John 6:1-15

03/29/09
John 6:1-15
Hudson UMC

I have mentioned before the fact that the four Gospels share different stories from one another. There are very few events in the life of Jesus that appear in every single account and those that are should be observed very carefully because they are probably extremely important. This one, the feeding of the five thousand, is one such story. I am sure that just about every person in this room has heard this story before today because it is extremely popular in Sunday School and other Christian gatherings. What can be more amazing than the incredible provision that Jesus brings in such a time of need?

Perhaps this story takes on new meaning for us as we continue in the midst of the most significant economic crisis in decades. Though our area has not had it as bad as some others have, are we not still painfully aware of the troubles facing our nation and our world? We might take joy to be reminded that Jesus multiplies what little we have to transform scarcity into abundance. Or, if we so choose, we can see nothing but despair from this passage. I must confess that I tend to be rather cynical, so I am sometimes tempted to see it from a different angle. If Jesus can meet such overwhelming needs, why does it so often feel like our needs remain unmet?

And yet, though I am so prone to find ways to think that the good news of God is not really as good as I want it to be, this passage reminds me that this is not the way to look at it. Indeed, in its incredibly realistic picture of humanity, this passage confronts my lack of faith and urges me to learn from the story in a new way. Perhaps it does the same for you.

You see, I really want to identify with Jesus, the one with the faith, the one who can assure everyone else around about how good God is. I want to be the one with the trick up my sleeve, the one who knows the secret answer that nobody else does. However, in preparing this sermon, I had to come face to face with myself; not in Jesus, but in Philip. What does Jesus say to Philip when He sees the crowd coming? “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Even though, when I continue reading, I see that “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do,” I still want to respond like Philip does. “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” My immediate thought is to realize that it simply cannot be done. However, I don’t like to think that what God tells us to do cannot be done, so I begin to think about how we can make it happen. “We could have a fundraiser. Yeah, that’s it; and maybe we can take up a special offering.” Even if I appeal to the faithful people of God, I am still assuming that we need to work hard, that we need to do something to make God’s plan into a reality.

Now, we need to remember that this is not the first time that the disciples are around Jesus. They have been following Him for a while by now. Their past history should have helped them to remember the power of God in Jesus Christ. Do you remember the first miracle that Jesus did? He turned water into wine. He transformed a time of scarcity, a time when there simply was not enough, and overwhelmed the people with the abundance of God. Philip had seen this. He knew the kinds of things that Jesus had already done. He should have said, “Lord, if you want, it is easy for you to feed them all.” However, instead of trusting in God to provide, he just began to wring his hands, giving up before he began.

So we have Philip on the one hand. One the other hand, we have Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He says something a bit different. “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people? You know, even this is not really a profound declaration of faith, still short of a declaration that says, “Jesus, we know that you can and will do it,” but Jesus does not wait for perfection in his faith. He met Andrew, even with a bit of doubt, “What are they among so many people,” and the small amount of food, only five small loaves and two small fish, and fed thousands upon thousands of people.

I think that the thing we need to learn from this passage is that Jesus does not seem to be confused about what to do, even when we are. A pastor of mine used to say, “God is not worried about the things that you are worried about.” The disciples didn’t know what to do, they couldn’t see how God could take them from where they were, tired, up on a mountain, and short of food, and meet them where they were, absolutely transforming their situation.

We read in our text that Jesus asked the question “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” not because He didn’t already have a plan, but “to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.” God already knows what He wants to work in our midst. We might complain that we do not have enough, we might despair over our problems, but God knows what He will do and none of those things can get in His way. We might think we know what God can or cannot do, judging by what “we have always done,” but Jesus shows us that God moves, not only in mysterious ways, but in unexpected ways.

It is possible that we might wonder why Jesus even asked this kind of question. After all, if He knew what He was going to do, why bother to point out our ignorance? I think that it is important for us to see that there was not some secret store of food that Jesus brought out of nowhere. Some people have argued that the people came looking for a handout. When they saw the young boy being so generous with his food, they all took out the lunches that they had hidden and shared them. It’s an interesting thought, but when we read the text, it seems clear that the reason that Jesus asked the question was not to try and come up with some secret that simply appealed to a human solution but to show that it was indeed impossible for five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people. This way, when He did the miracle, nobody could deny that God did it.

In fact, we could argue that it was only because it was impossible that Jesus did the miracle. If it wasn’t impossible, the people would have found a way to explain it away. If the people thought that they were the ones who solved the problem, they would never have known that God was in their midst and they would have taken all of the credit.

When we think about this miracle in this way, it should give us great courage. God is moving in our midst. God is asking us questions like, “How are you going to reach out to the unchurched and everyone else in Hudson who needs to know the good news of God?” and “How are you going to afford to support a full-time pastor someday?” To be honest, there is a great temptation to say things like, “There is no way that we can do that. We don’t have enough people, we don’t have enough money, we aren’t young enough.” I think, though, that, when God asks those kinds of questions, He Himself already knows what He is going to do.

What did the disciples have to do in order to see God work miracles in their midst? All they had to do was have the people sit down. Now, when we compare the work that the disciples did to the work that Jesus did, there is no comparison. It is as if the disciples did not do anything. All it took was the willingness to take that first step in obedience. It wasn’t much, but it was all it took for God to multiply and multiply and multiply the gift that was made in faith. We have all seen God work in our midst before. Let us dare to believe that He is real and in our midst now.

Now, you might be wondering, as I all too often do, can we really trust that God will work in our midst? You might be thinking, “So what? It is not surprising that Jesus could provide dramatically. After all, He is the Son of God. What about us today? How do we know that God will provide in our time of need?” We can trust that God will be here even when Jesus is not among us in the flesh, because God has not only done things like this in Jesus’ earthly ministry. You know, though Jesus did more miracles than anyone else, most of the things He did had been done before. In fact, it was the doing of the same kinds of miracles that were recorded in the Old Testament that made His miracles point to His divine power. The greatest miracle workers we read about in the Old Testament were Elijah and Elisha, prophets with back-to-back ministries that we read about in the books of first and second kings. John the Baptist is often described as someone similar to Elijah. Indeed, Jesus could be described as similar to Elisha, only greater.

In 2 Kings, chapter 4, we read about Elisha’s ministry of power. We read about him blessing a widow’s jar of oil so that it would not run out until there was enough for her to sell and live on. We read about another woman whose son died and Elisha raised him from the dead. We read about God, through Elisha, overcoming poison in a stew. Most relevant to our text for today, though, is at the end. We read, “A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, ‘Give it to the people and let them eat.’ But his servant said, ‘How can I set this before a hundred people?’ So he repeated, ‘Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left.”’ He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.”

You see? When the Holy Spirit moves, all kinds of crazy things happen. To go back to our original text, we read that the people ate until they were satisfied. Jesus ordered the disciples to pick up the fragments that were left over and they gathered up twelve baskets full of bread. When people realized that Jesus had worked this mighty miracle, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” When all was said and done, when God moved among them, they did not say, “Wow, we really pulled together to make that happen” or “We must be amazing to have accomplished that,” but instead they gave glory to God for coming into the world in Jesus Christ.

I assure you, if we are willing to take that first step in faith, even if it seems as insignificant as having people sit down, God is going to blow our minds. As we near ever closer to the day and season of Easter, let us consider that we worship a God who raises the dead, who takes our brokenness and shortcomings upon Himself and lifts us up to newness of life. Let us pray that, as we stumble along, God would make our footing sure and take us to greater heights of joy and glory than we have ever known. Let us pray.

AMEN