%1

July is vacation time for many of us. Anticipating grilled burgers, potato salad, sunshine and seashore can get us through months of occupational drudgery. We all need time away to kick back, relax and recharge—even Jesus did. We read in Mark 6 that he invited his disciples to join him for a beach getaway. It had been a busy chapter for them all. Already Jesus had offended the folks in his hometown synagogue with one of his sermons. You’d think news of his popularity and power would have preceded his arrival in Nazareth. You’d think he would have been welcomed home with open arms.

I appreciate the lectionary’s knack for relating Old and New Testament texts, but I have no idea why King David’s adultery with Bathsheba is coupled with Jesus feeding the 5,000 and walking on water. Perhaps the intent is to contrast the bad behavior of David with the admirable acts of the Son of David. King David not only absconded with another man’s wife—he had the husband killed too. Jesus, on the other hand, took a boy’s lunch and multiplied it to feed a multitude. Maybe the idea is to retrace Jesus’ ancestry.