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July 26, 2009
“Five Loaves and Two Fish”
John 6: 1-15
Sunday, July 26, 2009
This miracle is one of the best known miracles of Jesus. It is also the only miracle of Jesus other than His resurrection that is recorded in all 4 Gospels. So there must be something important here for Christians of all times and cultures.
This miracle was done by Jesus during the time when his popularity was soaring. When he was in Galilee crowds came out to hear him and see him do miracles. Sometimes crowds followed him from place to place. Jesus had just traveled in one of the fishing boats across the sea of Galilee to the district of Galilee, his home territory. He had arrived at the shore near Bethsaida and ascended the slope of the hill or little mountain which was along the sea in that location.
You may have noticed that John refers to this slope as a mountain. He was thinking not only topographically or geographically, but also theologically. Often times when the bible refers to someone going up a mountain, something significant is about to happen. Moses received most of his revelations from God on mountains. Elijah had a showdown with the priests of Baal on a mountain. Jesus would later be transfigured on a mountain. And, theologically if not strictly topographically, Jesus fed the 5000 on a mountain. It was an act that was supposed to bring people closer to God.
John also tells us that it was near the Passover feast. I think he had two purposes in telling us this. First of all, it explains why there were about 5,000 people wandering around Galilee in a sparsely populated area able to latch onto Jesus for a while. They were pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.
The other reason is to supply a hint as to one of the purposes of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. Passover was a celebration of the Exodus from Egypt and the 40 years Moses led Israel in the wilderness. You may remember that during those 40 years the Israelites were fed by God with Manna, a flaky, waxy, bread-like substance. Every morning but the Sabbath there would be a deposit of manna on the ground to be gathered for the meals that day. In giving bread and fish to 5,000 people, Jesus was claiming to be God, the same God who gave their ancestors the manna.
John mentions that Jesus asked Phillip where he could get some food for so many people. Bible Scholars have wondered for 2,000 years why Jesus asked Phillip. I generally go with the simplest solution in such matters. In this situation it is helpful to remember that Philip was from Bethsaida. Jesus asked him because he was familiar with the places where food could be procured in that area. Which makes me think about how God prefers to get things done in most localities. He really likes to use the local people if he can. When you think that God needs to do some work in your locale, don’t wait for Him to find someone from far away or from outside your neighborhood. Ask God what you can do to help him in your area.
Philip implied that the locations to purchase food were not a problem. The problem was that neither Jesus nor his apostles had enough money to purchase the amount of food needed to feed 5,000 people.
The really interesting thing about this dialogue between Jesus and Philip is that Jesus had started this conversation as a test. John wrote “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.” By presenting to Philip a seemingly impossible situation, Jesus was trying to get Philip’s attention.
Last Summer, Lonnie, Kris and I handed out cookies and brochures describing our church to about 1,000 members of the incoming freshman class at Purdue. When one of the young men read that we were Presbyterians he said, “Ah, Presbyterians, I bet you had a committee prepare the brochures and arrange for the baking of the cookies.” He of course was correct, we Presbyterians are well known for having committees do our work. The problem with having committees is that it is often assumed that Committees are formed to do something, to fix something, or to find a solution to some problem. In my 59 years as a Presbyterian I have found that most Presbyterians are problem solvers. They like to work to do something for God. And Presbyterians have done some great things for God.
But sometimes, perhaps more often than we admit, God faces us with some problem or situation, not so we can fix it or find the solution. Sometimes He wants to get our attention so we can see Him working out His solution and so we can assist him as He works it out. Jesus did not want Philip or the Apostles to solve the problem of the 5,000 hungry people. He wanted them to assist him and observe him as he gloriously solved the problem. I am not at all certain that it is totally correct to say that Christians are here on earth to do God’s Work until Christ returns. I think it is better to say that we are here to assist the Holy Spirit in God’s work until Christ returns.
Now that Philip was focused on the problem, Jesus started to work on the solution. Andrew came rushing up with one of those Good news – bad news situations. The good news was that they finally found some food among the 5,000 people. The bad news was that it was only five finger-loaves of barley bread and two smoked minnows. The fish were intended to give some flavor to the bland bread. The quantities of bread and fish were small because this was to have been lunch or maybe even dinner for a small boy.
And then Jesus put the apostles to work on his solution. He ordered them to get the people seated as if there was going to be a big picnic lunch served. Then in full view of everyone present, he took the 5 little loaves and then the two little fish and he offered thanks to God for them. Then he broke the loaves and fish into pieces as if there would be enough to go around, and as they took the morsels of food to everyone, there was enough to go around. Not only was there enough to go around, there was enough for them all to have as much as they wanted. And there was even some left over, 12 basketsfull in fact.
You know, I think that the operating word in the USA has become MORE. We are always looking for more. More money, more time, more power, more prestige, more gadgets. In the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 Jesus may be saying to us “you already have more than enough at your disposal. If you just turn it over to me and let me bless it and use it you may have all you need and still be able to make a difference for 5,000 people.”
You may ask why there were 12 basketsfull left over. It is possible that the baskets were the lunch baskets of the 12 apostles. They got to keep a reminder for a little while of how well Jesus cares for His own and what kind of power he has to do it.
But, as a wise man once told me “you know, no matter how nice things are, there is always someone who comes along and tries to mess it up.” There were present that day some folks who were looking for a powerful leader whom they could manipulate for political purposes. When they saw this demonstration of the power of Jesus, they tried to make him their leader in their cause. They were gong to try to make Jesus do what they thought needed to be done. It is easy to blame them for bringing such a dismal anti-climax to this wonderful event, but be careful in your condemnations. We all have a tendency to try to manipulate God into doing what we want. And we all try to imagine that God is just like us only bigger and stronger. God is not really like us at all and He will not be used by us for our purposes, and when we insist on doing things our own way, a sorry anticlimax is about the best we can hope for.
In this miracle Jesus proved to be all we need. He will keep us body and soul not only in this life but in the life to come. Trust Him.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2009
“Rejected!”
Mark 6: 1-13
Sunday, July12, 2009
In some of my recent sermons I have pointed out instances where the translation of the bible that we use here, the NRSV has not given the best translation of the Greek Text. So, today in order to be fair, I want to point out to you a case where our NRSV offers the best translation. In the 1st verse of our passage this morning we read that Jesus “Came to His hometown”. Other versions have translated the Greek here “He Came to His own Country.” Now the Greek word that is being translated here can mean both Native country or district or hometown. Since Jesus spent much of his time in his own native district of Galilee, this specific reference would not be too helpful. But if it is translated “hometown” then we understand the specificity of Mark’s intent.
Jesus’ hometown, of course was Nazareth, a little village nestled in the hills of Galilee. It seems to have been a village that did not enjoy a very good reputation. In his gospel, John tells us that when Philip told Nathaniel that they had found the Messiah, Jesus from Nazareth, Nathaniel wondered how anything good could come from Nazareth.
In this passage we might see why the residents of Nazareth had developed such a reputation.
Jesus had come to visit his hometown and worship in his home synagogue. As someone who had developed a reputation as a traveling Rabbi of some repute, Jesus was invited to deliver the spur of the moment homily on the two scripture passages that were read during the service. Each Sabbath day a passage from the Law ( the first five books) and a passage from one of the prophets was read during the synagogue service.
Mark does not tell us what Jesus said, But he does tell us about the response of some of Jesus’ ex-neighbors. They seem to have thought, “Who does he think he is, anyway? He is just a good man who used to be our village carpenter, now he is going around the country doing miracles and preaching about God’s kingdom. People in other towns seem to think that he is somebody special, but we know who he is. Some of us changed his diapers when he was a toddler.”
Some of the residents of Nazareth believed that neither Jesus nor any of the members of his family who still lived in Nazareth were special. There might have been a bit of jealousy mixed in with their response. But because they had known him as a carpenter, they could not accept him as a great teacher or healer, let alone as the Messiah.
Mark tells us that Jesus “was amazed at their unbelief” and that “he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.”
What is Mark trying to tell us here? Is he saying that Jesus or God’s power is limited by our lack of faith? Is it possible that God cannot act in certain circumstances because of the lack of faith on the part of the people He would like to help? As Christians of the Reformed tradition of theology, can we say that our lack of faith limits God’s power? No. God is the all-powerful sovereign and nothing we do or believe or do not do or believe can add to or subtract from his power.
But God can choose to act in lesser ways as a response to our lack of faith. In this case, I think we should say that Jesus chose not to do any major miracles in Nazareth because he did not want to cause them greater punishment for rejecting him in spite of greater miracles. He did not want to be the cause of a greater hardening of their hearts.
But let’s think about a more practical application of this truth. The residents of Nazareth did not believe in Jesus because they were too familiar with him. Or perhaps it would be better to say that they had a stereotype in their minds of Jesus as their carpenter and they could not see him in the role as healer and Messiah.
What stereotypes do you have of Jesus that might hinder his working in your life? Do you see him as the mighty lord of lords and king of kings? Do you recognize his right to command you and send you to do his bidding as he would send the Apostles in the second part of this passage? Or are you limited by the romantic view of Jesus as our older brother and friend who carries us when we are too tired or sick or confused to stand on our own?
Some of the people of Nazareth were too locked in on Jesus as their carpenter and could not begin to accept him as the eternal Son of God. Some of us are too locked in on Jesus as big friend who puts up way too much with our weaknesses and excuses. We need to also recognize him as our commander in chief, the ruler of the kingdom we belong to. Is Jesus your carpenter who builds cabinets to conceal your weaknesses and constructs props and platforms to hold you up and builds nice annexes onto your life so you can really enjoy yourself in this world? Or is he the King of kings and Lord of lords who rules over and commands his subjects to increase his kingdom in this world?
Jesus not only called his apostles to follow him, he also sent them out into the world to drive out unclean spirits. How is that going for you? Have you defied and denied some of the evil that is a part of this world?
Jesus was rejected by his own ex-neighbors in Nazareth and he predicted that His apostles and the many others who would be sent into the world by Jesus would also be rejected at times. He instructed his apostles what to do in the face of rejection. He said (vs 11) “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”
Now, that might sound strange to westerners. But Jesus’ directions to his apostles were based on a common practice of the Jews in his day. When Jews returned to the Holy land, they would shake off the dust of the unholy lands from their feet and shake the dust of the gentile nations out of their clothes. It was a recognition that they had been exposed to the corrupting ways of the other nations and that they were now entering God’s property.
Jesus’ directions to his apostles was to turn this practice of the Jews back against some of them. When the apostles shook the dust of villages from their feet they were saying to the residents of those villages “because you have refused to hear about Jesus you have become as filthy to God and to us as the other nations are to all of us”. The shaking off of the dust was an expression of disappointment and outrage.
As a citizen of God’s eternal kingdom temporarily living in one of the kingdoms of this world, I sometimes wonder where my and our sense of outrage is as we face the sinfulness and degradation of this world and as we deal with those who do not want to hear about Jesus.
When someone refuses to receive Jesus as their savior or to even hear about him, this is a catastrophic decision that will have eternal consequences unless it is reversed. Do you feel sorrow and outrage at that? Do you express it?
As you live your life with your family in this world, do you experience the outrage you ought to at the fallenness of this world? Do you express to your children and grandchildren and friends how disgusting certain aspects of life in this world have become and how we are called by our loving God to do better?
Christians living in this world are supposed to feel not at home. Christians living in this world are supposed to experience rejection for Jesus as he was rejected. But we are not to take it lightly. When we are rejected for the name and honor of Jesus, we are supposed to feel pain and experience sorrow for those who have rejected Jesus and His heavenly father. And we are supposed to let the people of the world know how disappointed we are in them and how outraged we are at their behavior. But we are to do it in such a way that people will understand that God and we love them and want them to reconsider for their own good.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)