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5uViLwIiSs)
[Source of link to Tom Truby sermon, and for discussion and reflections on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper11b/]
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