Pentecost 11 August
20, 2006
“Believe in the One Who Feeds the Five
Thousand”
John 6:1-15
1
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the
5
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to
Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he
already had in mind what he was going to do.
7
Philip answered him, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each
one to have a bite!” 8 Another of his
disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9”Here is a boy with five
small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so
many?”
10
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”
There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about
five thousand of them. 11 Jesus then
took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much
as they wanted. He did the same with the
fish. 12 When they had all had enough to
eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve
baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had
eaten.
14
After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say,
“Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come
and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountainside by himself.
“There’s no way…There is just
no way.” Your boss has given you a
project or you have been assigned some task.
The company goal is surpassing the record-setting year from last year by
20%, and staffing has been reduced. You
have assessed the situation, you have brainstormed every conceivable solution, you
have considered each option carefully and concluded, “There is no way. There is just no way. It cannot be done.”
And there are plenty of other
head-shaking things in life that happen and make us say, “There is no way. There is just no way.” Bring a fresh situation like that into your
mind. Aren’t you at times frustrated by
the lack of progress there? Does the
problem hurt you in some way, shape or form?
But…would you be willing to consider that this impossible situation
you’re facing is not the Lord sending you a gift-wrapped package of pain and frustration…instead
he’s sending you an open invitation to trust him above all things?
Jesus gave his disciples that
open invitation when he said, “Where shall we buy enough bread for these people
to eat?” When he said that, there was a
great crowd of people coming toward him.
They were migrating toward Jesus because they had seen him do some
miracles and they wanted to see more.
And exactly how many people were there? Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all
record this miracle, and by the way, this is the only miracle all four record
except for the resurrection. And interestingly
enough, each one invites us to do the math.
They all record that there were about 5,000 men, plus women and
children. That makes 15,000 total persons
a conservative estimate.
Think about what it would
take to feed 15,000 people. There are 25
chairs on my right-hand and your left-hand side of the sanctuary. Assuming that one disciple could somehow in
one trip carry enough bread and fish in his arms for 25 people, in order to
feed 15,000 Peter would have to make 50 trips, James would have to make 50
trips, John would have to make 50 trips, Andrew would have to make 50 trips, Philip…
Bartholomew… Matthew… Thomas… the other James… Thaddeus… Simon the Zealot… and
Judas Iscariot. There’s no way. There’s just no way.
It’s no wonder that when
Jesus asked, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” that they
responded by essentially saying, “There’s no way. There’s just no way.” But listen to the Scripture for today and
rejoice in who Jesus is and what he did.
(read text)
“Eight months’ wages wouldn’t
even buy enough for these people to have a bite!” We could work for almost a whole year and
that would hardly provide one bite of a burger!
“How far will five loaves and two fish go among so many?” We don’t have nearly enough food and even
less money. There’s no way the crowd
will be satisfied and filled. There’s
just no way.
Yet, when everybody had been
fed and fully satisfied, I believe it would be safe to say Philip would have
taken back what he had said. I believe
it is safe to say Andrew would have smiled as he remembered asking, “How far
will they go among so many?” I believe
it is safe to say that these twelve men would have looked back at their
frustrating afternoon and thought, “I guess we should have known.” When Jesus asked, “Where will we buy enough
bread for these people to eat?” the
disciples were 0-for-12 in responding with, “I don’t know Jesus, but you will
take care of it in the best possible way.”
And that is exactly what he did.
So what can we learn from
this familiar account? When we face an
impossible situation, God is not putting the screws to us. When we get to those times that we say,
“There is no way - there is just no way” God is not giving us a gift of
frustration. He is testing us,
repeatedly testing us, in order to teach us to turn to him and trust in him to
do all the things we cannot do. Trusting
in God above all things is at the very top of the list of things God requires
from us; but when impossible dilemmas have knocked on our front door or have
knocked us flat on our backs – trusting in God above all things is at the very
bottom of the list of what we have given to God. Instead what have we given him? We have given him complaints; we have told
him how it is everyone else’s fault – maybe even his fault; we have impatiently
demanded that he fix the problem immediately.
We have given God everything BUT trust.
And all of the untrusting things we have given to God have earned us a
serious thrashing.
So who gets the
thrashing? The sinless one does. The one who trusted the Father constantly and
completely and perfectly. The one who
passed every test. The one who taught
millions, fed thousands and healed hundreds.
The one who never grew tired of caring for people who were like sheep
without a shepherd. Jesus, the sinless
one, volunteered for the thrashing that our lack of trust has earned. He was happy to do it. So when you see once again that Jesus
suffered hell in your place, the very last thing you should feel is guilty
because he had to do that for you. He
wants you to feel great because he was just as happy to die for your sins as he
was to feed the five thousand. Nothing
was going to stop him from doing that for you.
Jesus is so loving and patient.
That’s why he didn’t take the
disciple’s heads off after they had seen him do miracles all week long and then
worried about how they would find food.
That’s why, later that very same night after he had done all those
miracles and then fed the five thousand, the nasty storm popped up and the
disciples were in the boat afraid for their lives – and Jesus walked on water
to save them and comfort them and he didn’t walk right past them. He is patient with us and loves us.
So, now will you please
imagine something with me? We all know
Jesus is with us. Imagine that you can
see your Savior standing here, with his arms crossed. He is surveying the landscape of your life,
analyzing all the physical things you need to keep your body going. He is also taking note of all the mountainous
problems you feel that need to be moved out of the way. You have no clue how or when that is going to
happen. And so, Jesus turns to you like
he turned to Philip and asks, “So, what are you going to do to handle this?”
My prayer for everyone in
this room is that after taking time out of a busy week to pause and reflect on
God’s Word, we are renewed in our confidence that Jesus can restore things that
seem unrestorable.
When he asks, “What are you going to do to handle this?” our response
becomes, “Well, my Savior, you are going to handle it in the best possible
way.”
When you find yourself
saying, “There’s no way…there’s just no way”…remember that Jesus loves you. The tests he brings you will help you learn
to turn to him as a first resort rather than a last resort. Believe in the one who can feed the five
thousand! Amen.