Back For Seconds
By Grant Gaines
Jesus preformed 37 recorded miracles (not including His own resurrection) between the four Gospels. Do you know which miracle was the only one to be recorded in all four Gospels? If you answered The Feeding of the 5,000, you are correct. So what made this miracle so special that all four authors, directed by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16), felt a need to cover this event?
Certainly the miracle displays the power of Christ, the compassion of Christ, and the deity of Christ, but I believe the story reveals another important lesson that was too important for any author to leave out. What is this lesson? Let’s dive in the Word to find out.
As we just discussed, The Feeding of the 5,000 was covered in all four Gospels from four unique perspectives. As we put those four accounts together, we learn that the disciples had literally just returned to Jesus after being sent out two by two to spread the Good News of the Gospel (Mark 6:31)— leaving them absolutely exhausted. But rather than receiving a warm homecoming, the disciples returned to the spirit-crushing news that Jesus’s cousin and close friend, John the Baptist, had recently been beheaded for his faith—leaving them full of grief.
So Jesus, being the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) and knowing the “…condition of [His] flock…” (Proverbs 27:23, NIV), decided it was time for the weary and woeful bunch to take a little solitary retreat. So the group got on a boat and began to head to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
As you would imagine, the disciples must have been pretty quiet on that boat ride given their volatile emotional state. But just as soon as one of the disciples began to think, “Man, it’s so quiet out here that you could hear a pen…” their thoughts were interrupted with a stomach growling…and another stomach growling…and another. Because, to add to their whirlwind of emotions, Mark 6:31 (NIV) informs us that, “…because so many people were coming and going they did not even have a chance to eat….” So the disciples were tired, sorrowful, and hungry! Sounds like a pretty nasty “unholy trinity” to me!
As they reached the other side of the Sea, the disciples were ready for some much needed rest and relaxation when all of the sudden—uh oh—here comes that pesky crowd from the other side of the Sea of Galilee who had apparently followed them. At this point the disciples must have been begging Jesus to lay low and slip away from the crowd so they could just enjoy some alone time to recharge their batteries. But Jesus, though He was tired, hungry, and had a great deal of grief Himself, had other plans. Mark 6:34 (NIV) tells us that, “When Jesus saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things.”
While Jesus was busy feeding His crowd spiritual food, the disciples were consumed with their lack of physical food. With the empty pit in their stomach eating away at their thoughts, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “…This is a remote place…Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat” (Mark 6:36, NIV).
“But [Jesus] answered, ‘You give them something to eat’…” (Mark 6:37, NIV).
Now I want you to put yourself in the disciples’ shoes—you’re tired, you’re starving, and you’re brokenhearted. And rather than giving you something to eat, Jesus places on your plate the task of feeding 5,000 people. How are you feeling at that moment? Probably pretty frustrated and irritable, right?
Well that’s exactly how the disciples felt as can be seen by their response to Jesus’s command , “…That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them?” (Mark 6:37, NIV).
The disciples faced the same problem that many of us fall victim to in times of trial—spiritual blindness. The disciples were so focused on themselves that they failed to recognize that while they may have been low on bread, the Bread of Life (John 6:35) was standing right before them. The disciples saw a problem to talk about while Jesus saw a people to take care of. The disciples who had already witnessed Jesus heal the sick (Mark 1:40-45), calm the storms (Mark 4:35-41), and raise the dead (Mark 5:21-43) were now all of the sudden believing that Jesus had commanded them to do something that He was not able to help them do.
But as the story goes, Jesus took all the disciples had—five loaves of bread and two fish (Mark 6:38)—and He, “…broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before [the people]…” (Mark 6:41, NASB). Notice that it was Jesus who gave the disciples what they needed to provide for others. Funny, isn’t it? Jesus commanded His followers to do something and then gave them everything they needed to accomplish that task.
Do you think that truth still applies today? 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NIV) gives us some pretty good evidence that it does, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you so at all times, in all things, having all you need, you may abound in every good work.” God gives us everything we need not only to accomplish a task, but to abound in it to the point that we have, well, say, twelve baskets full of food left over just as the disciples did(Mark 6:43).
And notice how Jesus gave the disciples what they needed to give to others , “…He kept giving them to the disciples to set before [the people]…” (Mark 6:41, NASB, italics mine). He kept giving them what they needed. It was not as if the disciples were given a never-ending basket full of food that they were able to just make one trip through the crowd to feed them. Rather, the disciples had to constantly come back to Jesus to get refilled with what they needed to give other people.
What a great illustration for us as we attempt to serve the Lord through serving others. We are not just to come to God once in the morning and once before we go to sleep at night. Instead, we need to constantly come before His throne with confidence (Hebrews 4:16) throughout the day so He can keep giving us what we need to give to others. Had the disciples made a onetime stop with Jesus, they would have only been able to feed a handful of people. But because they kept coming back to Him, Jesus provided an abundant amount of provisions for them to then use to serve others.
I don’t know about you, but those are some pretty awesome lessons from one story – no wonder God saw it fit for all four Gospel authors to write about The Feeding of the 5,000!
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
