Blessed, Broken, Given (Mar.22,09
Mark M6 Message Notes March 22, 2009
Title: Blessed, Broken, Given
Text: Mark 6:30-44
Big idea: Jesus’ revolution brings spiritual and physical sustenance.
I have been in conversation with someone who is becoming active in the movement to support the plight of the Palestinian people.
This person feels invigorated by her participation in this struggle.
She’s not a religious person and is surprised by how many Christians and rabbis are involved in the movement.
Whether we are religious or not, there is a part of us that longs to be involved in some kind of movement that is bigger than us.
If we follow Christ, we will discover that we are involved in the most significant revolution of history.
In the famous poem One Solitary Life we read:
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter’s shop until He was thirty.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
Yet, all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
This morning we’re going to look at the nature of Jesus’ revolution and what it means to be a part of it as we look at the miracle where Jesus fed the multitude:
If you have your Bibles please turn to Mark 6 vs. 30
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."
37 But he answered, "You give them something to eat."
They said to him, "That would take almost a year's wages [a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
38 "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see."
When they found out, they said, "Five—and two fish."
39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
In verse 30 we read that Jesus’ disciples are reporting to him all the things they have been doing and teaching. As we see earlier in this chapter (in Mark 6:7-13) Jesus’ disciples have been preaching that people should turn from their sins to God; they’ve been driving out demons and praying for God to heal people
Then we see in verse 31 that so many people were coming and going that Jesus and his disciples did not have a chance to eat. The students of Jesus were tired from their mission trips and hungry. Jesus says, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” They get into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee to a quiet place on the north-eastern shore, but many who saw them leave, recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns, and got to the northeastern shore ahead of them. When Jesus landed, he saw a large crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
When we read the phrase that Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd, we might picture Jesus as a shepherd with a shepherd’s crook who wants to offer care to these people who are weak and helpless, like a literal shepherd caring for sheep in some pasture. The word “shepherd” in the Jewish context was at times used in this pastoral sense. But the word “shepherd” was often used of a military leader who would mobilize Israel’s forces for war (like Joshua). In Numbers 27:17, when Joshua was appointed as the political and military leader over the Hebrew people, the Lord said Joshua was being appointed so that his people would not be like sheep without a shepherd.
When we hear this story in Mark 6 of Jesus feeding the multitude--a popular one in children’s Bibles and featured as a miracle of Jesus surrounded by children and happy families--we can close our eyes and perhaps imagine the blankets that have been laid out on the grass and the checkered red tablecloths that will be laid out on the blankets in preparation for the picnic that Jesus will lead.
But, as the commentators point out, this particular stereotype may be misleading.
The more accurate picture is that this scene looks more like a potential revolutionary uprising—than a Sunday school picnic. Rural Galilee (where this scene takes place) was a stronghold of the zealot movement. It had been a rallying point for Jewish military resistance against Herod the Great. We read that there were 5000 men. This is remarkable when you consider that the entire town of nearby Capernaum had a population of only 2000 people. It seems as though men are coming from various towns for this gathering and that the area was swept up in hopes of a political military leader who will led them into war. We know from John 6:15 that the people gathered here intended to make Jesus king, by force.
But Jesus is going to lead a different kind of revolution. Instead of giving out weapons and instructions on how they will attack the Roman Empire, he does something far different.
We read in verse 35 it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him and said, “Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and buy themselves something to eat.” Now this was a perfectly reasonable suggestion—dismiss the crowd and allow them to go to the neighboring towns to buy themselves dinner. There was no McDonalds, Subway, or Pizza Hut nearby--so the disciples encouraged Jesus to dismiss them so they could find a place to eat dinner in one of the surrounding towns.
But rather than going with their suggestion, Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” Impossible—they think. They reason it would take 8 months of a person’s wages and where would they buy the food. Jesus asked, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother (as we know from John’s Gospel), spoke up and said, “Here is a boy with 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” All they had were these small loaves of barley bread and fish. The loaves would have been small, flat loaves (you could easily eat several of these loaves of bread at a single meal.) The boy apparently voluntarily offers them to Jesus.
Taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, looking up to heaven Jesus gave thanks, broke the loaves, and then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. The text tells us in verse 42 they all ate and were satisfied. The disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces of fish and bread. The number of men who had eaten was about 5000.
What does this story mean? What does it show us about Jesus’ revolution and about his kingdom?
This story shows us that Jesus’ revolution, unlike the zealots who had gathered in that very place years earlier, was not a military revolution with the plans to violently overthrow the Roman rule. No, it was a revolution that Jesus would lead to people’s souls and stomachs being satisfied.
Bread is a key part of this story.
What does bread make us think of? As a teacher of mine, Tim Keller, says, “When we see bread, we think of carbohydrates, but for the people of the 1st century, bread was something that symbolized life.” For the Hebrew people, in particular, it signified God’s provision for them.
Jesus’ revolution involves giving the bread of life to people. In John 6: “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
There is within human beings the hunger that only God can satisfy. Some Asian people talk about how unless they have rice with a meal, there is a part of them that is still hungry. No matter how much other food they have, without rice they don’t feel like their hunger is satiated.
So it is with us. We may hope that something… having a certain educational degree, or a particular job, or a relationship with Mr. Right or Ms. Right, a home, a child, or some kind of achievement will be that “something” that will meet the deep longing of our heart. But none of these things can satisfy the deepest longing for our heart—only our Creator can fill that place in us.
Part of the revolution of Jesus is to offer people the Bread of Himself. He says, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never grow hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The revolution of Jesus also involves giving physical bread to people. God cares, not just for our souls, but for our entire beings.
Our bodies and souls are obviously connected. The famous missionary in India, Amy Carmichael, was criticized for not just telling people about Jesus and the spiritual difference she could make in their lives, but for also working hard to rescue boys and girls from temple prostitution, housing them in an orphanage she founded, feeding them, clothing them, educating them. She responded by saying, “You can’t just pitchfork souls to heaven. They are more or less connected to bodies. You have to take care of both soul and body.”
She was absolutely right. Souls and bodies are connected. The revolution of Jesus is one that meets both the need of both the soul and the body through the spiritual Bread of Life and literal bread.
The feeding of the 5000 here was a miracle.
There is no sufficient way to feed crowd. Jesus looks up to heaven, gives thanks for 5 small loaves and 2 fish he breaks them, and they miraculously multiply and a multitude is fed.
Why does Jesus perform miracles?
Jesus’ miracles are not as we might imagine… done simply to impress people. Jesus again and again resists doing something spectacular for the sake of doing something spectacular.
When Jesus multiplies the bread and the fish, when he heals people, he does not do these things to wow people. His miracles are not part of some marketing strategy. If they were, he would have been pulling off far more spectacular miracles on far bigger stages (cedar-planked salmon and champagne for 60,000 at BC Place).
No, Jesus’ miracles were not performed to impress people, but were signs about what his revolution was all about. Jesus’ miracles demonstrate what it looks like when the Kingdom of God, or the rule of God, breaks into the world through Him… When this happens, as we see in this miracle, people’s physical needs are met (and as we see in many other passages, their spiritual needs are met, as well).
How do we become part of this revolution? How do we participate of it?
Jesus receives the bread from this boy, he blessed it and broke it and gave it to feed the multitude, and just a few years later, Jesus gathered with his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem. In Mark 14 we read how he took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take. This is my body.” (Given for you on the cross.) And then he took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them and he said, “This is the blood of my covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Like the bread that Jesus offered both at the feeding of the 5000 and in the upper room with his disciples, it was through this process of Jesus being blessed by God, broken, and then given on the cross that his revolution, that his Kingdom, would come into the world.
And Jesus calls us to be active participants in his revolution. Jesus says to his disciples when his disciples want him to dismiss the crowds so they could go buy dinner, “You give them something to eat.” And he calls us to be instruments of his revolution that brings spiritual and physical bread for the world.
How do we enter into this revolution? How do we become part of it?
As Henri Nouwen writes in his book, Life of the Beloved, part of the way that we enter into the revolution of Jesus is by understanding that like the bread that Jesus held here in Galilee and in the upper room, before going to the cross, we, too, have been blessed by God, broken, and given.
What does it mean to blessed? Being blessed means that we know we are chosen and loved by God. Henri Nouwen, in Life of the Beloved, says (as I have quoted before), “I have come to realize the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation of self-rejection…. self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the beloved. Being the beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.” Being blessed means that we know that we are chosen by God and loved by Him.
The foundation for our life for God is God’s love for us--and we see this love most powerfully displayed when God in Christ absorbed our sins on the cross so that we could be forgiven and freed.
The bread was blessed. Jesus gave thanks for it at the feeding of the 5000 and in the upper room with his disciples the night before going to the cross, and then the bread was broken.
As a mentor of mine Tim Keller says, in order for bread, of course, to actually nourish someone it needs to be broken. If bread remains whole, people will be broken (i.e., people will not be nourished unless bread is broken into small, digestible pieces), but if bread is broken, people can be nourished and made whole.
Jesus’ body was broken on the cross, and through that brokenness we are made whole. Our sins are forgiven.
We can think that it is through our strength that we can make the biggest difference. Of course, we want to celebrate the strength that God gives us. But Jesus’ greatest achievement came through his greatest weakness as he was naked and nailed to a cross. In a mysterious way we will never fully comprehend, Jesus on the cross was absorbing in his body our sins so that we could be set free.
And in that act of ultimate vulnerability, we are forgiven. In that act of weakness we are given the life of God. And it is in our place of vulnerability and weakness that God will use us most powerfully. It often said that our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness. If our strength is great confidence—our weakness may be pride. But in the economy of God our weakness is our strength. My friend Chris Woodhull says, “Your greatest weakness is your greatest strength.” When we feel weak and inadequate, as the disciples must have felt when Jesus asked them to feed the multitude, it is then, and only then, we are in a position to be an instrument of God.
When the search committee was interviewing a prospective senior pastor to lead the Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC, they asked the candidate, “Are you weak enough to be our pastor?”
Early in my experience as a pastor, I went to a mentor figure who was widely respected for his wisdom. I candidly expressed my doubts to him about whether I was really suited for the ministry. I explained to him that I had worked for a large corporation and that given some of my vulnerabilities and the temptations that I had struggled with in the past, I was wondered whether or not I might be better suited to serve in the corporate world, as opposed to the ministry, which I saw as a very lofty calling. (Both a call to business and the ministry are, of course, lofty callings in different ways, but I just wondered if I was suited for the ministry, or perhaps more suited for the business world.)
This wise mentor said, “Well, perhaps God will lead you to lead a church where people who have failed and people who have weaknesses can come and experience the grace of God. That is the way God led me. In the economy of God, our weakness can become a place where God can make us strong.
I have been talking to someone who told me how they are struggling in their relationship, but how they feel God more present than ever before. This person envisions one day being able to help other couples who struggle because of the struggle that this person is experiencing. Because of this weakness, the person hopes to offer something to others.
If we are participants in the revolution of Jesus, part of that will mean that we are blessed, that we are loved. Part of that will mean that we embrace and allow God to use weakness, our vulnerability.
Third, being part of the revolution means we will allow ourselves to be given. Jesus, both here and in Galilee and at the Passover meal in Jerusalem took bread, blessed it, broke it and then gave it.
And we become participants of Jesus’ revolution by recognizing that we are blessed, trusting that God will use our brokenness, and by giving of ourselves.
In the story where Jesus feeds the multitude, a boy gives 5 small barley loaves and 2 fish. They are multiplied by God and used to feed the multitude. Giving opens the door for us to be used in ways that serve God’s great purposes. Even when the gifts are small, as this boy’s were small, they can be multiplied by God for his purposes.
One of the things that I have done across the years is speak to students on the theme of giving our life to the mission of Jesus Christ. One of things that I have done is to challenge students, whether at the university, Bible School, or a seminary, to take steps now in making a difference.
One of the practical ways I encourage them to do that is to start tithing, even as students. That is, to give the first tenth of their income to the work of God. And I talk about how if you want to really give yourself to the mission of God and to be used in a significant way, it may be that God would call you one day to lay down your life for him. Part of the way that you can begin to do that now is by offering the first tenth of your income to God.
Then I just say frankly, if you are not willing to do that, it’s not likely that you would be willing to respond to God’s call if he were to ask you to do something more drastic, like change your life style in a new culture to serve him or laying down your life for him.
People may think of giving as a kind of sacrifice, but it is a great joy. The boy who gave his 5 loaves and 2 fish to Jesus was not someone that we pity. Jesus just took his small gifts, multiplied them and used then to feed the multitude. What a great privilege!
Our greatest fulfillment will come in giving of ourselves to others. For those of us who want to live this way for Jesus, tithing is one practical step. But there are other things we can do, as well.
We can also offer our time and our energy and our talents and our love for other people. I saw a news story this past week about a woman who is financially struggling because her small business is down 40% in this recession, but she is taking time to travel to a poor community to use a hammer and paint brush to help build homes for the homeless there.
We can participate in feeding hungry people. It might be in a direct way like volunteering in something like Out of the Cold. It might be in an indirect way, like participating in the march for the homeless or lobbying the government to give 1% of our budget to help end global poverty as the ONE Campaign has encouraged, or supporting the millennium development goals which supports such things as:
· Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: Around the world, over one billion people survive on less than a dollar a day and one person in seven goes to bed hungry each night.
· Providing universal primary education: 72 million children are currently out of school across the world.
· Combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
I recently received a newsletter from World Vision. My wife and I sponsor a World Vision child and I am also on the board of trustees for World Vision CANADA, so I frequently get communication from them. In the most recent letter I received, I noticed that a member of our own community and a news anchor at CTV, Mi-Jung Lee, recently went to Brazil to see what World Vision is doing there.
I am going to invite her to share what that experience was like.
MI-JUNG sharing
If we will give ourselves to Jesus and allow him to bless us, and to break us, and to give us like that boy’s loaves and fishes, our lives can be used to feed a multitude.
Title: Blessed, Broken, Given
Text: Mark 6:30-44
Big idea: Jesus’ revolution brings spiritual and physical sustenance.
I have been in conversation with someone who is becoming active in the movement to support the plight of the Palestinian people.
This person feels invigorated by her participation in this struggle.
She’s not a religious person and is surprised by how many Christians and rabbis are involved in the movement.
Whether we are religious or not, there is a part of us that longs to be involved in some kind of movement that is bigger than us.
If we follow Christ, we will discover that we are involved in the most significant revolution of history.
In the famous poem One Solitary Life we read:
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter’s shop until He was thirty.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
Yet, all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
This morning we’re going to look at the nature of Jesus’ revolution and what it means to be a part of it as we look at the miracle where Jesus fed the multitude:
If you have your Bibles please turn to Mark 6 vs. 30
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."
37 But he answered, "You give them something to eat."
They said to him, "That would take almost a year's wages [a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
38 "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see."
When they found out, they said, "Five—and two fish."
39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
In verse 30 we read that Jesus’ disciples are reporting to him all the things they have been doing and teaching. As we see earlier in this chapter (in Mark 6:7-13) Jesus’ disciples have been preaching that people should turn from their sins to God; they’ve been driving out demons and praying for God to heal people
Then we see in verse 31 that so many people were coming and going that Jesus and his disciples did not have a chance to eat. The students of Jesus were tired from their mission trips and hungry. Jesus says, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” They get into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee to a quiet place on the north-eastern shore, but many who saw them leave, recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns, and got to the northeastern shore ahead of them. When Jesus landed, he saw a large crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
When we read the phrase that Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd, we might picture Jesus as a shepherd with a shepherd’s crook who wants to offer care to these people who are weak and helpless, like a literal shepherd caring for sheep in some pasture. The word “shepherd” in the Jewish context was at times used in this pastoral sense. But the word “shepherd” was often used of a military leader who would mobilize Israel’s forces for war (like Joshua). In Numbers 27:17, when Joshua was appointed as the political and military leader over the Hebrew people, the Lord said Joshua was being appointed so that his people would not be like sheep without a shepherd.
When we hear this story in Mark 6 of Jesus feeding the multitude--a popular one in children’s Bibles and featured as a miracle of Jesus surrounded by children and happy families--we can close our eyes and perhaps imagine the blankets that have been laid out on the grass and the checkered red tablecloths that will be laid out on the blankets in preparation for the picnic that Jesus will lead.
But, as the commentators point out, this particular stereotype may be misleading.
The more accurate picture is that this scene looks more like a potential revolutionary uprising—than a Sunday school picnic. Rural Galilee (where this scene takes place) was a stronghold of the zealot movement. It had been a rallying point for Jewish military resistance against Herod the Great. We read that there were 5000 men. This is remarkable when you consider that the entire town of nearby Capernaum had a population of only 2000 people. It seems as though men are coming from various towns for this gathering and that the area was swept up in hopes of a political military leader who will led them into war. We know from John 6:15 that the people gathered here intended to make Jesus king, by force.
But Jesus is going to lead a different kind of revolution. Instead of giving out weapons and instructions on how they will attack the Roman Empire, he does something far different.
We read in verse 35 it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him and said, “Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and buy themselves something to eat.” Now this was a perfectly reasonable suggestion—dismiss the crowd and allow them to go to the neighboring towns to buy themselves dinner. There was no McDonalds, Subway, or Pizza Hut nearby--so the disciples encouraged Jesus to dismiss them so they could find a place to eat dinner in one of the surrounding towns.
But rather than going with their suggestion, Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” Impossible—they think. They reason it would take 8 months of a person’s wages and where would they buy the food. Jesus asked, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother (as we know from John’s Gospel), spoke up and said, “Here is a boy with 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” All they had were these small loaves of barley bread and fish. The loaves would have been small, flat loaves (you could easily eat several of these loaves of bread at a single meal.) The boy apparently voluntarily offers them to Jesus.
Taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, looking up to heaven Jesus gave thanks, broke the loaves, and then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. The text tells us in verse 42 they all ate and were satisfied. The disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces of fish and bread. The number of men who had eaten was about 5000.
What does this story mean? What does it show us about Jesus’ revolution and about his kingdom?
This story shows us that Jesus’ revolution, unlike the zealots who had gathered in that very place years earlier, was not a military revolution with the plans to violently overthrow the Roman rule. No, it was a revolution that Jesus would lead to people’s souls and stomachs being satisfied.
Bread is a key part of this story.
What does bread make us think of? As a teacher of mine, Tim Keller, says, “When we see bread, we think of carbohydrates, but for the people of the 1st century, bread was something that symbolized life.” For the Hebrew people, in particular, it signified God’s provision for them.
Jesus’ revolution involves giving the bread of life to people. In John 6: “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
There is within human beings the hunger that only God can satisfy. Some Asian people talk about how unless they have rice with a meal, there is a part of them that is still hungry. No matter how much other food they have, without rice they don’t feel like their hunger is satiated.
So it is with us. We may hope that something… having a certain educational degree, or a particular job, or a relationship with Mr. Right or Ms. Right, a home, a child, or some kind of achievement will be that “something” that will meet the deep longing of our heart. But none of these things can satisfy the deepest longing for our heart—only our Creator can fill that place in us.
Part of the revolution of Jesus is to offer people the Bread of Himself. He says, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never grow hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The revolution of Jesus also involves giving physical bread to people. God cares, not just for our souls, but for our entire beings.
Our bodies and souls are obviously connected. The famous missionary in India, Amy Carmichael, was criticized for not just telling people about Jesus and the spiritual difference she could make in their lives, but for also working hard to rescue boys and girls from temple prostitution, housing them in an orphanage she founded, feeding them, clothing them, educating them. She responded by saying, “You can’t just pitchfork souls to heaven. They are more or less connected to bodies. You have to take care of both soul and body.”
She was absolutely right. Souls and bodies are connected. The revolution of Jesus is one that meets both the need of both the soul and the body through the spiritual Bread of Life and literal bread.
The feeding of the 5000 here was a miracle.
There is no sufficient way to feed crowd. Jesus looks up to heaven, gives thanks for 5 small loaves and 2 fish he breaks them, and they miraculously multiply and a multitude is fed.
Why does Jesus perform miracles?
Jesus’ miracles are not as we might imagine… done simply to impress people. Jesus again and again resists doing something spectacular for the sake of doing something spectacular.
When Jesus multiplies the bread and the fish, when he heals people, he does not do these things to wow people. His miracles are not part of some marketing strategy. If they were, he would have been pulling off far more spectacular miracles on far bigger stages (cedar-planked salmon and champagne for 60,000 at BC Place).
No, Jesus’ miracles were not performed to impress people, but were signs about what his revolution was all about. Jesus’ miracles demonstrate what it looks like when the Kingdom of God, or the rule of God, breaks into the world through Him… When this happens, as we see in this miracle, people’s physical needs are met (and as we see in many other passages, their spiritual needs are met, as well).
How do we become part of this revolution? How do we participate of it?
Jesus receives the bread from this boy, he blessed it and broke it and gave it to feed the multitude, and just a few years later, Jesus gathered with his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem. In Mark 14 we read how he took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take. This is my body.” (Given for you on the cross.) And then he took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them and he said, “This is the blood of my covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Like the bread that Jesus offered both at the feeding of the 5000 and in the upper room with his disciples, it was through this process of Jesus being blessed by God, broken, and then given on the cross that his revolution, that his Kingdom, would come into the world.
And Jesus calls us to be active participants in his revolution. Jesus says to his disciples when his disciples want him to dismiss the crowds so they could go buy dinner, “You give them something to eat.” And he calls us to be instruments of his revolution that brings spiritual and physical bread for the world.
How do we enter into this revolution? How do we become part of it?
As Henri Nouwen writes in his book, Life of the Beloved, part of the way that we enter into the revolution of Jesus is by understanding that like the bread that Jesus held here in Galilee and in the upper room, before going to the cross, we, too, have been blessed by God, broken, and given.
What does it mean to blessed? Being blessed means that we know we are chosen and loved by God. Henri Nouwen, in Life of the Beloved, says (as I have quoted before), “I have come to realize the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation of self-rejection…. self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the beloved. Being the beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.” Being blessed means that we know that we are chosen by God and loved by Him.
The foundation for our life for God is God’s love for us--and we see this love most powerfully displayed when God in Christ absorbed our sins on the cross so that we could be forgiven and freed.
The bread was blessed. Jesus gave thanks for it at the feeding of the 5000 and in the upper room with his disciples the night before going to the cross, and then the bread was broken.
As a mentor of mine Tim Keller says, in order for bread, of course, to actually nourish someone it needs to be broken. If bread remains whole, people will be broken (i.e., people will not be nourished unless bread is broken into small, digestible pieces), but if bread is broken, people can be nourished and made whole.
Jesus’ body was broken on the cross, and through that brokenness we are made whole. Our sins are forgiven.
We can think that it is through our strength that we can make the biggest difference. Of course, we want to celebrate the strength that God gives us. But Jesus’ greatest achievement came through his greatest weakness as he was naked and nailed to a cross. In a mysterious way we will never fully comprehend, Jesus on the cross was absorbing in his body our sins so that we could be set free.
And in that act of ultimate vulnerability, we are forgiven. In that act of weakness we are given the life of God. And it is in our place of vulnerability and weakness that God will use us most powerfully. It often said that our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness. If our strength is great confidence—our weakness may be pride. But in the economy of God our weakness is our strength. My friend Chris Woodhull says, “Your greatest weakness is your greatest strength.” When we feel weak and inadequate, as the disciples must have felt when Jesus asked them to feed the multitude, it is then, and only then, we are in a position to be an instrument of God.
When the search committee was interviewing a prospective senior pastor to lead the Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC, they asked the candidate, “Are you weak enough to be our pastor?”
Early in my experience as a pastor, I went to a mentor figure who was widely respected for his wisdom. I candidly expressed my doubts to him about whether I was really suited for the ministry. I explained to him that I had worked for a large corporation and that given some of my vulnerabilities and the temptations that I had struggled with in the past, I was wondered whether or not I might be better suited to serve in the corporate world, as opposed to the ministry, which I saw as a very lofty calling. (Both a call to business and the ministry are, of course, lofty callings in different ways, but I just wondered if I was suited for the ministry, or perhaps more suited for the business world.)
This wise mentor said, “Well, perhaps God will lead you to lead a church where people who have failed and people who have weaknesses can come and experience the grace of God. That is the way God led me. In the economy of God, our weakness can become a place where God can make us strong.
I have been talking to someone who told me how they are struggling in their relationship, but how they feel God more present than ever before. This person envisions one day being able to help other couples who struggle because of the struggle that this person is experiencing. Because of this weakness, the person hopes to offer something to others.
If we are participants in the revolution of Jesus, part of that will mean that we are blessed, that we are loved. Part of that will mean that we embrace and allow God to use weakness, our vulnerability.
Third, being part of the revolution means we will allow ourselves to be given. Jesus, both here and in Galilee and at the Passover meal in Jerusalem took bread, blessed it, broke it and then gave it.
And we become participants of Jesus’ revolution by recognizing that we are blessed, trusting that God will use our brokenness, and by giving of ourselves.
In the story where Jesus feeds the multitude, a boy gives 5 small barley loaves and 2 fish. They are multiplied by God and used to feed the multitude. Giving opens the door for us to be used in ways that serve God’s great purposes. Even when the gifts are small, as this boy’s were small, they can be multiplied by God for his purposes.
One of the things that I have done across the years is speak to students on the theme of giving our life to the mission of Jesus Christ. One of things that I have done is to challenge students, whether at the university, Bible School, or a seminary, to take steps now in making a difference.
One of the practical ways I encourage them to do that is to start tithing, even as students. That is, to give the first tenth of their income to the work of God. And I talk about how if you want to really give yourself to the mission of God and to be used in a significant way, it may be that God would call you one day to lay down your life for him. Part of the way that you can begin to do that now is by offering the first tenth of your income to God.
Then I just say frankly, if you are not willing to do that, it’s not likely that you would be willing to respond to God’s call if he were to ask you to do something more drastic, like change your life style in a new culture to serve him or laying down your life for him.
People may think of giving as a kind of sacrifice, but it is a great joy. The boy who gave his 5 loaves and 2 fish to Jesus was not someone that we pity. Jesus just took his small gifts, multiplied them and used then to feed the multitude. What a great privilege!
Our greatest fulfillment will come in giving of ourselves to others. For those of us who want to live this way for Jesus, tithing is one practical step. But there are other things we can do, as well.
We can also offer our time and our energy and our talents and our love for other people. I saw a news story this past week about a woman who is financially struggling because her small business is down 40% in this recession, but she is taking time to travel to a poor community to use a hammer and paint brush to help build homes for the homeless there.
We can participate in feeding hungry people. It might be in a direct way like volunteering in something like Out of the Cold. It might be in an indirect way, like participating in the march for the homeless or lobbying the government to give 1% of our budget to help end global poverty as the ONE Campaign has encouraged, or supporting the millennium development goals which supports such things as:
· Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: Around the world, over one billion people survive on less than a dollar a day and one person in seven goes to bed hungry each night.
· Providing universal primary education: 72 million children are currently out of school across the world.
· Combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
I recently received a newsletter from World Vision. My wife and I sponsor a World Vision child and I am also on the board of trustees for World Vision CANADA, so I frequently get communication from them. In the most recent letter I received, I noticed that a member of our own community and a news anchor at CTV, Mi-Jung Lee, recently went to Brazil to see what World Vision is doing there.
I am going to invite her to share what that experience was like.
MI-JUNG sharing
If we will give ourselves to Jesus and allow him to bless us, and to break us, and to give us like that boy’s loaves and fishes, our lives can be used to feed a multitude.
posted by Shigematsu at 11:00 AM
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