This coming Sunday is the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time. At the conclusion of their mission to the Galilean villages the disciples returned to Jesus. He had commissioned them to be his emissaries (Ch. 6:7–13), and it is appropriate to this circumstance that they should report to him how they had fulfilled their commission.

30 The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. 32 So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.

While the word “apostles” is accurately translated in v.30, there is a tendency in modern reading to associate this with “the Twelve” and to associate the term with an official title. What might get lost is the whole purpose of what they were sent to go. Simply put they were missionaries.

David Lose notes: “There is something both beautiful and poignant about Jesus’ response to the disciples’ activity. When they come back to tell about all they’ve done, he doesn’t greet them with praise or encouragement. That might seem odd to us who live in the ‘age of affirmation.’ Nor does he correct them or do an assessment of their work, as one might expect from a teacher. Rather, he looks deeper and sees their needs. They are weary, tired, worn out by the constant coming and going of the crowds that follow them. And so rather than praise or affirm, encourage or critique, Jesus invites them to come away, to find a moment of solitude, and to rest. There will be time for praise and instruction later. What is most needed now is rest.

Christ preaching to the Apostles, Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1381| Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena | Public Domain US