His Call

For a couple of reasons, I decided to do a study on the feeding of the five-thousand. Did you know that it's one of the few stories that is in all four Gospels? Neither did I till this past week! It can be found in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6. So far I've taken notes on the accounts in Matthew and Mark, and plan on studying the Luke and John accounts in the next few days.

To set the scene (put things in context), John the Baptist has just been beheaded, and the disciples have just returned from their "missions trip" of casting out demons. Jesus decides that they all need a little rest, so they slip away in a boat to just chill. The people recognized Jesus, however, and the account in Mark says they literally ran to go see him. So they (Jesus and disciples) get to this remote place, hoping to have some quiet time, when these thousands of people show up!

At this point, I would be pretty frustrated, as I'm sure the disciples were. John just died, so I'd be sad, and I just got back from a physically and emotionally exhausting trip? Really? Can't I get one moment of peace?? But Jesus doesn't have this attitude. Instead, he has compassion on them, and healed their sick, but also began teaching.

Fast forward in time, and it's getting late in the day. I can imagine what the disciples were feeling at this point. Perhaps they were genuinely concerned about the people when they said, "Send them away so they can buy food for themselves", but I have a feeling that they were probably hoping they could get back to their quiet time. Then Jesus says the unthinkable--"You give them something to eat." I doubt Jesus actually expected them to feed the people, more likely he wanted to test their faith. But the  disciples just start thinking logically--"That would take eight months wages to feed all these people!"

In Mark, Jesus asks the disciples to go see how much food they have. Was this because Jesus didn't know how much food their was? I think not. He already knew, but he wanted the disciples to see what they already have, subtly implying that it would be enough. So, when we are faced with a situation and feel a calling from God, but complain that we can't do it because we don't have what it takes, God says, "No, look. See what you already have, though it may be small? If you just have faith in me, I can take that, and use it in a way you could've never imagined."

Moving on, the disciples bring the five loaves and two fish to Jesus. Just imagine how skeptical they must have been--"What are we possibly going to do with these?" They probably felt some resentment too. I mean, they just got back from their grand missions trip, they don't the rest time they were looking forward to, and now, they have to give up their only food for these people? "They're just being lazy! These people are capable, let them get themselves something to eat!" I think the point here is, if you hear God's call ("give them something to eat"), quite making excuses and follow through! In the end, Jesus worked a miracle, and gave the disciples the food to give the people so they were able to fulfill what he had asked in the first place! Even when it looks impossible, God will always enable us to follow through on the call He's given.

One final observation--Jesus didn't heal everyone all the time, he only followed the will of the One who sent him. In the same way, we need to listen to the Father's calling above anything our logical side, or even our emotional side, is telling us. If it's "give them something to eat", follow. If it's "don't feed, but go love on them", follow. But the one command we are always called to obey is to love other people. A lot of times, however, we may be uncertain of the way to love (sometimes it may be more loving to not feed someone!), but that's why we need to turn to Him, ask Him the way, and listen for His reply.
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Change the world!!

In Christ,
Ellie