Mark 8. It was a spontaneous spiritual retreat that drew thousands of people. They’d been together for three days and no grocery stores in sight. They were starving.

The intervention was a massive, divinely supplied soup kitchen. The inspiration for it came from intimate relationship.

How did Jesus know that many of them had come from great distances? How did he know they had run out of food? He wouldn’t know unless he was engaging with them in the mess of their real life. It would’ve been so easy for him to stay at a comfortable distance. To remain merely “the teacher.”

Jesus didn’t just serve through teaching. He served through relationship. His academic training shaped his mind, but it was love that shaped his actions.