Jesus went with His disciples to the far side of the Sea of Galilee. Sitting on a hilltop, they saw a huge crowd of people coming their way. Jesus asked Philip if he had any ideas about how they could feed this horde of seekers. Philip said that even if all twelve of the disciples had each saved a month’s wages, their savings would be enough to give one small piece of break to everyone in the crowd.
Jesus and Philip saw the same crowd through two different paradigms. Jesus saw fifteen thousand possibilities. Pragmatic Philip saw fifteen thousand problems.
To stretch Philip’s faith and to feed His followers, Jesus miraculously multiplied one small meal to feed the entire multitude. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” (John 6:12, NIV)
I wonder the size of the miracle didn’t match exactly the size of the crowd’s appetite? Did The Lord miscalculate? Was there too much miracle? If Jesus could do a ‘full-meal-deal’ for thousands, why save the twelve baskets of leftovers?
Maybe God knew that the left-over miracle would be good to chew on for the next few days. Perhaps the twelve would meditate on the miracle and get the message. Certainly, most of the crowd misread the miracle and then miscalculated God’s timing. Jesus saw that in their enthusiasm, they were about to grab him and make him king, so he slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself. (John 6:15, MSG)
The crowd missed the most important part of the message: Miracles are more about what God wants to do in me than what God wants to do for me. A rightly-read miracle doesn’t bend God to what I want, it bends me to what God wants. It is about what God wants to do around me, but even more so, about what God wants to do within me.
Maybe that miracle message came clear to Philip soon thereafter when he was eating some day-old bread.
Life Spark: God may want you to chew a little longer on what He’s up to. (John 6:1-15)
Life-challenge: Break a little piece of bread off of a slice and keep it in your pocket for 24 hours to remind you that God wants to change the world by changing you.