The reaction of the disciples must have been comical when Jesus countered their counsel and command. I can imagine a deer in the headlight look! This comes about from being stupid in assuming that they or we know better than Jesus. All 12 of the disciples decided to approach Jesus to close up shop and send everyone on their way. Rather than seeking His will, they sought to impose their own will upon Jesus. They were letting the situation dictate the next move rather than seeking God’s will in the matter. You ever do that? I have. It was Forest Gump’s favorite line, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Now, here comes that which is not funny at all. Unwittingly, the disciples were attempting to get Jesus to do something against the will of God the Father – to send the crowd away without food. How do we know that God the Father wanted to feed all of those people?
Well, for one, we know how the story goes, and two, we know about Jesus’ attitude in doing the will of the Father at all times. He did absolutely nothing out of the will of the Father (cf. Jn 8:28, 29). In reality, the apostles were trying to assume the role of God the Father without realizing it. Sometimes our logic without conferencing the Divine puts us in a real pickle. Read these verses (emphasis added).
1. (Mt 26:42) “Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.’”
2. (Jn 4:34) “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’”
3. (Jn 5:30) “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”
4. (Jn 6:38) “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
5. Heb 10:7 (quoting Psa 40:7-8): “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME— IN THE VOLUME OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME— TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
6. (Psa 40:7-8) “Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.’”
The disciples may have had good intentions, but those intentions were not aligned with the Father’s will like Jesus. If our good intentions are out of the will of God, it’s bad intentions, plain and simple. Having the mind of Christ is to be emphatically committed to the will of God regardless of the situation.
If we refuse to learn the Word, love the Word, and live the Word, we cannot be Christ-minded, and therefore, we cannot follow in Jesus’ footsteps because His walk was consistent with His Word which is to be the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice in our lives. Thus, willful ignorance reveals a heart that does not love God because we cannot obey what we don’t know. Jesus told us how to love Him, “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15). This “keeping” is not a matter of duty but obedience that springs forth out of a spontaneous love (agape) for Jesus.
Now we come to the relief in John 6:5-13 of this Gordian knot created by all 12 of the disciples in attempting to counsel and command Jesus, and now, they find themselves staring at a counter command that had all of His apostles eyeballing a wall of impossibility – “You give them something to eat.”
The disciples are about to understand that not only is human reasoning sinful and faulty, but God’s will cannot even get off the ground because of their inability to carry it out on their own. Jesus could have said, “If you are going to play the role of God the Father, then make His will happen – feed all these people as much as they want.”
So, we do not know how much of a second Selah or pause lasted with Jesus’ command to His disciples to feed the people, but the tense silence broke when Jesus put them all to the test, starting with Philip,
“Where shall we buy bread that these may eat” (Jn 6:5)?
Whenever Jesus asks a question, He is not soliciting for information because He is all-knowing. It is for the benefit of the hearer (cf. Gn 3:9f). Jesus is putting to the test their spiritual maturity to realize and acknowledge where they are at in their faith – “for He Himself knew what He would do” (Jn 6:6b).
For Philip, the issue was not where shall we buy bread (they were in a deserted place, right?), in his mind, it was too late for that anyway, and besides, there was not enough money to feed the multitude – “Two hundred denarii [6-8 months wages] worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little” (Jn 6:7, emphasis mine).
Peter’s brother, Andrew, spoke up (Jn 6:8),
“There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many” (Jn 6:9, emphasis mine)?
If you hadn’t noticed, no one else spoke up! Silence has a way of saying it all; there was a complete meltdown in obedience to His command. This happened because they got so fixated on the circumstances at Bethsaida that they acted as if Jesus never performed any miracles prior to this! Horizontal thinking robs us of so many blessings! Whenever God commands us to do something, the impossible is already possible. If you have faith as a mustard seed… (Mt 17:20).
You quickly deduce by being in a deserted place, after 3 PM, insufficient funds, and the available food supply was woefully inadequate that the apostles were not going to be able to obey Jesus’ command to feed the people. Their faces were pressed against the wall of the impossible. Allow me to add one more negative component to this scenario – clueless.
In all the hubbub of activities surrounding all the miracles done in the presence of the disciples – “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book” (Jn 20:30, emphasis mine), there were 18 recorded signs up to this point and no telling the number of unrecorded miracles. They should have remembered the most memorable words of Jesus during the recorded miracle #10 and connected the dots. This was the healing of the centurion’s servant in Capernaum.
Recall the centurion, a Gentile no less, felt unworthy for the Lord to come under his roof; so he dispatched his servants to tell Jesus, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed….” (Mt 8:8, 9 NASB, emphasis mine).
Jesus marveled and spoke of the centurion’s faith,
“Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (Mt 8:10).
That should have gotten the attention of the apostles! Did the apostles take that personally? When Jesus commanded His apostles to feed the people, they should have recalled the words of the centurion in miracle #10, “Just say the word.” When Jesus asked the question to Philip, he should have said, “Just say the word, Lord!” When Andrew mentioned the insufficiency of the five barley loaves and two fish, he should have said, “Just say the word, Lord.” All of them, save J.I., should have said in unison, “Just say the word, Jesus, and these people will be fed!” Shock and silence are not great faith statements.
When you and I are confronted with the impossible task of performing God’s will, we should say like the centurion, “Just say the word, Lord, and it will be done!” These things are recorded for our learning and example (cf. Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:6, 11). Ever try patterning after ignorance…? It doesn’t work. The Holy Spirit and God's Word are in unison as our compass to guide us toward Christ-mindedness.
“Then Jesus said” (Jn 6:10) changed the calculus. Possible was going to manifest itself in the face of the impossible! Truly Jesus is the I2P (impossible to possible) God that rips possible out of the impossible! This is Who we serve! Think of it! Our Jesus, who is Savior and Lord! What a contrast of thinking between not enough money and food, and everyone ate “as much as they wanted” (Jn 6:11). Thanks to Jesus. Selah.
“So when they were filled” (Jn 6:12), the 12 disciples (those who wanted to send the multitudes away hungry) collected 12 baskets of bread and fish (cf. Mk 6:43). Do you recall one of the petitions in Jesus’ pattern of prayer in Mt 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread?” He did not say along with that, “and give us a to-go box, too!” Nothing was lost.
Well, let’s wrap this up with three things we learn from this pre-wow meeting regarding the feeding of the 5K+.
1. Jesus doesn’t think like us (Isa 55:8-9; Rom 11:33). An example of this is the paradoxes: to go up we have to go down, to live we have to die, to get we have to give away, et al
We cannot think, speak, or act like God apart from the Word. We cannot predict what God will do in any given situation, but we can predict with 100% accuracy that whatever God does will always be in agreement with His Word.
Having the mind of Christ is impossible if we are willfully ignorant of His Word. That is one impossible He will not rip out of the possible. If we choose not to know Him and to love Him, God will not violate our will. Yahweh will never change somebody
2. We have no authority to question, doubt, reject, counsel, or command God (Rom 11:33-34). Jesus did not obey His own will nor the will of man. He only obeyed the will of the Father. Take Solomon’s words to heart: fear God, keep His commandments; there will be an accounting (Eccl 12:13-14).
3. We cannot do God’s will in our own strength (Php 4:13; Jn 15:5).
This deserted place of Bethsaida was only a location and not a situation, and it is never too late to do God’s will, for God is not bound by space or time or His creatures. When will we ever learn that it is an insoluble problem to attempt to do God’s will without His help?
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44%20png.png){kind=small}
%20sunflower%2045x63%20png.png){kind=small}
End of Series
