After posting the
"Bible Study Pitfalls" onto our blog last week, it was only fitting that our Sunday morning sermon encourage us to take a new look at passages we
think we know. The focus was on one of the most well-known miracles of Jesus, John 6 - Jesus feeding the 5,000.
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, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to 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 they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 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 sign Jesus performed, 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 mountain by himself.
It hit my pretty quickly that I have never really understood this passage. Peter from
Hope International who was giving the sermon started out with what he has always seen in the passage - which was already different than what I read into it as. I mean, its a miracle by Jesus, right? What else is there to it?
Peter said he always thought of this passage with the boy at the center of it. The boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. He gives these fish to Jesus, and Jesus multiples them. It seems like he has so little, but Jesus is able to do so much with it! That is true in our lives as well; when we tithe, when we give our time, when we give our talents. From a human perspective, it may seem menial, but when you give it to Jesus, he can make SO much of it. Great interpretation - one that I hadn't even thought of- but an interpretation that doesn't give it enough credit. (It gives it more credit than my naive "its a miracle! thats it!" but still not enough.)
While that understanding of the passage is true, and it teaches us a great deal about giving even when we don't think we have enough, it doesn't encompass the full capacity of the story. Peter gave us a lot of background details next and why this was such an intense time - causing Jesus to withdraw. I wish I had been taking notes, because I surely cannot relay everything to you at this time. But the overall jist is this:
The people, knowing only the human side of what the prophet who was coming was supposed to look like, wanted to overthrow the Romans and put Jesus into power to rule. They compared him to Moses in the Old Testament and knew (correctly, knew) that Jesus was the man that they had been waiting for to come and save them. But what they didn't know was that Jesus didn't come to save them the same way that Moses saved their people by leading them out of Egypt. They can't comprehend what he is about to do! They think they know - but they really have no idea.
While this is powerful enough of a story just as a miracle, and it is powerful even more when you think about how it demonstrates Jesus using what we give him to do much more than what we are capable of alone, and it is even more powerful than that when you see the connection from the Old Testament.
Context is everything.
So now, reading this story, I am thinking about what situations I have my human blinders on in. Do I think I know what God is doing? Because thats just not possible. Even if it makes sense from my human perspective, I still need to be open, need to leave room for God to do even bigger things. Just think if things had gone the way those 5,000 thought they were going to go - if Jesus had overthrown the Romans and ruled on earth.
It wouldn't be nearly as miraculous as what God was really up to.
