Yer 23:1-6 Ef 2:13-18 Mrk 6:30-34
Hari Minggu Biasa XVI – Mengejar Gembala Yang Baik
Why are good shepherds important?
We can begin to reflect by looking at the 1st reading. Nabi Yeremiah diutus Tuhan untuk melayani umat Israel yg pada saat itu lagi tersesat. Tersesat karena the religious and political leaders of the time were unfaithful, corrupt and living contrary to the law of God. From kings, princes, priests and prophets – all were unfaithful to God and leading their people astray.
Jer7:1-2 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord.
Much like today, these ‘bad shepherds’ participate in religion but live the rest of their lives as though God does not exist. Jeremiah expressed his disappointments in Jer23:9-15 (additional reading).
So again, why are good shepherds important? To put it simply, a good shepherd continues the work of the true shepherd (Jesus) whose work is to unite and bring us to Himself. A good shepherd reveals who Jesus is. As baptised Christians, we are disciples called to be apostles (like last week’s Gospel). Most of us minister to the community, even when the ministry does not have a name or position, we minister to those we live with, work with and meet in various ways. So there are always times where we let others shepherd us and times when we have to shepherd others.
Minggu lalu kita bahas tentang perutusan murid2 Yesus – mungkin beberapa minggu sudah berlalu sejak mereka diutus untuk memberitakan kabar gembira dan menyembuhkan orang2 sakit. You can imagine, after probably weeks of travelling on foot and ministering to those in need the apostles are likely exhausted. Ministry mereka gak kaya kita, ngumpul dirumah temen dengan org2 yg kita kenal, PW, baca firman, sharing dan fellowship. Mereka harus ke tempat2 asing, yg likely gak menerima mereka, bawa firman ke orang2 yang gak mengenal Yesus, merawat dan mendoakan orang2 sakit, miskin, org2 kerasukan roh jahat. Ditambah gak boleh bawa koper/snack2/hair dryer. Cape udah pasti, discouraged kmungkinan iya kan mereka masi newbie, sakit hati pasti ud ngalamin, cekcok sama temen seperjalanan of course!
Don’t we experience this as well in our ministry? Or buat anak2 sel yg mungkin blom aktif melayani, have they not struggled in living out their faith? Or trying to pursue their faith but everything around them is just so difficult? Injil Markus hari ini pendek dan simple, tapi kita bisa belajar apa yang seharusnya menjadi prioritas kita di dalam menjalankan tugas kita sebagai murid Kristus.
1. The presence of Jesus
What made the crowd chase after them – Jesus. It’s a reminder for us that when we preach about the Kingdom of God, we are ultimately preaching about the presence of Jesus. That Jesus wants to reach us, touch our lives, so that we may be united with Him – it’s never about us. Jangan sampe kita lupa atau ‘malas’ mengikut sertakan Tuhan di dalam hidup dan pelayanan kita. Jangan sampe kita preach dengan mulut tapi hidup kita bertolak belakang dengan firman Tuhan. Remember that we are not called to convert people with our mouth, but with our lives – Jesus hardly spent time preaching inside the synagogues/at the podium…he preached through living with people, sharing meals, going for really long walks, going out to sea etc. What He preached, He breathed and lived out for others to see.
How are you spending your days – is God a part of your daily routine? Are you seeking His presence in your life? Do you give Him access to your life atau sekedar doa ngucapin permohonan tapi gak mau dengerin apa yang Tuhan mau dari hidup/situasi yg kita hadapi?
Inget minggu lalu murid2 diutus dengan otoritas Tuhan Yesus – mereka bisa melayani karena hadirat Tuhan ada bersama mereka. Kalo kita mau hidup kita membawa impact baik ke orang2 sekitar kita, impact yang berbuah, kita harus belajar rendah hati dan biarkan Tuhan hidup di dalam diri kita, membentuk kita agar hidup kita mencerminkan kasihNya.
Spesial teguran untuk korsel wakorsel – do not be complacent, never be satisfied with where you are now, terus mendekat ke Tuhan especially saat kt menghadapi banyak cobaan menggembalakan anak2 sel. These verses give me strength in my journey as a shepherd:
Mat5:14-16 says 14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Tuhan mau kita menjadi terang di tempat yang gelap. A light does not have to try hard to make an impact in the dark, it does not have to prove itself – fokus kita sebagai murid Kristus ya supaya hidup kita membimbing orang2 ke kebenaran (and sometimes by telling the hard truth). Percaya kalo kita prioritasin hubungan intim dgn Tuhan, hubungan kita dgn anak2 sel bakal berbuah. On the contrary, kalo kita neglect hubungan kita dgn Tuhan, kita pasti berjalan dgn kekuatan sendiri dan gak akan ada damai dan sukacita di dalam pelayanan kita.
2. Accepting the interruptions
As an organised person, I hate interruptions – I get nervous when everything is ‘tentative’ or if I have lots of highlights on my to-do list because things keep on being postponed. Maybe the disciples did too – maybe they thought their days with Jesus consisted of following an itinerary.
I’ve been following The Chosen series and in one of the episodes, Jesus was travelling with the disciples and they were figuring out the map to go to Jordan as they calculated and planned. Jesus told them to follow Him in the other direction because He wanted to stop by the town of Samaria. The disciples tried to tell him how bad of an idea it was – knowing that they will have to encounter the Samaritans, it’s just not ‘safe’. Little did they know, Jesus intended to stop by Samaria to catch the woman at the well, who after encountering Jesus had her life transformed. Murid2 di injil hari ini juga harus deal with interruptions, padal mereka lagi capek dan lapar. Tapi kehendak Tuhan berbeda dengan apa yang mereka pikirkan – Jesus wanted to show them what it means to be a good shepherd.
Lewat contoh2 ini kita belajar bahwa kita bisa melihat interupsi di dalam kehidupan kita sebagai 2 hal: pure inconvenience atau bagian dari rencana Tuhan. Rencana Tuhan dalam hidup kita gak cuma menyentuh kita, tapi juga menyentuh hidup orang lain – Divine Providence. Sometimes God interrupts our plan to teach us His will and to help us become who He wants us to be.
Korwakor, do we get frustrated easily with our anak2 sel? Memang kita harus cope with a lot of inconvenience and mungkin ada anak2 sel yg bebal – if you have done everything that God has entrusted you to do, then maybe the only thing left to do is to trust that God knows where He is going with you. Balik ke pentingnya mengikut sertakan Tuhan, gak jalan sendiri/just doing whatever feels right.
3. Work and rest
Even though they had to meet the crowd again, we know that Jesus wanted the apostles to go to a quiet place, be with themselves and rest after their ministry. And who knows (not mentioned in the Gospel), maybe they got to rest during the boat ride! They did choose to go by boat and people reached faster on foot..maybe it was intentional (again, not mentioned in the Gospel it’s just a possibility). We also only get told that Jesus was moved by compassion and so began teaching the crowd.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been prompted by people to think about balance in my life, work and ministry – the message is so clear and came from multiple sources. I’ve been struggling with managing rest in between work and ministry for the past year – falling into this mindset that rest is not as important as ministering and excelling in my job. Someone recently told me that if I’m pursuing holiness, the first thing I should be thinking is to view my life as a ‘whole’ – our restfulness gives us the opportunity to reflect and gives God the opportunity to re-direct our lives where we may have gone the other way. So the kind of rest God asks from us is not to slack off, fill our time with non-Churchy stuff or forget about the people around us – it’s about being with God where we simply enjoy the gift of who we are. Because often it’s easy to forget who we are in the eyes of God when we are only focused on giving. Remember that God calls us for who we are, not what we can do.
Sharing:
When I was a korsel, I had this mindset that it’s never enough – if I don’t use up all my time it probably means I’m not doing enough and the sel’s not going to grow. It took me a long time to realise that the point of my ministry as a korsel/wakorsel is not to make sure sel runs smoothly, PW and firman is on point, everyone shares and prays – at least that’s not the first goal. The first goal of our ministry is to constantly and consistently point to Jesus, a priest once said that we are like a direction board on the road. The destination must always be Jesus. I mention this because we may have sel members who only seek Jesus in sel/go to mass to tick the box, we may have members who only depend on us for their spiritual growth but don’t make any effort outside of sel. Our ‘rest’ as a shepherd comes when our flock seek not just sel, not just TOM, but seriously seek Jesus personally. To see them pursuing Jesus outside of sel, when they share about going to confession, when they bring their questions about the faith back to the sel etc. Because like the crowd in today’s Gospel they are searching for more of Jesus – and know that when they search, Jesus will make Himself known to them. How can we be this arrow board then – back to point no. 1, Jesus must be alive in us first, walk in His grace, be a light.
Challenge of the week:
Resting in God: spend 5-10 mins of your night prayer time to simply reflect on your day. Everything good and bad, big and small that you experienced during the day. Try to see where God is in those moments. Bisa di sharing-in next week.
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