Complete Restoration
Keith McFarren
October 25, 2026
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
    We live in world of instant gratification.  When we want something, we’re not
willing to wait for it, we want it now.
We want our prayers to be answered now.
We want our illness cured now.  We
want to lose weight now.  We want this
and we want that.  We want our financial
problems cured now…so much so that we go to the nearest 7-11 to get our
Powerball ticket hoping that that will solve all our problems.  
 
How times have changed.  What a
difference there is between the instant gratification society we live in today
and the more laid back, patient society we used to live in.  
 
 It used to be, back in the “good
old days,” as us old people call it, when you didn’t have the money to buy what
you wanted we used to lay things away and make payments on them, sometimes for
months, and over a period of time they were paid for and then we could actually
have them.  
   
In high school I was always laying something away at Goldberg’s or Myers Men’s Ware and I’d make payments on it
and eventually, sometimes it seemed more like an eternity, it was paid for and
it was mine.  
   
I remember how we used to lay away the Christmas presents for our kids
at G.L. Perry’s
and we’d
make payment after payment on them and when they were paid for then could we
could pick them up just before Christmas.
   
In today’s
society, the “I want it now” society, people don’t want to wait…and
they don’t have to.  Because in today’s society all that is
needed is a little plastic card called the charge card.  And if you don’t have one…they’ll
be glad to send you one or two or three because the more charge cards you have…the
more neat stuff you can have…as soon as you want it.  That’s how it is today…you want something bad
enough and you simply go buy it.  You
flip the card and you take it home with you…just like that.  
   
This was the first time that the disciples had been out by
themselves.  They were preaching and
calling upon others to repent and accept the Good News of the Gospel.
 
Because this was their first time
without Jesus they were under a lot of stress.  All those people.  All those problems.  All that talking and preaching and anointing
and praying.  All the expectations.  The sun was hot and the men were dirty and
sweaty.  And by the end of the day when
they returned back to their home base they were dragging their tail between
their legs…they were tired and beat.  
   
Jesus is human and being human he got tired just like we do so Jesus
knew what his disciples had been going through and how they felt.   Seeing
the tiredness written all over their faces he said,  “Come away for a while and rest,” he said.  “I know a place close by – just across the lake.”  “A deserted place,” the NRSV calls it.  A wilderness…a desolate place.
   
These words of Jesus serve as both a prescription for the immediate
needs of the disciples and as a prescription for our lives as well.
   
Here we see Jesus coming as the Great Physician prescribing physical
rest for those who are tired and worn out.
Jesus is no dummy…he knows what’s going on…that’s because he’s human and
he knows exactly what’s going on in our lives.
   
We can’t work without rest; and we can’t live the Christian life  to its fullest unless we give ourselves some
time for rest and some time with God.
The problem with our lives is that we don’t give God the opportunity to
speak to us…mostly because we don’t know how to be still long enough to
listen.  We don’t give God the time to
recharge our spirits with the spiritual energy needed because we don’t have the
time to wait for him to do it.
   
How can we bear all the burdens that life throws at us, if we don’t take
the time to communicate with the Lord who offers us life?  How can we do God’s work unless we are using
God’s strength?  And how can we receive
that strength unless we seek God in the quietness that surrounds us?  
   
It’s been said that the heart is
a lonely hunter.  It’s been said that the
heart searches for quiet, for peace, for stillness, and for rest.
   
And yet we do all that we can to deny our hearts to have that hunter
instinct.  Because we’re too busy for solitude.  We’re not the type of person who likes quiet
time.  We can’t afford to go off somewhere by ourselves to rest…after
all…time is money.  
   
Maybe that’s why the idea of multitasking was developed so that we can
pray and work at the same time hoping that we can stay in touch with God
throughout the day.  
   
Our instant
gratification society has
taught us to feel that something has to be going on in our lives every minute
of every day.  And yet despite all this
hurry up and get it done mentality our hearts continue to hunt for solitude.  Our hearts continue to hunt for peace and
quiet.  
   
Here’s the thing.  God has a
secret waiting for those who want their hearts to find peace and solitude…and
the secret is this – this place Jesus speaks of, this wilderness, this desolate
place, this place of solitude is not what we really think it is…it is actually
something much better.
    Author Henri Nouwen suggests
that the word “wilderness”
we think of as a “deserted place or a desolate place” is really a
magnificent garden.  This wilderness that
Jesus want us to go to with him is the place from which new life begins, new
beginnings emerge, and new dreams take hold.
This wilderness, this desolate place that he talks of is a place where
we discover the direction that God wants to lead us.  It’s
a place where anything becomes possible.
   
The wilderness, Nouwen writes, is a place of solitude, “it’s where spiritual ministry begins.  [It’s]
where Jesus listened to God…and [it’s]
where we listen to God.”“Without solitude, [without peace] we remain victims of
our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.” (Henri Nouwen, The Way of the
Heart).
   
If Jesus knew that he needed time for renewal, and for prayer, and
meditation and refreshment, who are we to think that we don’t need some type of renewal and replenishment as
well?  
   
After all, we come from the culture that coined the term, “workaholic.”  And with that in mind just think how
desperately we need to allow our hearts to find peace and solitude…how
desperately we need to care for our souls.

 
And that’s
the first thing this text tells us this morning about our wellbeing…about our
overall wholeness.  It tells us that our
hearts long for peace.  That we need to
seek out peace, that we need to seek out solitude and we need to take the time
to replenish the inner being of our soul.
   
Now the second thing is this: our spiritual wellbeing or our spiritual
wholeness just doesn’t
appear out of nowhere to us as a gift from God just because we believe he can
give it.  
   
The scripture this morning tells us that once people recognized who
Jesus was they brought their sick to him to be made well.  They believed they could be made whole if
they could simply touch the fringe of his robe.
And “all who touched it were healed.”
   
We need to think of the term “healing” in a broad sense.  We need to think of Jesus’ healing in terms of healing not just the body, but
healing the mind, and healing the spirit as well.  We need to think of Jesus’ healing in terms of total wholeness…in terms of
complete restoration.  
·It’s
a healing that heals the past…a healing that frees all people from the
captivity of sin and guilt.
·At
the same time it’s a healing that heals our psyche…a healing that releases us
from anxiety and fear and then restores us to a life of peace and confidence
and trust.
   
In the New Testament there is a close correlation among the words
healing, wholeness and salvation.  To be
healed physically, mentally and spiritually is synonymous to being made whole…to
being fully restored.   To be healed
physically, mentally and spiritually is to simply receive our salvation.
   
And it is Jesus, and only Jesus, who is the giver of such healing, and
wholeness and salvation to those who believe.
It is our faith and our trust in him that serves as the key to opening
the door that allows our body, our mind and our spirit to heal.
   
Listen to what the Psalmist writes:

             The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
             He
makes me lie down in green pastures;
             he
leads me beside still waters;
             he
restores my soul..  (Psalm 23)
   
If you attend any of my funerals I will normally begin with the 23rd
Psalm.  Why?  Because of its calming, restorative effect…because
it describes the overall fullness of God’s
care and compassionn for each and every one of us.
   
God wants us to rest…beside the still waters, quiet, calm waters where
energy is restored for all of life’s
journeys that lie ahead.  He wants us to
rest because a restored soul gives us a new outlook on life.  A restored soul gives us new energy, energy
to face life from this very moment on…energy to face whatever it is that comes
our way.
“Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a
while” (v. 30). These words from Jesus serve as a prescription for the
immediate needs of the disciples, and they also serve as a prescription for our
immediate needs as well.  
   
Through Jesus you can find peace.
Through Jesus you can find solitude.
You can find total restoration.
And the neat part about all of this is that you don’t have to wait for it like we used to have to wait for
our layaways.  In this world of immediate
gratification it can all happen now.