On Leisure

“And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” ~Mark 6:31

Have you ever taken time to consider the pace of Jesus’ life? What did His average day look like? Do you think He maintained a rigid schedule and packed His calendar for weeks in advance? Was He always teaching and healing? How important was leisure to Jesus?

We know Jesus took time for solitude and prayer (Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:28), and this alone should be enough to convict us concerning our excessively busy lives, but leisure is a completely different category. We freely acknowledge our need to pray. Scripture commands it, after all (Matthew 6:5; Luke 18:1; I Thessalonians 5:17). But leisure? That seems a bit far-fetched, especially for a Savior who had a very important mission. Yet that’s what it says in Mark 6:31 — Jesus was painfully aware of the need He and the disciples had for some leisure.

The word used here in our text carries the notion of “spare time” — time unfettered by duties or responsibilities. It’s an opportunity to do with your time whatever you want, or whatever the moment allows. It’s leisure time. Of course, in Mark 6 Jesus and His disciples needed to eat, so the time was best used for that purpose, but what He was interested in was having time that wasn’t filled with obligations.

For many of us, we scurry to and fro with agendas, lists of tasks, or obligations to others that leave us exhausted and frenetic. We drive a few miles per hour above the speed limit to get to our destination a bit faster. We cut short one thing to give a few more minutes to another. We eat lunch at our desks so we can keep working on that project. We text and read emails while someone is speaking to us (either on the phone or even in person!). We are so busy! But Jesus realized how important leisure time is. He knew that sometimes we just need a break — time to use however we want — even if its just to eat a meal without interruption.

You know Jesus had to walk everywhere, right? There’s no indication in Scripture that He and the disciples maintained a slow jog just to get to the next town more quickly. Rather, it seems that Jesus paced Himself according to the limited reality of His human nature. Are we really more able than our Savior to burn the wick at both ends?

There’s a little poem by Wendell Berry that’s worth considering:

There is a day
when the road neither
comes nor goes, and the way
is not a way but a place.

Do you live as if life is all “way?” Jesus, whose mission was certainly more important and eternally significant than any of ours, took time for leisure. He knew the value of little moments of ease so He might not only rejuvenate for the next task, but simply enjoy being in the world His Father made. Let’s be willing to do the same.  

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor of Teaching & Spiritual Formation