MMLJ - Before We Need It

A month is a long time, I know, but how many of you remember when we learned about Ruth last month? I sure do. I’m thinking especially of the story where Ruth found the perfect field at the perfect time so that she could get food for her and her mother-in-law, Naomi. We learned in that story that God always knows how He’s going to take care of us, even if it’s through things that seem ordinary – like friends or family helping us out when we need it.

But sometimes God provides for us through miraculous ways – through things or events that seem impossible. Or maybe even are impossible. But that’s what’s so amazing about our God! He can do the impossible to make sure we always have what we need.

That’s what today’s story is all about! We’re going to be talking about a time where God provided for not just one person, not just the 12 disciples, but for over 5000 people! And, as so many stories in the New Testament do, our story begins with Jesus.

You see, Jesus travelled around a lot. He would walk all over the countryside talking to people, healing people, and teaching them about what it means to follow God. And over time, Jesus gained a pretty big reputation. People would come from all over Israel, and some even from outside of Israel, just to hear what Jesus had to say!

So by this point, Jesus was pretty used to having people follow Him around and listen to Him. And He would probably spend a large chunk of his day just standing on a rock or something and teaching these huge crowds.

This day was no different. The Bible tells us that Jesus had been teaching for a while that day, but now He told His disciples that it was time for them to try and find some peace and quiet for a bit. So, they hopped into a boat and went to the other side of a lake (Mark 6:30-31, NIrV).

Problem is, the people wanted to hear more from Jesus. So they raced to the other side of the lake as fast as they could. So when Jesus and His disciples arrived on the other side of the lake, there was another huge crowd waiting!

Now I’m sure some of the disciples were thinking, Great… So much for our rest and relaxation. Maybe some of them even tried to shoo a few of the people away or talk Jesus into wearing a disguise.

But that wasn’t Jesus’ plan. Jesus looked at these people and felt compassion for them. He knew that these people “were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). This means that these people didn’t really know how they were supposed to live and were looking for answers. And Jesus, He had those answers and didn’t want to send them away without letting them hear something. So, tired and hungry as they all were, Jesus began to preach.

As always, the people were amazed! They sat there for hours, listening to Jesus talk about the kingdom of heaven and what it really means to believe in God. Jesus probably said some things they didn’t understand as well – like that believing in Him was the only way that they could get to God – but this just made the people want to listen to Jesus even more to get the answers to their questions!  

But eventually, the disciples had had enough. Their stomachs were starting to growl and they were tired of sitting in the hot sun all day listening to a guy talk, even if this was the best teacher they’d ever heard! So Philip and a few of the other disciples went up to Jesus and said, “Hey, umm… Sorry to interrupt Jesus, but it’s getting pretty late. Don’t you think it’s time to send the people away so they can get some food to eat before their journeys home?”

And Jesus, in typical Jesus style, just smiled and said, “You give them something to eat.”

This is probably a good time to mention how big this crowd was. I said over 5000 people earlier, but the Bible tells us that that number only includes the men. There were women and children in this massive crowd too. This means that the crowd was probably closer to having 20 000 people in it!

So when Jesus told the disciples to just give this massive crowd something to eat, a few of the disciples probably laughed and thought Jesus was making a joke. But then Jesus turned to keep on teaching. At which point, Philip, eyes widening, grabbed Jesus by the shoulder and said, “Wait, you’re serious? Jesus, there’s way too many people here! Even if we were able to buy enough bread for each person to have just a bit, that would take more than half a year’s pay! We can’t afford that!” (John 6:7).

At this, Jesus’ smile started to fade. He might have even looked a little disappointed. “Well, I guess we can go and look for some food,” one of the disciples said. And so, as Jesus kept on teaching, the disciples went into the crowd and started asking for food.

Maybe 15 minutes later, the disciples came back with a boy from the crowd and said to Jesus, “Alright, this boy here is willing to give us the dinner his mom packed for him. That’ll give us five loaves of bread and two fish. But what good will that do all these people?”

I’d like to think that this little exchange made Jesus really excited. Jesus knew as well as the boy did that this small amount of food wouldn’t be enough to feed all these people. But the boy was still willing to share his dinner anyways!

But Jesus already knew what He was going to do. So, thanking the boy, he told the disciples to separate the crowd of people into groups of 50’s and 100’s. And the disciples, confused as ever, did just that!

After all the people were organized, the Bible tells us that Jesus looked to heaven and gave thanks to God. And then Jesus broke the bread and fish into pieces and gave them to the disciples to give to the people. And everybody ate and was satisfied. And when everyone was finished eating, there were 12 baskets full of leftover bread and fish (Luke 9:15-17).

Now let’s pause right there. We can easily read that last bit and miss the incredible thing that just happened. All the Bible tells us is that Jesus divided up the food and everyone had enough. That’s it. Like it’s normal to make 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish feed around 20 000 people.

I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty tough to imagine what this miracle would have looked like. When Jesus heals blind men by spitting in their eyes or tells a person’s who’s never walked to get up and they suddenly can, we can picture what that would have looked like. But trying to imagine this story is a little harder. So let’s try to imagine together.

Maybe Jesus had everyone close their eyes and bow their heads to pray. And after He gave thanks for the food, everybody looked up and there were piles of bread and fish, more than that crowd could possibly imagine, surrounding Jesus.

Or maybe it worked a little different. Maybe every time Jesus broke a loaf of bread or a fish in half, the halves instantly grew back to full size. This way, Jesus could just keep breaking bread and always have enough to hand out.

Or maybe it took a little longer for the miracle to get going. Maybe after Jesus finished praying, he gave 10 of the disciples half a loaf of bread and the other 2 the fish and told them to start handing out the food. And as the disciples went to the different groups of 50’s and 100’s, they were ripping off tiny little pieces. These pieces wouldn’t have been nearly enough food to feed anyone, but that’s all the food they had, so the disciples were trying to be fair and give everyone a crumb.

Anyways, let’s say Philip finished first. Philip goes back to Jesus, bummed because a lot of people haven’t eaten yet, when all of a sudden Jesus hands him another half a loaf of bread. That’s weird, Philip thought, but maybe Jesus found someone else willing to share their food.

So once again, Philip is ripping off tiny pieces of bread to hand out to people. He’s shocked to see that some of the other disciples haven’t finished handing out their food yet. Wait, is that Andrew over there with a full loaf of bread and a fish? How did that happen?

Anyways, Philip goes back to Jesus a second time, who now hands Philip two loaves of bread. Philip’s mouth drops. Where’s all this food coming from? The next time, Jesus not only hands Philip another three loaves of bread and a fish, but there’s a small pile of food behind Jesus that He’s grabbing from.

That pile of food is a little bit bigger every time a disciple goes back to Jesus. And before you know it, there’s a mountain of food that Jesus is taking from. And the disciples, they’re carrying around baskets full of bread, chucking loaves out to everyone in the crowd, crying, “You get a loaf! You get a loaf! EVERYBODY GETS A LOAF!!!!” And like the Bible says, after everybody had eaten and was satisfied, the disciples returned to Jesus and had 12 baskets full of leftovers.

Or maybe this miracle happened a different way. Honestly, I have no idea, and I’m not even sure that it matters exactly how it happened. But what does matter is that God provided for these hungry people. They were hungry, and God made sure that they received exactly what they needed.

That’s something that we can trust God will do for us too. God knows exactly what we need before we need it. Many of these people probably didn’t think to bring food for the day. Actually, many of them might not have known they were going to hear Jesus that morning. This was long before the days of the Internet where people could just look up the next place a major teacher was going to teach. But even though these people didn’t have a lot of food, God gave them exactly what they needed to help keep them alive.

Not only that, but Jesus gave them something even more important that day than food. He gave them the teaching that these people needed! Jesus helped these “lost sheep” to find their way and discover that He is the only way that we can get to God. No amount of rule following will get us any closer to God. The only way we can be saved from those bad things we’ve done and have a relationship with God is if we trust in Jesus.

That’s something pretty amazing. God knows exactly what we need before we need it. This includes food, shelter, and also Himself. And for that, we should be truly thankful!

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That’s all for today! If you want to read the actual passages this story comes from, check out Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-15. As for next week, we’ll be diving into a longer story, one that will take us the entire month of May. So I hope you’ll come back next week when we dive into the life of Daniel!

~Brentagious