Despite John Lennon’s statement years ago that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, Jesus’ popularity has only grown with the passing years. It’s not that most people believe in him, but many certainly admire him.
He was popular in his own day as well.
Wherever Jesus went, the crowds grew bigger and bigger. But the people weren’t following him because he was their long-awaited Messiah or because he wanted them to submit themselves to his rule and reign in their lives. The Bible gives us the real reason for his fame: “A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick” (John 6:2 NLT).
On one particular day, a hungry crowd had gathered to hear Jesus. But lunchtime came, and their stomachs were growling. So Jesus performed the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. This, by the way, is the only miracle found in all four of the Gospels. Also, there were more than 5,000 people present: It was actually 5,000, plus women and children. So, there were as many as 10,000 people present on the day of this particular miracle.
Lunchtime rolled around and the people were hungry, so Jesus had compassion on them. Jesus, being God, knew that these people would eventually turn away from him. He knew they were following him for the wrong reasons. And, by the way, if I were omniscient, if I knew what God knew, I wouldn’t have fed these people. I would have said, “I know why you guys are following me, and I am not going to give you lunch. In fact, I am going to eat lunch in front of you. How do you like that?” But Jesus had compassion on these people and wanted to feed them and meet their needs. But he also used it as an opportunity to teach his own followers.
Apart from Jesus himself, three primary figures emerge from this passage. First, there is Philip. Surrounded by the massive crowds and seeing they are hungry, Jesus turned to his disciple Philip and gave his first test. This, by the way, is the only recorded time where Jesus ever asked anyone for advice: “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” (John 6:4 NLT)
It seemed like a pretty easy question. Philip could have said, “Considering the fact that you are God in human form, considering that you created the heavens and Earth, I am sure you could come up with a solution to feed all of these people.” But Philip effectively said, “It would take a small fortune to feed them all, Lord. There is just no way.”
Despite the fact that Philip and the others had personally walked with Jesus for some two years at this point, hearing his teachings and seeing him demonstrate miracle after miracle, he was spiritually dull to the obvious. They were looking at this situation with human eyes and at human resources.
I can think of times where I have come up against what seemed like impossible situations, and I have thought, How are we going to handle this? What are we going to do here? What is the answer for this? And I have to remind myself that God has the answer and that I need to commit the situation to him in prayer. But we forget that sometimes. And then we become overwhelmed.
I have found there are things that God can teach us in our lives, but he has to reteach us the same lessons. When you were younger, maybe you learned to trust God for provision, and you did. But as you have gotten older, maybe it is time to relearn that lesson.
Or maybe there was a time in your life when you didn’t know the will of God and were waiting on Him for direction. Now that some time has passed, he may teach you once again how to depend on Him in the same way. God has to teach and reteach you again and again.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the same principle: “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding” (6:1–2 NLT).
It is easy to tell someone else to trust God for provision until you have to. It is easy to tell someone else to trust God for healing until you have to trust him as well.
Philip didn’t do so well on this particular test. Now it was Andrew’s turn. Andrew carefully surveyed the situation and prepared to offer an opinion, which was a good one. Every time we read about Andrew in Scripture, he is always bringing someone to Jesus. This time, he brought a little boy with some loaves and fishes.
We don’t know the little boy’s name, but we know this much: He was poor. How do we know that? Because he brought barley bread, which was the cheapest of all bread at that time. It was thought of as the kind of food you would feed to an animal, not to a person. Then he had a couple of small fish. It is almost as though he was bringing his stale crackers and sardines to Jesus. The lunch was as insignificant as it could be, but he brought it to the Lord.
The point of the story is that which was insufficient from the hands of the insignificant became sufficient and significant when placed in the hands of Jesus. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have so little to offer that you might as well not even bring it to God, because God can do a lot with a little. You just put it into His hands.
When you take your life and offer it to God, watch what God can do when he gets hold of it. You might wonder, Well, what will I do if this happens? How would I handle it if this kind of crisis happened in my life? Or what would I do if this situation came up or this opportunity arose? God will give you what you need when that time comes. But for right now, he will give you what you need. So you just bring your loaves and fishes to Jesus.
