4th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday – 6th February 2021 — Gospel: Mark 6,30-34
Magnetism of the Gospel
In this short summary, Mark describes how large Jesus’ followers have become. Not only Jesus’ mission started to expand – as the apostles began to share their work experience with Jesus (6,30) – but many regularly attempted to track down Jesus. As Jesus and his disciples leave by boat to get away, the crowds hurry along the shore with the boat in sight. Mark describes that they were running faster on foot than those travelling by boat. The magnetism of the gospel draws people from all the towns, and a “great crowd” awaits them on the shore. Their only intention was to locate Jesus wherever he is, in order to receive some miraculous cures. Postponing the disciples retreat, Jesus looked with compassion on these lost sheep and began to teach them many things (6,34). These words echo Moses’ prayer, in which he asks God to appoint his successor, someone “who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd” (Num 27,17). As a genuine leader, Jesus senses the urgency of the gospel and of the people’s need for it. The crowds too recognize him as the true shepherd, who will bring God’s kingdom into their lives, because of which they long for and even chase after him.
