Happy Juneteenth! We’ll be skipping ahead just a little bit in our sermon passage this week, and looking at the feeding of the 5,000 in Luke 9:10-17:
On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
This takes place right after the disciples have gone on their first missionary journey apart from Jesus. He has sent them out to preach the good news and heal people, and they have just returned, so Jesus decides they need a break. But his notoriety is spreading so that break is not to be had! As soon as they get to their vacation destination they see a crowd in front of them. Thankfully Jesus is more patient than many of us, and he welcomes them and heals many of them. Because Jesus is a preacher, he preaches a long time! And the day gets away from him, so his disciples exhort him to send everyone away to find food and lodging. But Jesus turns this in to a teaching moment. So often as we read these passages we have a tendency to jump immediately to application to our lives today, but how do you think the disciples would have interpreted everything Jesus is doing? In John’s account of this he even explicitly says that Jesus is asking his disciples about this to test them.
What conclusions do the disciples come up with? They see 2 options that are solely based on what they can do. Who do they forget to ask? JESUS! The guy who has given them more fish in one cast of the net than they’d ever caught before! Yet even despite them not asking him for help, he still answers their unrequested prayer. Once again, Jesus has proven that he is Jehovah Jireh the provider. Just as God has continually provided for his people throughout the entire Bible, He continues providing for them here. The question for us is: do we really believe that God will provide everything we need? Or do we presume upon Him and refuse to acknowledge our dependance and need for Him to continue providing everything we need? This is the heart of the gospel message! God has provided an over abundance to us through the death of His one and only Son. Do we see that?
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Pastor Mike's Musings 