3
Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was
near. 5 When Jesus looked up and
saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we
buy bread for these people to eat?" 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what
he was going to do. 7 Philip
answered him, "It would take almost a year's wages to buy enough bread for
each one to have a bite!" 8
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9 "Here is a boy with five small
barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
10 Jesus said, "Have the
people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat
down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to
those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to
eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let
nothing be wasted." 13 So
they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley
loaves left over by those who had eaten.
This is
week #2 of our four-week stewardship sermon series. The layout of the series is
part of a pre-planned program that picks themes and a basic accompanying
verse/passage for each week. For week #1, the theme was very simple: FAITHFUL. The whole series is called 'Found
Faithful,' so it made sense to open the discussion with emphasis on what
faithful means.
This week
we move down stream to something more specific... what does faithfulness look
like when you haven't got much... or more specifically, "Found faithful in
Little." The accompanying passage is the well known multiplying of the
loaves miracle of Jesus--incidentally, the only
miracle that appears in all four Gospels. Given the gist of this passage
and the basic theme of 'little,' I chose Old Testament and Epistle passages
that seemed to support this passage: 1Kings 17, the story of the widow's
oil/flour that do not diminish while she was giving refuge to Elijah, and a
passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 8 which includes the verse: For if the willingness is there, the
gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does
not have.
The common denominator is that
quantity is irrelevant when God is involved. Generation upon generation has
found a deep and abiding spirituality in this fact. There is an innate human
tendency to believe that meaningful action, or meaningful change, can only be
accomplished by the rich and powerful. Who am I? What possible difference could
I make? This is the narrative of the have-not.
And let's be honest, sometimes we use the narrative of the have-not as a
handy excuse not to try. Who am I...
what possible difference could I make... can
become an easy ticket to the low road of remaining in our unchallenging
comfort zone. In other words, looking close at these passages, I see not one,
but TWO mandates: (1) The first is a positive/inspirational mandate... yes, even your small amount can make a
difference... take heart... "Little is much when God is in it,"
as the old hymn says. But the (2) second is more of a mandate of rebuke... if everyone thought like this all of the
time, NOTHING would ever get done; failure to challenge one's self and
envision possibilities is never a virtue. Barclay has a great comment on this
that I'll share in a bit.
As to the
passage itself, there are several key/interesting aspects. Take vs 5 for
instance. When Jesus looked up and saw a
great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy
bread for these people to eat?" I double checked, and sure
enough, in the Greek it's "WE."
From the beginning, in other words, Jesus is saying to Philip that this is a partnership. Yes, the problem looks big;
yes the problem looks overwhelming, but this is a "WE" situation.
Philip,
of course despairs in vs 7: "It
would take almost a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a
bite. The TNIV is paraphrasing here. Literally Philip says it would take
200 denarii for everyone to get a little, but given that a denarius was the
average day's wage for the working poor, the TNIV paraphrase makes sense. We
should resist the urge to see Philip as the 'faithless' one, or the
'doubting-downer' of the group. From a narrative perspective, Philip's comments
are needed to heighten suspense/expectation, and to highlight the extent of the
miracle.
Andrew
and the un-named boy are also needed. Andrew NOTICED that which was so easily
overlooked, a young boy with a miniscule amount of food. Andrew, in this story,
is brainstorming. Brainstorming is all about throwing ideas onto the table,
even if they're silly or don't make any sense, because often this
silly-sounding thing leads to a real creative solution. And then there's the
boy. He had something... not much...but something.... and here's probably the
most important part of the story he was willing to share. It's pointless
speculation to try to figure out what Jesus would've done if the boy had not
been willing to share. Let's go even further and assume that not only was the
boy willing to share, but he even had FAITH that in offering his meager gift to
the Lord, something of substance could happen. Because, of course,
that's precisely how the story unfolds. Jesus takes the gift, gives
thanks/blesses it (vs 11), and something truly remarkable happens. I love what
Barclay has to say here:
There was the boy: he had not much to offer
but out of what he had Jesus found the materials
of a miracle. There would have been one great and shining deed fewer in history if that boy had refused to come or
if he had withheld his loaves and fishes. The fact
of life is that Jesus Christ needs what we can bring him. We may not have much
to bring but he needs what we have. It
may well be that the world is denied miracle after miracle and triumph after triumph because we will not bring
to Christ what we have and what
we are. If, just as we are, we would lay ourselves on the altar of the service
of Jesus Christ, there is no
saying what Christ could do with us and through us. We may be sorry and embarrassed that we have not more to
bring--and rightly so; but that is no reason for failing or refusing to bring what we have and what we are.
Little is always much in the hands
of Christ.
I began by noting the use of
"WE" in Jesus' initial question. We are in partnership with Christ in
mission and ministry by virtue of our baptism. This true wherever we are in
life. But it's a 'junior partnership.' Our job is, thankfully, not to 'bless
& multiply.' That's the senior partner's concern. In contrast, our job is
really quite simple: Be like Andrew... notice the little things that are easily
overlooked, and be like the boy... willing to have FAITH that our 'little' can
do GREAT THINGS when the Lord gets his hands on it.
Cheers,
T.M.
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