What could be more appropriate on an August Sunday than to tell you a story about a picnic? This is the season for packing a basket, loading a cooler with soft drinks, and heading to some isolated spot (well, you hope it will be isolated) and refreshing yourself in a day of food, fun, and relaxation.
Well, that isn’t the way this picnic unfolded. Nevertheless, I dare to say that it is the most famous picnic in all of human history, and one of the biggest, too. Let me tell you how it happened.
Food for all
Jesus and his disciples had just gotten some devastating news. John the Baptist had been beheaded by King Herod. John was the prophet who had prepared the way for Jesus. Several of Jesus’ disciples had gotten their start by following John. Now he had been brutally executed. In a way, this was probably not a surprise to Jesus and the Twelve. Anybody who preached as fearlessly as John did was always in danger. Still, one is never really ready for this kind of news. Not when it’s someone you know and love.
So Jesus did what he always did at times of stress; he sought out a private place where he could be alone with God. To ensure privacy, he took a boat to "a deserted place." I suspect he was looking for the ancient equivalent of a Trappist monastery, a place where no words would be spoken except words with God.
But for Jesus, solitude was hard to come by. The crowds liked him too much, and needed him too badly. When they heard that he had left by boat, and when th
