In this passage we see the remarkable humanity of Jesus. Being fully human, He understood well how much people need rest. In the Gospel one can find places where Christ withdraws into the mountains to pray and be alone with the Father. Therefore He sends the disciples to a deserted place where they could rest from the crowd, which was so large that they did not even have time to eat. The disciples go away, but the number of people needing help does not become smaller. Seeing these "sheep without a shepherd," the Lord had compassion and Himself remained beside them.

When our strength leaves us and we understand that we urgently need rest and solitude, it can be so frightening to leave those who need us and be alone with the Father. But if we nevertheless decide to do this, the Lord stands in our place and solves the problems for which our own strength is no longer enough.

The apostle asks his readers to obey their leaders, and to do so in such a way that these leaders do not have to grieve as they carry out their ministry. The author of the epistle reminds his readers that their spiritual mentors bear responsibility for them before God, and if their ministry is accompanied not by joy but by sorrow, the recipients of the epistle will gain no benefit from it. Speaking of mentors or leaders, he has in mind either teachers, or presbyters who headed the Church, or both at the same time. In those days the presbyters bore responsibility for the Church as a whole, while teachers carried out their ministry in particular church communities, explaining and showing by their own example what the Christian path is, the path by which a person is formed in Christ as the living Torah.

The many new eschatological theories and Christological concepts that were then coming into fashion, and that the author of the epistle criticizes quite sharply, were precisely what distracted Christians from Christ and from the path of the inner Torah, turning their attention to something else, usually something fairly abstract. Not only the author of the epistle, but any teacher who had not lost spiritual sobriety had to oppose these fashionable teachings. But no one, of course, could guarantee that, while outwardly obedient and in agreement with church teachers and presbyters, individual members of the church or whole groups within it would truly give up their views. After all, the issue is a person's inner life, and coercing its members in anything, whether views or way of life, has always been alien to the Church with a capital C. The only requirement was keeping the commandments, and only keeping them at the first, outward level was required. The path of the inner Torah, like everything connected with spiritual or intellectual life in general, was not subject to any control, remaining a matter for each person's conscience. Here one could only exhort, instruct, and inspire by example.

In that case, however, any normal spiritual life was possible only with complete sincerity and trust. If a person wanted, for example, to hide his views or his spiritual life from the teacher of his church community, nothing prevented him from doing so. But then it would have been more honest simply to leave, for in that case the one hiding could gain no spiritual benefit from his stay in the community or from his communication with the teacher. More than that: by deceiving the teacher of his church community, he was also letting that teacher down. The teacher knew that he answered before God for everyone who turned to him for help and counsel, and he tried to help on the basis that the person turning to him trusted him and would follow his counsel. Here it turned out that the one asking for help did not intend to follow what he was told, only pretending to listen to the words of his mentor. No normal mentorship can exist in such a case, and when the mentor learns of such a situation, he truly will not rejoice but grieve.

"You give them something to eat!" These words of Christ are addressed not only to the apostles two thousand years ago, but to each of His disciples in every age. When we ask Him how He intends to care for the people He has created, He says exactly these words to us. Of course, we will not have to perform miracles in His place; He will multiply both the bread and the fish.

But for this our participation is necessary: our readiness to come to the aid of someone in need, to comfort someone who is weeping, to share love with someone who lacks it. All the puzzled questions addressed to God He redirects to us: "You give them something to eat; you be My presence in this world; you become channels of My love..."