The Apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
The disciples first mission had been so successful that people were now coming to them in such numbers that they couldn't even eat, let alone rest and recharge. Yet it was necessary that they have time apart with Jesus, the power source who made their mission possible. They weren't meant to just go on endlessly until they collapsed. They weren't meant to keep doing it forever without time spent with Jesus himself.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
We usually read this passage and assume it was an unintended consequence of popularity. But with Jesus there were no truly unintended consequences. This repositioning did not get them away from the crowds, but it did have the effect, apparently, of centralizing the crowds around Jesus. The disciples would certainly have been able to breathe a little bit more freely now that not everyone was coming directly to them in particular. And this apparent interruption also led to Jesus giving an example for his disciples. He wasn't frustrated or angry with the crowd for following them. Rather, he was moved with pity for them because he recognized the depth of their need. The crowds were like sheep without a shepherd, which was not a great situation for sheep. Without a shepherd they would be vulnerable, at risk, prone to wander and become lost. Jesus demonstrated that there was a primacy for future church leaders to care for the sheep. It is true also that the physical hunger of the crowds and of the disciples was important, and he would answer that hunger in due season. But first he took the role the shepherd they were missing and "began to teach them many things".
When we find excellent and committed leaders such as Jesus as the other shepherds he would send we do well to heed the words from the Letter to the Hebrews, "Obey your leaders and defer to them, for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account". This is not to say that we don't have our consciences and must never question authority. But it is does mean our default is obedience and only with great difficulty and discernment are we to assert mistake or error to those entrusted with our care. The risk of listening to a leader when they are wrong is typically less than the sin of rebellion, because they have been entrusted with great responsibilities and will have more for which they must give an account.
Through Jesus, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise,
that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
We sometimes remember to offer God a sacrifice of praise when things are rosey and times are good. But it is another trick entirely to do this "continually". It is probable that the disciples did not immediately give thanks when they went to a supposedly deserted place and found a crowd already gathered. But the thing they were about to learn was also something that, if we learn it and remember it, will enable us to give thanks, if not continually, at least more and more. That thing is the fact that whenever Jesus asks us to give up something good, he only ever does it is favor of something even better.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
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