Feeding of the 5000, part 2
Today’s text finishes up the feeding of the 5000. From Mark 6:34-44
34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
1. Sheep without a shepherd. (Mark 6:34) Jesus has compassion on those who are seeking Him. Notice that He is the teacher to them in this text. Are you seeking Him? He will teach you. Listen to Him.
2. The practical areas of ministry. (Mark 6:35-44) How many times do we follow Christ in spectacular ways, but do not rely upon Him in the “practical” areas of our lives? Why pray for the salvation of our family members, and not pray for the car to get fixed? Why pray for healing for an individual, and not pray for God to show you how to fix your computer?
These things may seem trivial – but they are extremely practical. In this text, you see the disciples fresh off of a trip casting out demons and healing and preaching repentance come to a point of not relying upon Jesus for the practical areas of ministry. These are the areas of ministry that He wants our trust in as well. Not only in the ministry of the local church, but in our own lives as disciples of Christ. Do you need to wash the clothes, and you don’t have enough time? Ask God to stretch time out for you, or to compress your wash cycles. Do you need your car fixed in a way that doesn’t break your budget? Ask God to fix it, or allow it to be cheap. Again – these seem trivial – but it is a life marked out with the full trust in a holy God. I am SO guilty of letting these things slip by, handling them myself, because I don’t want to “bother” God with my trivialities.
3. The miracle itself. (Mark 6:35-44) Here we see 5000 men were fed. We’ve read this story and are VERY familiar with it if we’ve been around churches for any length of time. Don’t let the familiarity of the miracle bely the significance of it. 5000 MEN WERE FED UNTIL THEY WERE FULL! Wow. I don’t know about you – but to feed my family of 5, it takes some cash, and a lot of food. Multiply that by 1000 (just for the men, not including the women and children), and I’m amazed at how much food that is. The more the kids grow, the more they eat…and eat…and eat. I think my kids’ appetite may be God’s way of showing me the significance of how awesome this miracle is.
Meditation: I should include God in everything I’m doing – no matter how trivial. It’s easy to rely upon God in the big things – but in the small things, I really don’t rely upon God – I rely upon myself to “handle it”.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 8:13 am and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
