Everyday Jesus

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 10, July 21, 2024: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a; Psalm 89:20-37; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Today’s gospel comes from the central period of Jesus’ ministry, but because of the way the lectionary has divided the readings, we have the beginnings and endings of a story.

At the beginning, we have the disciples returning after they have been sent to the countryside to preach and to heal. They report on “all that they had done and taught”. Jesus, understanding how much they had done, suggested that they go to a deserted place to “rest a while”. Mark describes a busy scene, with people coming and going, and “no leisure even to eat”.

When they get to what they think is a deserted place, the crowds follow. The section that is missing — which begins after Jesus “began to teach them many things”–moves to the feeding of the 5000. It then continues with Mark’s account of Jesus walking on water. It is after these adventures, that Jesus and the disciples land at Gennesaret, where they are again surrounded by people, with the sick being brought out to be touched and healed.

What we get here when the miracle stories are taken out (and we’ll get them later this summer) is an everyday Jesus: nothing spectacular, just going about life. But that life is not easy and is not relaxed. While Jesus wants to be alone, and wants his disciples to have the chance to rest, they don’t get it: people want Jesus, and they follow wherever he is. And while the healing Mark reports is not spectacular, in the way the feeding of 5000 is, or walking on water, we learn that all who touched even Jesus’ cloak were healed.

I resonate with these descriptions of Jesus in two very different ways. I have had days when the constant emails and requests to deal with problems mean I have no time to stop. Constantly responding to different people’s needs can be exhausting. I wanted Jesus to have some time when people didn’t want something from him. And yet, Mark tells us, Jesus responds to people with compassion.

The other way I resonate with this picture of Jesus is that it reflects the way I encounter Jesus. It’s not a flash of lightening, or some spectacular event: it is in every day encounters of connection and caring that I meet Jesus. We are asked in our baptismal covenant to “seek and serve Christ in all persons”, which emphasizes the everyday nature of our encounters with Jesus. But it is worth remembering that others may seek and serve Christ in us. Are we always able to receive that caring? Do we recognize it as Jesus coming to us?

For most of us, everyday Jesus is the one we know. And today’s reading is a reminder to recognize not just our duty to serve, but our need to be served. In the chaos that is much of modern life, we need to recognize and give thanks for our encounters with the everyday Jesus.

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