Over the past year and a half, the coronavirus pandemic brought myriads of challenges, heartaches, and headaches to everyone. For pastors and church leaders in particular, ministering in the midst of the pandemic proved frustrating. Luddite pastors like myself spent countless hours figuring out the technological means by which we might minister to our congregations (running a camera, building church websites, creating a social media presence, uploading videos, and much more). We made decisions that some church members praised and others bemoaned; and we tried to keep the peace between them. All the while, the ordinary demands of ministry—preaching, teaching, caring for our members—did not cease.
At this point, pastors are exhausted from pandemic ministry, and many are looking to resign as a result.[1] Even more troubling, Jake Topper reported, are the “suicidal ideations” some Baptist ministers experienced during the pandemic.[2] Even as the pandemic wanes, many pastors are running on empty.
Of course, ministerial exhaustion is nothing new. Mark chapter six, for instance, presents twelve weary servants of Christ gathered together with their Master on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. They were exhausted from ministry and had no chance to take care of themselves—not even a chance to eat. In themselves, these ministers of Christ had neither the strength nor resources to serve anyone else. The disciples needed either a break or a miracle to keep going, and, surprisingly, we find that Jesus gives them a combination of the two.
Needing a Break
Sometime before “the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught” (Mk. 6:30, NIV), Jesus sent them, two-by-two, to preach, cast out demons, and heal the sick (Mk. 6:7–13). The fact that Mark refers to the twelve as “apostles”—one of only two times he does so in the entire Gospel—emphasizes their nature as sent ones: Apostoloi in Greek carries the notion of being sent by someone as a representative.[3]
In other words, Jesus commissioned the twelve to serve others in his name, not unlike how he commissions each of us for ministry today. Moreover, Jesus still invites his sent ones to gather around him and report both the successes and struggles of ministry. Pastors ought to accompany one another to the throne of grace, rejoice in one another’s triumphs, weep in one another’s tribulations, and pray to “receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
While the apostles experienced a certain measure of success (Mk. 6:13), they likely experienced their fair share of rejection and failure as well (Mk. 6:11). Regardless, one fact is abundantly clear: The apostles were worn out. Even as the apostles spoke with Jesus, the demands of ministry were relentless. Mark says, “so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat” (Mk. 6:31). In other words, the sent ones became the spent ones.
Recognizing their predicament, Jesus invited them on a retreat with Him: “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mk. 6:31). Jesus cares about the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of his servants; and sometimes the preservation of that well-being calls for a prolonged retreat with Jesus and other disciples. Even “the most active servants of Christ,” writes Matthew Henry, “cannot be always upon that stretch of business, but have bodies that require some relaxation, some breathing time; we shall not be able to serve God without ceasing, day and night, till we come to heaven, where they never rest from praising him.”[4] Jesus and the spent ones sailed across the Sea of Galilee in order to find “a solitary place” suitable for such rest (Mk. 6:31).
Yet the demands of ministry followed Jesus and the disciples. Crowds ran ahead to the solitary place so that it was no longer aptly named. Indeed, when Jesus and company arrived, a crowd of more than five thousand awaited them. Jesus, however, did not berate the crowd and send them away. Rather, “he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd,” and “he began teaching them many things” (Mk. 6:34). Even while Jesus invited the apostles to rest, He demonstrated, by His compassionate action, that His followers must be ready to serve needy people at any moment—even on a ministry retreat.
Now, as Jesus fed people’s souls with His teaching, the disciples’ stomachs grew hungrier by the moment. Though they requested that Jesus “send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat,” one wonders if their request was so altruistic. Remember, the disciples were already weary; they had no leisure to eat; their stomachs were growling.[5] Their request, then, may have been motivated less out of concern for the crowd’s hunger than for their own—understandably so.
Imagine the shock of the disciples, then, when Jesus instructed them to “give them something to eat” (Mk. 6:37). At the very moment these ministers were most tired, most hungry, most in need of a retreat, Jesus presented them with one more task; and this time the task was humanly impossible. The disciples made clear the impracticality of Jesus’ demand, noting that the cost of feeding this crowd would be “half a year’s wages” (Mk. 6:37).
Buying the resources to feed the crowd was impractical enough. Even more impractical was Jesus’ reply: “How many loaves do you have? . . . Go and see” (Mk. 6:38). Did Jesus think that the disciples had enough resources to feed this hungry crowd? The disciples knew they did not, but they obeyed Jesus anyway. “We have five loaves of bread and two fish,” came the report (Mk. 6:38). Perhaps the disciples planned on finally eating these morsels later, but, in their exhaustion and hunger, they offered up what little they had to Jesus. We, too, must render to Jesus what little supplies and strength we have in order to serve others.
Receiving a Breakthrough
Amazingly, the disciples found that Jesus was able to do abundantly more with these meager resources than they could begin to imagine. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,” says Mark, “[Jesus] gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied” (Mk. 6:41–42). Jesus multiplied the disciples’ meager resources into a feast so great that the disciples collected “twelve basketfuls” of leftovers—enough for each disciple to have his own basket of food once the crowd dispersed. Jesus not only gives disciples the means to take care of others but also takes care of His disciples.
Ultimately, Jesus teaches us to rely on him to multiply our resources and renew our strength. When we feel like requesting a plan of escape, we can, instead, request strength to endure because we know that our Savior can grant it. When we feel that we cannot continue on another day in ministry, we can remember that Jesus provides what we need precisely when we need it. Indeed, His grace is sufficient enough for us to complete each task He gives us, and that despite our own weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Take heart, ministers, for in the words of Annie Johnson Flint:
He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, He multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Savior’s full giving is only begun.
Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our Lord ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Savior both thee and thy load will upbear.[6]
[1]Thom Rainer as quoted in, D. Scott Hildreth, “Dear Pastor, Please Don’t Quit on Us Now,” Lifeway Voices, 14 September 2020, https://lifewayvoices.com/church-ministry-leadership/dear-pastor-please-dont-quit-on-us-now/.
[2]Jake Topper, “Too Many Pastors are Falling on their own Swords,” Baptist News Global, 18 August 2020, https://baptistnews.com/article/too-many-pastors-are-falling-on-their-own-swords/#.YFY-BS1h2L0.
[3]Robert E. Picirilli, The Gospel of Mark, Randall House Bible Commentary (Nashville: Randall House, 2003), 178.
[4]Matthew Henry, Matthew to John, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the whole Bible, V (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991), 395.
[5]Suzanne Watts Henderson draws attention to the continued weariness of the disciples (Christology and Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark [New York: Cambridge University, 2006], 188–89). Picirilli parenthetically refers to the possibility of the disciples’ persistent hunger (Mark, 180)—the only explicit hunger-connection I found. M. Eugene Boring completely dismisses the idea: “Mark gives no indication of their own hunger. The problem of verse 31 seems to be forgotten. . . .” (Mark: A Commentary, The New Testament Library [Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006], 184). Why Boring dismisses the disciples’ earlier hunger as irrelevant escapes me.
[6] Annie Johnson Flint, “He Giveth More Grace,” Hymnary. https://hymnary.org/text/he_giveth_more_grace_as_our_burdens.
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