Mark 6:30-44, CEB - The apostles returned to Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. Many people were coming and going, so there was no time to eat. He said to the apostles, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” They departed in a boat by themselves for a deserted place.
Many people saw them leaving and recognized them, so they
ran ahead from all the cities and arrived before them. When Jesus arrived and
saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep
without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.
Late in the day, his disciples came to him and said,
“This is an isolated place, and it’s already late in the day. Send them away so
that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy something
to eat for themselves.”
He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
But they said to him, “Should we go off and buy bread
worth almost eight months’ pay and give it to them to eat?”
He said to them, “How much bread do you have? Take a
look.”
After checking, they said, “Five loaves of bread and two
fish.”
He directed the disciples to seat all the people in
groups as though they were having a banquet on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and
fifties. He took the five loaves and the
two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, broke the loaves into pieces, and
gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two
fish among them all. Everyone ate until
they were full. They filled twelve
baskets with the leftover pieces of bread and fish. About five thousand had eaten.
This miracle is the only miracle recorded in all four of the
New Testament gospels. It is even more remarkable how similar all four accounts are.
This suggests that this is one of the more famous events that occurred during
the earthly life of Jesus. Given the
fact that there are five thousand men present, it is estimated that there may
have been as many as fifteen thousand people present. That’s an incredible number of witnesses to this
miraculous provision of Jesus.
There are echoes in this miracle of two Old Testament
miracles. The more obvious of the two is God’s provision of manna (a bread-like
food) for the Hebrews during their lengthy time in the wilderness. (Exodus 16)
The second, though not as impressive, was when the prophet Elisha used 20 small
loaves of bread to feed over a hundred men (2 Kings 4). The detail that really seems to be echoed in
Jesus’s miracle is the mention of plenty of leftovers after the meal. Certainly, in the crowd fed by Jesus, there
would have been musings that in this very moment, these people found themselves
in the middle of an event that, like manna in the wilderness, would be spoken about
for generations to come. They were
present for movement of God comparable to the days of Moses and the prophets.
While I haven’t been present for a mega-scale miracle like this,
I have many experiences when I realized God’s power was tangible. Sometimes, they are worship services with a
large number of people, but more often, they take place in way more ordinary
circumstances. I realize that God has
put exactly the right person in my path at exactly the right time. Serendipitous circumstances that only God
could have orchestrated come together to provide just what was needed in the
moment. There have even been a couple of
times when I realized that a vision of that God had placed in my heart had been
realized many years later. While the
scale of this miracle is mammoth, the same kind of thing is going on. People are hungry and need to be fed. There doesn’t seem to be enough resources,
but somehow, God provides anyway.
The reality is that miraculous provision is being made for
us all the time. The feeding of the five
thousand should remind of us of that truth and open our eyes to the “invisible”
provision around us. The oxygen that keeps us alive every moment is no less miraculous
than multiplying loaves and fishes.
Spend some time taking note of the miracles taking place in the space
around you today.
Question: What is
something that points to the power of God at work right in this moment and
space where you are right now?
Prayer: Jesus, help
us see Your mysterious provision for us in the ordinary moments of life. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for people who are hungry right now.
Song: Ordinary
Miracle – Sarah McLaughlin
No comments:
Post a Comment