John 6:1-14
The Feeding
Of The Five Thousand
John 6:1-14 MKJV
After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of
Tiberias. (2) And a great multitude
followed Him, because they saw His miracles, which He did on the sick
ones. (3) And Jesus went up into a
mountain and sat there with His disciples.
(4) And the Passover was near, a feast of the Jews. (5) Then Jesus lifted up His eyes and saw a
great crowd come to Him. He said to Philip, Where shall we buy loaves so that
these may eat? (6) And He said this to
test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
(7) Philip answered Him, Loaves for two hundred denarii are not enough
for them, that every one may take a little.
(8) One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to
Him, (9) There is a boy here who has
five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are these among so many? (10) And Jesus said, Make the men recline.
And there was much grass in the place. So the men reclined, about five thousand
in number. (11) And Jesus took the
loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, and the
disciples to those who had reclined; and likewise of the fish, as much as they
wanted. (12) And when they were filled,
He said to His disciples, gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing is
lost. (13) Therefore they gathered and
filled twelve hand baskets with fragments of the five barley loaves that were
left over to those who had eaten. (14)
Then seeing the miracle that Jesus did, those men said, this is truly the
Prophet, the One coming into the world.
This
miracle is in all four gospels in almost identical form, except Luke adds the
seating arrangements - by fifties (Luke 9:14). It marks a turning point in the
ministry of Jesus after which He seems to become much more Messianic and a
political threat. It is after this that the Galileans want to take Him and make
Him King by force (incidentally reinforcing the fact He was of the royal
bloodline.)
A
similar thing happens to priests and missionaries who move from a preaching
ministry to also meeting human needs in a holistic fashion, suddenly life
becomes political.
Let’s
look at the miracle in some depth. It is a miracle that meets the obvious
physical needs of his hearers, the popular peasants of Galilee, with their
staple food – bread and fish. It is an economic miracle of supply.
I
once had a similar miracle with a large yam I was given when I was a missionary
in Papua New Guinea. I had been moved to a very expensive urban area and my
support was insufficient so a church elder gave me a large purple-black yam
which I put on the kitchen bench and cut off a chunk each, day, boiled it and
ate. It was delicious. After a while I noticed the yam was not getting any
smaller, until the last week I was in PNG when it seemed to shrink and vanish.
The yam lasted about four months.
My
wife tells similar stories about cooking for large Christian university student
functions in Manila, and how no matter how little they started with, there was
always more than enough by the end.
God’s
blessing enables a small amount to go a long way and I am continually surprised
at how much can be done with little or no cash, but just with the blessing of
God (e.g. parting the Red Sea, healing lepers etc.) Many a large church has
started in a garage with little funds. If you start with just what you have,
then somehow it ends up being enough.
Money is
still needed, wages and the electricity bill still have to be paid, but money
is not the over-riding factor – the blessing of God is. Some of my most
effective Internet ministry was done in 1996-1998, out of a dusty 8ft by 6ft
breezeblock office in the Australian tropics with an old computer and a 33K
modem. Eternity Online magazine peaked with one million readers plus per month.
These days’ administration and paperwork and writing grant applications seem to
take up way too much time.
Jesus has
a creative powerful solution to even very large-scale problems – like 5000
hungry people. The scale is not a problem to Him. God made everything we know out of a “handful
of nothing”; He can also make bread for five thousand out of a few barley loaves.
I tend to
stress out over large-scale problems instead of handing my five loaves and two
small fish to Jesus. We need to stop, and “be still” and ask Jesus for the
creative solution that He has in mind.
Just a
note, the miracle did not happen because of the disciple’s faith, but because
of their obedience. The power was with Jesus, not with man. They just got to
see that power at work in a spectacular way because they obeyed.
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