MAKING THE IMPROBABLE PROBABLE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

 When Jesus heard what had happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed Him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.

As evening approached, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

“Bring them here to Me,” He said.

And He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Matthew 14:13-21

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, “Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things.

By this time it was late in the day, so His disciples came to Him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

But He answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to Him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

“How many loaves do you have?” He asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Mark 6:29-44

When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then He took them with Him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed Him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to Him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (About five thousand men were there.)

But He said to His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Luke 9:10-17

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed Him because they saw the signs He had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do.

Philip answered Him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, He said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.

John 6:1-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Out of all the miracles Jesus performed, only two are described in all four Gospels.

One is Jesus; resurrection and the other is His feeding of the five thousand, the miracle at the heart of today’s devotion. Through His powerful, amazing provision of sustenance for so many from so little, we are reminded that we serve a Savior who routinely makes the improbable probable.

As we look at this significant event in the course of Jesus’ earthly ministry, it’s important to consider all four Gospel accounts as each writer shares something a little different from their peers. Summing up the parts, we get a much fuller view of what happened on that momentous day.

It all started with Jesus’ disciples returning to him after being dispatched for ministry work. Much had happened on their respective journeys and they were anxious to share it all with their Master. The hope was that they would have dedicated, uninterrupted quality time with Him but as we see, that didn’t happen for there were people coming and going all around them. Jesus suggested they all go to a solitary place where they could rest and so they got in a boat and set out for Bethsaida, a town on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee. It was a good idea but it didn’t quite work out as planned.

This is because the scriptures tell us that the crowds who were following Jesus got wind of where He and His disciples were going and followed them there. They had witnessed the miracles He had performed and were hungry for more.

So when Jesus arrived, there was a crowd of people waiting for Him. You might have thought this would have disappointed Him but you would be wrong. For we read where Jesus had compassion for the people because He saw them as “sheep without a shepherd”. And so He went ashore and took the time to do what He normally did, teaching about the kingdom of God and healing the sick.

Well, as the day wore on toward evening, we find the disciples growing concerned for the crowd was very large and would need feeding but they were in a remote area. As the disciples come to Jesus for an answer, He simply gives them a command saying:

“You give them something to eat.”

The scriptures tell us that Jesus already knew what He was going to do but He wanted to test His disciples who as we see, tried to come up with a worldly solution as they responded:

“That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

Rather than do that, their recommendation was to let the people go into the surrounding villages to not only find food but lodging as well. After hearing their idea, Jesus asked them:

“How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

Their search didn’t render much. Andrew, Peter’s brother, found a boy with five small barley loaves and two fish which by conventional means was not anywhere near enough to feed those present, a number which numbered 5,000 men alone. Adding women and children to this total made the number of people far greater and only amplifies the miracle Jesus was to perform.

For Jesus next had His disciples seat all present on the ground in groups of fifty each. He then took the five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks before breaking the loaves. The bread was then distributed to the people before Jesus repeated the process with the fish. When the meal was over, all had been fed and were satisfied, AND there were leftovers, twelve baskets full of leftovers.

You see, Jesus had provided an abundant blessing from just those five loaves and two fish. He didn’t just give the people what they needed but gave them far more than they could have imagined.

Friends, this is what Jesus continues to do today. He comes to us in our time of need and meets that need, no matter how improbable our circumstances might be, not just giving us the bare minimum but rather lavishing an abundance of His goodness and provision upon us. My prayer is that this miracle feeding, significant enough to be documented by all four Gospel writers, will take a place of significance in your life, buoying you up in hope and faith when life’s challenges come your way.

With Jesus, all things are possible.

Amen.  
In Christ,
Mark
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