"Jesus saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? do ye not yet perceive, neither understand? have ye your heart hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among the four thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces took ye up? And they say unto him, Seven. And he said unto them, Do ye not yet understand? " (Mark 8:17-21)
IN these remarkable verses we have nine consecutive questions which the Lord fired at His discomfitted disciples. Now the Lord was perfect in His patience; He could, when necessary, be angry, but He was never irritable or impatient with any man. Yet on this occasion He challenged His disciples in very strong terms, putting to them a series of questions which revealed their total lack of understanding. What does it all mean to us?
To appreciate the whole incident we need to go back to what is said about His walking on the water and calming the storm, for the comment on their unbelief on that occasion is: "they understood not concerning the loaves, but their heart was hardened" (Mark 6:52). It appears, therefore, that the hardening of heart of which the Lord complained, was connected with the feeding of the multitudes.
The miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves to feed five thousand men seems to have a central place in the Gospels. It took place at Passover time, right in the middle of Christ's years of ministry. It is the only miracle described by all four Evangelists and John, who rarely repeated what is related in the Synoptic Gospels, actually places it as the central of the seven sign-miracles of which he writes. Furthermore this was the central of the only three miracles which dealt with nature; the other two being the changing of water into wine and the withering of the fig tree. This miracle was done entirely at the Lord's initiative. No one asked Him to feed the multitude, and no one exercised any faith in the matter. In the case of healings there was always the voiced or unspoken appeal, and there was a ground of faith in the ones concerned which co-operated with Christ's power; but in the cases of the five thousand and the four thousand, nobody asked Him to act. Indeed it was the other way round, for it was He who told the disciples to undertake the task of feeding the hungry: "Give ye them to eat".
To them this command seemed quite absurd. They appear here as only having five small barley loaves and two fishes, but in actual fact they had nothing at all, since the later Gospel of John discloses that it was a lad who supplied this small contribution. "Give ye ...". How could they? And yet, in the end, they did! For while it was the hands of the Lord Jesus which broke the bread, and His divine power which multiplied it, yet the groups of hungry people were actually ministered to by the Twelve, who received the supplies from their Lord and then carried them to the people. A major challenge to all of us who desire to be servants of God is how to obtain real spiritual 'bread' which can give life and strength to those to whom we minister. Nothing else will do. This is the Lord's command to us also: "Give ye them to eat". It is humanly impossible, and yet He says that this is what we must do. What seems to have appalled the Lord Jesus is that, having participated in this miracle and then had it confirmed by repetition in the feeding of [48/49] the four thousand, the disciples gave no evidence at all of having profited spiritually. Somehow their hearts were hardened. This was so amazing since, as Jesus reminded them, they themselves had profited so much from the miracles, collecting their share of the food on both occasions. The Lord forced them to confess this, that at the first they had each collected a personal basket of what remained and on the second occasion there had been seven large baskets, or hampers, over. Even so, they seem completely to have failed to grasp what He sought to teach them.
Now before we come to the vital spiritual implication of these miracles, it may be profitable for us to consider the practical lessons which are to be learned from the very detailed account which is given us. There are those who are so overwhelmed by the spiritual, or mystical, lessons to be learned, that they are in danger of ignoring the practical points. For my part, I am greatly impressed by the balance of spiritual and practical teachings in the Bible. Even concerning these the Lord may have to challenge us as to whether we have become stale or insensitive to truths which are very familiar to us. "Have ye your hearts hardened?" He may say to us too, "Do you not yet understand?" I suggest, therefore, that before we concentrate on the purely spiritual, we should consider some of the practical lessons which our patient Teacher urges us to learn,
1. The Time -- The Passover
It was no accident that this happened just at the time of the Passover. As John's Gospel makes it clear, the Lord had much spiritual truth to communicate concerning Himself as the Bread of Life when He did this miracle. So, clearly, He chose to work the wonder at a time when it was particularly relevant. In His evangelising ministry He did not forcefully rush people, but found suitable pegs upon which to hang His words. We should do the same. It may do more harm than good to say the right thing in the wrong way or at the wrong time. If we look for it, and perhaps wait for it, there will usually be some timely link for our contact with others. The truths here conveyed were deeply spiritual, but the Lord chose the time and opportunity wisely and, if we wish to win men for Him, we must do the same. It is he who is wise who wins souls.
2. The Place -- A Desert
Here the consciousness of need was made acute by the unhelpful surroundings in which they all found themselves. I find it particularly absurd that commentators should try to explain away this miracle by saying that a spirit of camaraderie came over the crowd so that men shared their own provisions with those who had none. They would hardly have had such a satisfying meal if it had been like that, and there certainly would have been nothing over. What is more, we are told that it was evening and that all the people were extremely hungry. Now it is surely reasonable to presume that had any of them possessed food, they would have eaten it during the day.
No, this was a mighty miracle and the scene takes us back in mind to the days of Moses, when God's people were breadless in an inhospitable wilderness. Then they needed a miracle -- and God did the miracle for them. Now, on a smaller scale, these conditions were repeated, and the same God -- through His eternal Son -- made full provision for their needs.
3. The Host -- Christ Himself
The Lord Jesus never had a home of His own here on earth. Had He possessed one, we can imagine how readily and how often He would have used it for the purposes of hospitality. This whole matter of showing hospitality is greatly stressed in the Bible, and is clearly something which is pleasing to God. Spiritual conversation and exercises are supremely important, but people often need more than a message; they need food and fellowship. On this occasion the Lord Jesus was the Host in a big way. He made sure that his thousands of guests were comfortably seated and that, even though the fare was simple, every single one of them had as much as he could have wished.
It must have caused the Lord deep satisfaction that, though He did not have an earthly house, He could gather such a crowd around Him and not only speak words of life to them, but share a meal out there under His Father's heaven. As all who practise it will find, this kind of open hospitality adds a new dimension to Christian life.
4. The Food -- Pilgrims' Fare
The disciples wanted to be rid of the responsibility of arranging about food, but we must remember that food is an important part of life. There are times when it may be profitable to fast, but normally we need nourishment for our bodies, a fact clearly recognised by our Lord in His pattern prayer, for He followed the highest worship[49/50] with an immediate request: "Give us this day our daily bread".
Bread was the simplest and most satisfying provision there in that wilderness. The Lord always gives appropriate food. At the wedding in Cana it was wine, for the purpose was rejoicing; here, however, it was bread, the substantial fare needed by pilgrims. It is a notable point that Jesus always fed His disciples on bread and fish.
5. The Measure -- Fullness
It has, alas, become a common idea that those who live a faith life must of necessity adopt meagre measures financially. We note here, though, that although there was such a large crowd, yet everybody was fully satisfied. It was as though Jesus was saying: 'My Father is like that: He is the God of abundance'. Later on, in not dissimilar matters of material needs, the apostle Paul affirmed: "But my God shall fulfil every need of yours, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus". What is more, on this occasion there were twelve baskets left over, as though to emphasise this divine munificence.
I know of a servant of God who took his car to a garage and urged the owner to do as little as possible, giving as his reason the fact that he was only a preacher. To his surprise, the garage man turned on him indignantly, saying: 'Only a preacher! Then surely your Boss has got far more than I have'. Yes, Christ's measure is always fullness.
6. The Order -- Quiet Harmony
Where the Lord Jesus is in charge there is always quiet order. There was no queueing up for self-service and no fighting to be first, in fact no jostling at all but perfect order. Yet it was not a harsh and forcefully imposed procedure; the order was not of a military style. As a matter of fact the word translated "in ranks" (6:40) is said to apply to beds of flowers. The colourful garments in the green setting of the grass seemed more like a garden than a wilderness, as the disciples moved quietly and efficiently among the seated groups as though in the enjoyment of the harmony of a well-kept garden. So should God's people always be, with things done: "decently and in order". Probably this explains how they were able to calculate the numbers, for the Lord had ordered the people to be arranged in groups of fifties and hundreds. Our God is not a God of chaos, clamour and disorder, but One of efficient and attractive harmony.
7. The Sequel -- Tidying Up
Now it is not impossible that the tired disciples might have been very glad to melt away with the crowds, leaving bits and pieces of food everywhere, but in any case they had no liberty to do so, for the Lord sent them round once again, this time to gather up all the pieces, leaving the place as they had found it. It is true that there was deep spiritual significance in the twelve baskets full of fragments, but in addition to this we can surely remark that they left no litter problem. What a good testimony this provided, and what an important one too! It is so easy for God's children to have a good time together and then thoughtlessly to leave a mess for others to clear up. The disciples were not allowed to do this, but were prompted to tidy up after them. Is not the same Lord in charge of us today? Is He any less concerned that true spirituality should be accompanied by thought for others and worthy behaviour in practical matters than He was then? Surely not! There is so much for us to learn and we are such slow disciples, but our Patient Teacher will persevere with us, and may even persist in our case with some of those penetrating questions: "... do you not remember? Do you yet not understand?"
----------------
No comments:
Post a Comment