14. Who is Jesus?
November 21st, 2010
The Feeding
We are in Luke 9:10 this morning. This is a text most of you are probably familiar with. This is the only event prior to the last week of Jesus life that is recorded in all four gospel accounts. So there is something very important about this text. The disciples have just returned from riding their bikes with training wheels and things went really well. They are coming back from the mission Jesus had sent them out on as He is preparing them to be leaders in His kingdom. They have seen Jesus heal people, cast out demons, and preach about the kingdom of God but now they have got to experience it for themselves. They were given a supernatural authority and so when they come back they are excited because they got to watch as God worked miracles through them. Word is spreading, people are getting excited, and Jesus popularity is at an all time high.
You can imagine how happy Jesus is to see the excitement on His disciple’s faces as they tell the stories of things they did. Imagine as a parent you kid comes home bragging about all the stuff they learned at school you know part of you just beams with pride. Jesus has been waiting years for this moment: when His follower would take hold of His mission and start sharing His love with the world. At the same time Jesus also is feeling the loss of a close friend and family member as He has only recently been informed that John the Baptist was beheaded.
Once again Jesus and the disciples need a break. They have had a lot going on recently and they need to just get away so that they can rest and recover but also so they can debrief and get their bearings again. Sometimes in life you get hit with stuff and the best thing to do is to stop and get focused. So they need to find a quiet place outside of Herod’s jurisdiction and away from the crowds. They hop in a boat and sail across the Sea of Galilee to the small town of Bethsaida.
Lk 9:10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, Lk 9:11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
These crowds are becoming stalkers. This is not the first time Jesus and His disciples have used a boat to try and escape them but the crowds are determined to thwart their plan this time. When Jesus and the disciples sail off the crowds watch which direction Jesus goes and then they ran around the lake going from town to town waiting for Jesus to arrive. They did not walk or slowly meander their way over, they ran so fast they actually got to the other side before Jesus did.
The Jordan river is a large river that is 156 miles long which runs along the eastern border of Israel and runs through the Sea of Galilee in the North connecting it to the Dead Sea in the south. About two miles north of where the Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee there is a good spot to cross the river. About a mile north of that is a wide grassy plain that runs into a nice hill which Jesus could have climbed to accommodate the crowds. It is probably around A.D 29, putting is very close to the Passover. This would explain the enormous crowds as many Jews would migrate to Jerusalem during this time for one of their three great feasts. This would put us at the end of Jesus second year of ministry. His crucifixion is probably just over a year away.
The amassed crowds are enormous. They are counted at five thousand men. During this point in history women and children were not counted so the total crowd is probably somewhere between fifteen and twenty thousand people. So we have the world’s first mega-church meeting and it’s a potluck. Except the only person who remembered to bring anything is a small child.
Jesus gets off the boat and the crowd is there waiting for Him. Now this might be a little frustrating. Jesus and His disciples are tired. They have been so busy they have not even had time to eat. So they head out to get some time to rest and relax but the crowds chase them down and rob them of their day off. Imagine you are training someone at work and you have a long and exhausting day. You tell your trainee goodbye and that you will see them tomorrow. You get home. Your are tired, you are hungry, and you are just excited to sit down and have a nice meal with your family. But before you can eat you hear a knock on the door. The person you are training is at you door with a bunch of work he brought with him. Some of us might find that to be a bit annoying.
On some level we like to compartmentalize our lives: over here is work, over here is school, over here is family, over here is so on and so forth. When someone interferes with your rest or interrupts your time off it can be frustrating. Especially when we are tired and hungry we might be less kind to people then we should be. We can be like this in our Spiritual lives too. We don’t mind helping out so long as it is convenient, doesn’t take too much time, energy, or money, and fits nicely into our schedule.
Sometimes we say no to things we know we should do because we are tired or not in the mood. Sometimes we behave inappropriately and treat people unlovingly and then blame it on being tired or cranky. Jesus could have done that. He has every reason to yell at this crowd and tell them to go away. Jesus needs His rest just like anyone else. When Jesus sees these crowds He is not annoyed He is moved. For Jesus ministry is not a job. He doesn’t clock out at the end of the day and go about His life. This is His life. This is who He is. Even when He is tired and hungry He will not turn you away. Loving you is not a chore for Jesus. It is not difficult for Him. Loving you is what He does.
Jesus sees people who probably would have annoyed anyone else and He loves them. Jesus is exhausted but He never stops to think of Himself. Jesus never asks the question: “well what about me?” So why should we? Jesus only worried about loving people and obeying God. He let God take care of the rest. Shouldn’t we do the same? Jesus welcomes the crowds with compassion and love even when they are messing up His need for rest. Jesus cant help but love people. He sees people who need teaching, feeding, and healing and He loves them more than His own needs.
Lk 9:12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” Lk 9:13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” Lk 9:14 (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
It is probably between 3:00 and 5:00 pm. The nearest towns are probably several miles away and nobody brought a lunch. The disciples want Jesus to send them off so they can go get diner. They are also a bit hungry themselves. So they are sort of asking Jesus to get rid of the crowd so they can get some food. The disciples have just returned from experiencing the power of God working through them. They were excited because of their supernatural authority. Yet they are not like Jesus yet. They have seen God’s power working through them with their own eyes but they have not yet learn to see people through God’s eyes. Jesus wants to love and care for these people. The disciples want to send them away. They are an inconvenience, a nuisance, they are work on a day off. The disciples may have accessed the power of God but they have not yet accessed the heart of God.
Jesus sends the disciples out to find what food is available: virtually nothing. The only food they find is from a little boy with a sack lunch consisting of a few crackers and two small fish. The closest thing we have to these fish would be canned sardines. It’s more a snack then a meal; enough to maybe tide a small child over for awhile but not to fill a grown man.
Lk 9:15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Lk 9:16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. Lk 9:17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Jesus has demonstrated His power over the inanimate before: turning water into wine He changed the very nature of something. He demonstrated His power to command the creatures of the sea at the great catch of fish. He has shown His power over nature itself by calming the storm but this is a little different. In His previous miracles Jesus has shown control over things that already existed. This is a miracle of creation.
Jesus has a little bread and fish to start with but He is reproducing out of nothing. He is creating more where more does not exist. Jesus is displaying yet another connection He has with God. Jesus isn’t just powerful He has the ability to create. Not only does Jesus turn a sack lunch into enough to feed fifteen thousand people but when everyone is full the disciples gather twelve basketfuls of leftovers.
Upon seeing this crowds would have immediately wanted to make Jesus the Messiah. This is the sort of thing they have been waiting for Jesus to do. John has been beheaded so their patriotism and zeal are raging out of control. They intend to make Jesus Messiah whether He likes it or not. The Jews more than anything want their independence. They expect Jesus to lead them in a revolution. What better leader than one who could heal their wounded soldiers and keep the soldiers fed? They would have no supply lines to cut and an infinite supply of troops, since even ones who died, Jesus could bring back to life. Jesus would be the perfect revolutionary leader. The problem is they are coming to Jesus for what they want from Him rather then for who He is.
They were walking with the creator of the universe and got to experience His power to provide for their needs. They miss the importance of what He does because they come to Him with an agenda. What Jesus did was certainly inspirational but inspiration without transformation is tragic.
When we see Jesus miraculous power it is easy to want to be delivered from our current circumstances. This is short sighted. Jesus didn’t come to buy us lunch. If Jesus miracles inspires us but does not transform us then it is meaningless. Seeing this miracle would be amazing. Yet these people’s lives were not transformed by it. Even seeing the power of God does not transform us. We all get to experience God in some way or another. Only you decide how you will respond to it. If you want a healing, comfort, peace for the here and now but do not look to the future life then you are missing the purpose of Jesus mission. He doesn’t want to feed you for a meal He wants to give you a life where you will never know hunger. His ultimate desire is not to make you sore throat go away but to give you a life without illness of any kind. Don’t miss Jesus mission for His miracles. Let Him transform your life so that you may become a shepherd of His flock serving the people He loves. When we come to Jesus it is not to make Him like us, it is to make us like Him, willing to poor ourselves out for those in need.
The disciples see this crowd as a problem. Jesus sees and opportunity to make His love known. What if we learned to do the same? What if we learned to see problems as opportunities to show people the love of God? Jesus asks us to follow Him not only when it’s easy or convenient but through trials and storms. He asks us to love even when it isn’t what we want. If you don’t love people enough to let them mess up your plans then there is room for growth. Jesus love for us in not compartmentalized. It is sacrificial. He loves us all the time. Following Him means learning to do the same. If you need Jesus, or need His transformation invite you to make that decision today; to start learning how to love others with the self sacrificing love of Jesus. For a selfless, unconditional love is the most radically transforming thing in this world. Jesus offers that to us so that we can offer it to others.
