Abundant Life: Rhythms: When to Go

Scripture: John 6:1-21

John 6:1–21 NRSV

1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Problems and Solutions

Life, left on its own, can seem like a series of problems to be overcome. Day by day, we wake up, open our eyes, and look for our first problem to face. Sometimes it is a problem we expect. Other times, we brace ourselves for the unexpected problems we face.

Gizmo wakes up every morning wondering when her food bowl is going to be filled. Her usual solution is then to cry at Bekah until she is fed. Then, she spends the rest of the day wondering if Carrie is going to eat all the food. So she nibbles a bit here and there, until eventually the food is gone. Then she's upset again that the food bowl is empty. I think her goal in life is to live in a place where the food bowl is never empty.

After the morning food bowl trouble-shooting, there is the race to claim the best napping spot in the house.

Your days probably have a little more excitement than that. Indeed, there may be days you wish you had the simpler life of a housecat. Yet our lives too often are lined up in problem/solution patterns in a race to the end. That is until we see the end of life in sight and we try to hit the brakes because we don't want it to stop after all. Too little, too late, we sometimes realize that the problems we were facing were not really problems at all. They were opportunities to live.

So from the moment we wake up each day in our problem/solution world, our discernment process may be flawed, simply because we are broken people living in a broken world. When Jesus invites us to ""repent and believe"", He invites us to work with Him to put together a puzzle where we have never seen the finished product. While we can put the pieces together in front of us in a way that seems to look and feel attractive to us, if it is not the way Jesus is leading, we will be frustrated with the moments where things just don't fit. That frustration will then lead us to try to bend pieces out of shape, or just quit working altogether and take our few puzzle pieces and leave the greater work of God unfinished.

Today we are looking at the same stories from last week, but this time told from the perspective of John's gospel. Instead of looking specifically at the call and need for rest, we are going to look at how decisions were being made by the people in this story and how God worked through them.

Thesis: I think we will discover that we need to check our own motivations when discerning God's will.

The Boy

Our story picks up today as a comparison to the work of Jesus in Jerusalem in John 5. We were in Mark last week, so let's recalculate our destination for the stories today. Rather than happening when the disciples came back from spreading the good news among the villages of Galilee, John jumps from a time Jesus was preaching, teaching, and healing in Jerusalem, to suddenly back near their hometown fishing villages. The crowds are swarming around them and Jesus turns to Philip and asks him “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” That is not a strange question when you are doing ministry in the Temple in Jerusalem or one of the village synagogues. It is a very strange question to ask when you are out in the middle of nowhere, where the people are thankful that it is the spring season and they at least have some soft grass to sit on instead of hard rocks and sandy soil. Philip skips the "Where?" question and leaps right into the ""How?" How will we pay for that much food? It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Every team needs to have a Philip on it. Someone who can see the practical details, the logistics, the challenges that need to be named so we do not trip over them blindly. Then Andrew steps up, noticing that Philip did not seem to give the answer that Jesus was looking for. “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Andrew, one of the unsung heroes of the faith, wants to fix the problem and is willing to offer up any solution, no matter how small. He is willing to use his own resources, or the resources of those around him, perhaps even before asking permission. He sees the challenge ahead and is willing to jump in. Every team needs an Andrew on it, someone who is willing to take initiative, even when they don't know that their solution will work. They are willing to try something, and often willing to try anything. You could do a case study on all the personalities that Jesus chose to make up his team of disciples and how they interacted together. But to tell you the truth, I am more interested in the story of this young boy who brought his lunch to Jesus. Two whole fish and five loaves of barley bread seem like a lot for one young boy to eat by himself. Where was his family? Was he in charge of carrying the family meal? Was there a family that gave up their meal for the sake of feeding everyone. How frustrating would that have been for them, the only ones who came prepared, to give up their hard work for all those who were not thinking ahead. And that is assuming that the boy had the family's permission to give their meal away. What if he didn't? Was he doing this thinking that he would be scolded and punished when they found out what he had given away? Or was he on his own, following after Jesus. Where did he get that food and how did he know to bring it into this crowd of people? Was he an orphaned beggar, begging for food each day and carrying his day's worth of food with him? The test question of Jesus was not where can we beg, borrow, make, or take food. He asked “Where can we BUY food for this crowd? So what did this boy get in return for giving up the food he was carrying? God's kingdom works on a different kind of economy. It works on the right people, being in the right place, at the right time, with the right preparation, and doing the right thing. We cannot orchestrate that on our best day. We can hire the best people and form the best teams, do all the training we want, and miss the mark completely. Philip saw the problem and never even saw the boy who held the solution in his hands. Andrew saw the boy, but doubted the effectiveness of one boy. No, the leadership were given this task to handle by Jesus, as a test, but they couldn't do it. It all came back to Jesus and this boy carrying five loaves of barley bread and two fish. He gave all he had, and what was his reward? This was the day he got to be a disciple of Jesus, and more than that - the disciple that Jesus worked through to make this miracle happen when the other 12 did not have the faith.

Making a King

This Jesus loves us, and will take care of us. All we have to do is look at him with our hungry eyes and he will fill our bellies. So let's make him our king and we can be his pets!

The disciples would never see a crowd this big following Jesus and following them. We've already forgotten the name of the young boy who was the true faithful disciple that evening. The next time they would see this kind of ministry success would be Pentecost, and by then they would all be changed people. This is it. This is the peak of their ministry. It is all downhill from here, but of course they don't realize that yet.

How tempting it would be to let the crowd have their way. Make Jesus a king. Start a revolution. Kick out corrupted leaders and put the Son of God on the throne that He was born to sit upon. Fast-track.

Jesus is not about the fast-track. Our creeds make it sound like he was born one day, died the next, rose three days later, and is coming back soon. That's roughly one week that we celebrate the life of God incarnate. He lived for 33 years. That's less than half of most of our lives. So the life Jesus led was already condensed. He was not spending time going from problem to solution to the next problem and solution. He was living life with God, to the fullest. Every moment He had with those around Him was a gift He was giving them.

I expect that life was hard for Jesus, compared to being in Heaven especially, but bear in mind, Jesus did not want to die. He did not want to leave. He prayed until he sweat blood in preparation and asked God if there was another way. If we knew we only had 33 years in total to live, we would probably make some different choices about how we spent that time.

The point is this: Jesus could have taken an easier road, even before the cross. If not for His sake, then perhaps he could have taken an easier road for His disciples. But that was not God's plan. Easier is not better. Jesus came to do more than just die. His mission was to help us love God and love each other, and to do that, it cost Him his entire 33 years of life. And the lives of many, many others as well.

What do you hope to gain following Jesus? What are you willing to lose?

The story ends in a boat, with disciples running from the success they just saw in their ministries. Jesus did not want people as pets or subjects, addicted to the idea of free food, trading away their ability to live sacrificially for God, in order to live on easy street. There, back among the wind and waves (Think: Next Problem) they had to be questioning Jesus, themselves, and what kind of crazy great plan this was supposed to be following. Why did Jesus keep running from success?

Did they ever wonder what would have happened if they had told Jesus no and stayed there in Galilee? Did Peter, Philip, or Andrew ever think about how much easier their lives and the lives of their families could have been if they set themselves up as princes of Galilee? The people loved them. Surely they could have stayed and taught them so much. But Jesus told them to go, and they went. We are here today not because they were smart, practical, optimistic, or great leaders. We are here today because they were faithful in following Jesus.

There are many days you and I wake up and start thinking about our food bowl. On our good days, we may be like the disciples, trying our best to figure out how to serve, protect, and grow God's kingdom. On our best days though, I think we are like a young child, facing our own fears and needs, desperately seeking God, and willing to put aside our own fears and needs, give it all to Jesus, and watch Him serve, protect, and grow His Kingdom, inviting us to follow Him faithfully.

What do you hope to gain following Jesus? What are you willing to lose?