I called Terry a few weeks ago to ask him a question. I began by apologizing for interrupting him. To which he replied, “Dewayne, remember that Jesus’ life was one interruption after another.”
How true that was. How true that still is for all of us. How many days go just the way you planned them? Improvise and adapt are two words that describe our actions on a lot of days.
One of my favorite stories is the way Jesus improvised and adapted on a particular day that did not go as he may have planned.
It is recorded in all four accounts of the life of Jesus. Matthew will tell us that Jesus has learned of the death of John the baptizer and he desires to go to a solitary place. Mark, Luke and John will tell us that the disciples have returned from teaching in villages and Jesus wants to take them and himself to a secluded place for some rest. They have been surrounded by crowds so much that they did not have any leisure time, not even enough time to eat.
So they get into a boat and cross the Sea of Galilee.
But the crowd sees them and runs along the shore to go to the place Jesus and the disciples are going. When Jesus and the disciples arrive, the crowd is already there.
The Bible gives us Jesus’ reaction to this interruption. It is not a sigh nor a groan. It is not anger nor frustration.
He has compassion on them and heals their sick.
We know the size of the crowd. It is the 5,000 men, not counting women and children, whom Jesus feeds with two fish and five loaves of bread.