I never cease to be amazed at
the nuggets of wisdom that come from scripture even from a
passage that I have heard and read many times.
One such passage is the story told in John 6:5-14 of
the “loaves and fishes”.
JOHN
6:5 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."
Outside
of the obvious miracle of the multiplication and the obvious
attraction to Jesus that people had, there are many lessons
to be learned from this story.
The disciples were once again reminded of His power
and love, not to mention compassion.
The people were fed with the Word all day and then
He fed them with the food.
I have heard so many powerful lessons preached regarding
this passage and they have all had life changing impact.
However,
the most powerful lesson I learned from this passage came
to me one day as I was mediating on this scripture and I was
going through a particular phase in my life where I did not
feel very useful.
At this time I was questioning everything about my
life, my many failures, my feeble skills, my discipline, my
self-worth and even my faith.
But as clearly as you see these words on this page,
the Lord spoke to me through this passage and gave me knowledge
and wisdom I could never have gotten on my own.
It was not an audible voice, but it was so loud it
almost knocked me down.
In
my heart, here is what I heard the Lord say.
Jesus loves us all so much that He died for us.
Why? Because He loved us and He could die for us.
Of course His death opened the gates of heaven for
us. He took the
punishment for our sins.
For those of us who believe in Him, we have become
children of the King. Jesus did this for us and we did not have to go to that cross
ourselves. He
did it by himself.
It was His love for us that paid the price and His
sinless strength that saved us.
And
what He told me with the story of the multiplication was about
another miracle, a work in which He did not act by himself,
but an awesome event in which He allowed a little boy to participate.
He chose not to do this miracle by himself!
Jesus did not need the little boy to perform the miracle,
but He included him anyway and allowed Him to be a part of
and to participate in the miracle of the multiplication.
Now
let us consider the perspective of the boy.
It is not hard to imagine that the little boy was probably
returning from the market with what little food his family
could afford. It
was the most basic of foods and was the typical diet of the
poor in Jesus time.
Not only was this food minimal, but Jesus was asking
the boy to give up all of his food.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I where that little
boy, I’m not sure I would have given up the only food my family
had. But, something
about Jesus, the love in His eyes, His soothing voice, beckoned
the boy to trust and he gave over his food, all of it!
This
boy may have given everything he had for himself and his family
and if so, he held nothing back.
And again, Jesus didn’t say just give me part of your
food, He asked for all of it!
Think about it!
This was more than a request for a tithe or a work
of charity or any other gift he could give, this was his food,
the means to sustain his life and the lives of his family! But the boy did give it and Jesus multiplied the food to feed
thousands. Did
Jesus need this little boy’s food to feed these people?
No! Did
He even need to involve the little boy?
No! But,
He chose to because of His love and because He wanted to invite
this little boy to be part of the miracle.
Because the boy obeyed, he became part of an awesome
event. Out of
His love and the obedience of the little boy, some loaves
and fishes fed thousands!
Isn’t
Jesus just like that now? Doesn’t He want to take what we have to offer, even if it might
be just some moldy bread and dead fish and use it to feed
thousands! Doesn’t
He want us to be part of His miracles!
I could no longer carry on with my pity party after
this revelation. True,
my weaknesses still haunt me and my self-evaluation is still
dismal, but it does not matter.
Jesus can take whatever I have to offer and feed thousands
with it! He doesn’t
need me to feed others, but He will use me and let me be part
of the miracle. He
wants us, all of us, to be part of the miracle!
In the same way he used the little boy to bless thousands,
He can use us to bless thousands, even though we do nothing
but agree to give what little we have.
So
my encouragement to you, if you feel like you have nothing
to offer, if you think nothing you can do will make a difference,
if you are convinced you have no value, is to look to Jesus,
say yes to His simple request, give Him all you have and watch
Him multiply the blessings.
Your marriage, your children, your work, your schooling
can all be blessed and the blessings will be multiplied by
thousands if we just give it all to Jesus to work His miracles.
Now
the end of that passage is also very important, so please
don’t miss it. After
the boy said yes, not knowing what would happen to his food,
and after everyone had eaten their fill and after the scraps
of food were collected, the boy apparently inherited 12 full
baskets of food. Can
you imagine the surprise on the faces of his family when he
came home with 12 full baskets of food!
The blessings just kept on flowing!
The
little boy, by giving all he had, participated in the miracle
and helped Jesus to feed thousands in turn he was blessed
multiple times over.
Would it not be awesome if all of us would give everything
we have to Jesus and then stepped back and watched Him feed
thousands. The
decision is ours to make, the blessings are ours to receive,
obedience is the first step to take and our awesome Savior
is the reason for it all!
May
God bless you in your obedience!