Mark 6:30-44

Day 15.  We are almost half way!

South's SOAP for the Day
S-Read Mark 6:30-44.
O-When a problem was brought to Jesus, he told the disciples to take of it. When they provided what they had, Jesus used it to meet the need.
A-What small gift can you give to God to glorify His kingdom?
P-Pray to not be discouraged by what you can give or do, because God will take it and do great things.

If there are miracles that I find my brain struggle with, they are the feeding miracles.  I don't know why that is.  Maybe its the fact that there is much coming from little.  One would think that raising a person from the dead would be more difficult to accept.  Nope.  Not for me.

In our passage today, the disciples are returning from their journeys that Jesus sent them on.  They are gathering around him sharing all that they have done.  My brain plays it out like this.  Each disciple wants to be the next person to share what they did.  Peter is a loud mouth.  He won't stop talking at all.  Each of them is vying for Jesus attention.  Mark says they didn't even have time to eat.  I figure they planned to reconnect over lunch and got too busy talking to eat.

Jesus wants to take his disciples on a little retreat.  They've just come back from an exciting journey.  They need to rest and reflect.  I can totally relate to that, especially after a week of church camp.  Unfortunately, Jesus and now his disciples, via the good news, always draw a crowd.  They did make their escape in a boat, but the crowd simply followed them on the shore till they landed.

Jesus takes the opportunity, since he sees them as people who are wanting to be led, and starts teaching them about the good news.  However, in the commotion of everything, they've lost track of time.  If you've ever had to deal with a larger crowd, you need to pay attention to time.

For the last decade, I served on the Michigan Statewide Teen Convention team.  We planned a convention each year for teens.  Any given year, we would gather 500 to 800 teens in a hotel to worship, reflect on the Bible, and have fun.  In our planning, we always had to make sure we had plenty of time to get that many students out of the hotel and out to the local restaurants to eat.  At best it was orchestrated chaos.  We would even go so far as to warn the restaurants around the convention so they would have extra staff to handle our crowd.

Jesus is caught up in teaching this unexpected crowd.  The disciples realize that its getting close to dinner time.  They don't have the resources to feed so many, nor do they probably want the hassle, since they've just arrived home from their journey.  So, they interrupt Jesus and say, "Its dinner time, we should let these people get to town to buy food."

I am certain they didn't expect Jesus' response.  "You give them something to eat."  I can see Peter flashing John a look that communicated, "WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?  IS HE OUT OF HIS MIND?"  The disciples certainly are ready to pass on this challenge.  I assume it was Judas who said, "Feeding this many people would cost a half a year's wages.  You want us to go spend that much money?  Plus, where are we going to find a bakery that is open at this time of night with that much bread????"

Ok.  Lets pause for a moment and think about the size of the crowd.  Mark tells us there are 5000 men there.  One would assume that the men brought some ladies with them, and some children.  Over 5000 people is a lot of people!  I can understand the response of the disciples with this many people.  Jesus is simply crazy.  He can heal people.  That's not a big deal.  But conjure up bread for 5000 people out of thin air?  Seriously?  Send them off to get their own bread.

I don't know whether Jesus gets the point of the disciples argument or if he simply doesn't want to argue with them anymore.  I would guess he is thinking to himself, "These guys just came back from performing miracles and realizing how big their God is...how powerful He will be if they ask Him.  Why do they not get it now?"  He asks for an inventory of the pantry.  "We have five loaves of bread....and we found these two fish."  Maybe it was a can of nasty sardines?

Jesus tells the people to sit down in an orderly fashion.  He prays, gives thanks, and starts breaking bread.  Everyone is fed AND their are leftovers.  Twelve baskets of leftovers!

And still, my brain struggles with it.  I believe it happened.  I believe our God can do it.  But, if I were given the task to feed so many people on a whim, I would fail.

Yet, we are bearers of this good news.  We will be put in situations where we are called to feed thousands.  Well.  I think the statement should be, we should put ourselves in situations where we are called to feed thousands.  We should put ourselves in places where God has to be present to show that his good news that the Kingdom of God has come near is actually true and real.  Maybe my faith is small because I don't seem to put myself in those situations....

Lord, help me to be willing to put myself in unimaginable situations where my faith must be tested.  May you be true to what I believe.  May you show that the Kingdom of God is true, and that you are the all powerful.  Help us as a church to have this kind of faith.