More Than Enough

Mark 6:31-56

When the disciples came back from their ministry trip and told Jesus everything they had done, he said to them in verse 31, "Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. The disciples needed rest, and at least one decent meal together. The word eat or ate or eaten, it comes up no less than six times in this passage. It's important, and Jesus knows them. He knows their limits, their needs. And he says to them that it's time for them to get away, have a bit of a camp out, a day trip, a picnic, however you want to put it, where they can pull back from ministry and rest.

We need rest too, but our society is terrible at it. America is great at so many things, but resting? This is not one of them. Have you ever come back from a vacation and felt like you needed a vacation to recover from your vacation? We find ways to make even our time off exhausting. I'm hesitant to take advice from American society in general, so let's take advice instead from Jesus.

First of all, notice it's Jesus who says it's time to rest. It's surprising how many times he pulled the disciples away to rest. He regularly went away and took his disciples away to rest. But notice when he does that, it's to a remote place. It's removed. It's away. It's a quiet place.

We now have this amazing technology that allows us to work from anywhere, which means what?  We work everywhere, right? Everywhere and all the time. Interconnection all the time. And it's exhausting.

For Jesus and the disciples, a quiet place was all about geography, getting away from the city, away from the crowds, away from the work. And for us today, a quiet place, a remote place, has as much to do with unplugging as anything. If you're going to rest today you may need to head for the hills, but more than anything, resting means shutting out the noise.  

Do you do that? Do you make time to get away?

There's another thing to see about rest. True rest is not simply stopping the work and picking up your hobbies and whatnot. It's being with Jesus. It's getting away with him. Time off is essential, but all the time off in the world isn't going to be restful if you've been avoiding him. You're never going to find the true rest that you need if you're keeping Jesus at arm's length in your life.

Matthew 11:28-30 is very familiar. It's where he says, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." It doesn't say just leave your work, all of you who are weary and burdened. It says, “Come to me.” 

Real rest is found with Jesus.

If you live your life either ignoring God or trying to earn your way to God, either you will end up weary and burdened one way or another. Either way, if you live your life going through the pages of the Bible and saying, "Well, this is what God requires to live right with him, and I'm just going to muscle through it," you'll end up exhausted. And yet, if you ignore what God says about how you were made to live, you'll end up just as lost.

There's only one answer if you want real rest. It's what he says, “Come to me all who are weary.” You cannot carry the load. The good news is that Jesus has come to do for you what you could never do for yourself and carry not just the weight of your sin, but of your whole life.

The gospel isn't just a message to believe once and then forget. It's the truth that works its way down into every area of life. If you don't know him, you need him. And if you do know him, he's calling you to rest in him. Shut out the noise. Get alone with him. You need him.

We can rest in the fact that if he was more than enough to deal with our sin, then he's more than enough to deal with whatever the day brings. Right? That's the gospel message that we carry forward. He's more than enough to deal with all your sin and more than enough to deal with whatever the day brings.

My prayer for you is that you will see Jesus as he is, more than enough to not only meet your needs but to give you real rest.

GOING DEEPER 
Parallel, Related and Referenced Passages 
Parallel Accounts: Matthew 14:13–36, Luke 9:10–17, John 6:1-21 
 
1) HUNGER 

• Acts 5:37 – Judas the Galilean and the Zealot revolt 
• John 6:14–15 – The crowd wants to make Jesus king by force 
• Isaiah 55:1-3 – Invitation to true food from God 
• Matthew 11:28-30 – Invitation to true rest in Jesus 

 
2) COMPASSION 

• Psalm 23 – The Lord as Shepherd 
• Numbers 27:16–17 – “Like sheep without a shepherd” 
• Ezekiel 34 – God condemns Israel’s false shepherds and promise to care for His people Himself 
• John 10:11–14 – Jesus the Good Shepherd 

 
3) PROVISION 

• Psalm 145:15–16 – God satisfies every living thing 
• 2 Corinthians 9:8 – God’s all-sufficient grace 
• Philippians 4:19 – God supplies every need 
• Psalm 107:9 – He satisfies the thirsty and hungry 
• John 6:35 – Jesus the Bread of Life 

 
4) POWER 

• Job 9:8 – God walking on the waves 
• Exodus 3:14 – “I AM” (divine name of God) 
• Exodus 33:19–23 – God passing by Moses in glory 
• Colossians 1:16–17 – Christ’s supreme power and sufficiency