Understanding God: Mark 6:38-44
What must the disciples have been thinking? When Jesus asked them to go and count the amount of bread and fish they had, how much did they wonder about Jesus’ plan? When they came back to Jesus with two fish and five loaves and He didn’t seem to understand the shortfall, how much were they concerned? Would two fish and five loaves have even fed the disciples and Jesus, much less the gathered crowd? I know what I would have been thinking, and I confess that I would have been skeptical of Jesus at this point.
Jesus knows something the disciples don’t. As was said yesterday, His perspective is different. Jesus knows the God who can create a universe out of nothing shouldn’t struggle to feed five thousand people with two fish and five loaves of bread. Human beings would struggle to accomplish this task, but with the power of God this is nothing.
Note that Jesus makes sure the people know where this power comes from. He knows what is coming and makes sure people know where the glory should go. The glory goes to the Father. Jesus looked up to heaven when He blessed it (again I wonder why we bow our heads in prayer…) and started distributing the food. Each disciple got some portion of fish and some portion of bread. The people took. The people kept taking. The people kept taking until they were satisfied.
Here's another point where I think Jesus’ perspective is considerably different. Jesus gives the fish and the bread away with a mindset of abundance. He knows the power of God will not struggle to meet the needs of the people. Because Jesus gives away with a mindset of abundance, the people eat until they were satisfied. Their hunger wasn’t simply abated, their hunger was satisfied.
I can’t help but wonder what the disciples were thinking at this point. The multitude may or may not have known how little food there was at the beginning, but the disciples certainly knew. As people kept eating, imagine the confusion and amazement that went through their minds. They knew how little food there was to go around. It shouldn’t have added up.
When the people were done, the disciples came back and put the leftovers together. What started out as two fish and five loaves quickly became twelve baskets of leftovers. There was more food at the end of the meal – after everyone had eaten – than there was at the beginning.
The obedience of the disciples is wonderful to see. They didn’t examine this situation with the eyes of God, but they did obey. Obedience to God does not imply understanding God.
How is it possible to understand how thousands of people can eat from meager meal? How is it possible the leftovers sum up to more than what was present at the beginning? Can we make sense of it even now? What must the disciples have been thinking?
