The other point I wanted to cover from this week's lesson is the feeding of the 5,000.
A large multitude had been following Jesus because they had seen the great healings he had performed. As the evening drew close, Christ had compassion on the people and asked Philip where they could buy enough bread to feed the people (John 6:5). Philip replied two hundred pennyworth (the equivalent of 200 days wages) wouldn't be enough to feed the crowd, even if they all only had a small portion.
Andrew said there was a boy who had five loaves of bread and two small fish, "...but what are they among so many?" (John 6:9). I wonder if Andrew caught a glimpse of what Jesus had already set out to do. In my limited understanding, he seems to be either using this to show they had no way to feed such a large group, or he was cautiously hoping the Master could miraculously provide for them.
Christ instructed the disciples to arrange the crowd into groups of fifty (Luke 9:14), took the loaves and fish and blessed them. The disciples were then instructed to distribute the food to the multitude. After everyone had eaten and was full, twelve baskets of left-overs were collected.
Here are a few thoughts I had this week...
-Give Your All
I would love to one day find out how the young boy responded to the request for his food. What did Andrew say to him? "Excuse me, would you mind donating your food to help feed this crowd? Thanks."
How would you even respond to that? "With all due respect sir, you should wear a hat and not spend so much time in the sun. Drink more water too, stay hydrated. Just sayin'..."
By all indications, this boy willingly gave everything he had even though it was clear it wouldn't be enough. When we are asked to do something big (maybe speaking in Church, a calling to the primary, etc) and everything seems to suggest our capacity may not be enough, we need to remember the Lord's math is different than what we normally use. Christ can do more with our mere loaves and fishes than we could, he just asks that we give him everything we have so he can make more of us than we could on our own. Seems like not a bad deal.
-Christ Never Runs Out
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "...Don't worry about Christ running out of ability to help you. His grace is sufficient. That is the spiritual, eternal lesson of the feeding of the five thousand" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Come Unto Me", BYU Fireside, 2 March 1997).
No matter what our problem or difficulty, we can be completely confident in Christ's ability not only to understand our situation, but also to provide the needed assistance. We may not understand how he can have more of us left over than what we started with, but fortunately he's not restricted to our understanding.
Along those same lines, have you ever had an experience where one verse or passage of scripture opened up and you learned far more than you ever thought you could? It usually happens to me while I'm preparing for a lesson. A seemingly insignificant passage I may be inclined to gloss over suddenly becomes a rich spiritual feast and I find myself having difficulties trying to catch it all.
-Gather Up the Extra
I wonder if the apostles gathering the remnants of the bread and fish could be symbolic of the gathering of the twelve tribes of Israel. Just sorta thinking aloud there...
I'd be very interested to learn what they did with those twelve baskets. Did they use it to sustain themselves, or did they share it with those in need as they traveled? Either way, nothing was wasted. I wonder how often in my life I have wasted the generous blessings I've been given. Probably more often than I care to admit.
Anyhow, I hope my ramblings make sense. I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have on this...
A large multitude had been following Jesus because they had seen the great healings he had performed. As the evening drew close, Christ had compassion on the people and asked Philip where they could buy enough bread to feed the people (John 6:5). Philip replied two hundred pennyworth (the equivalent of 200 days wages) wouldn't be enough to feed the crowd, even if they all only had a small portion.
Andrew said there was a boy who had five loaves of bread and two small fish, "...but what are they among so many?" (John 6:9). I wonder if Andrew caught a glimpse of what Jesus had already set out to do. In my limited understanding, he seems to be either using this to show they had no way to feed such a large group, or he was cautiously hoping the Master could miraculously provide for them.
Christ instructed the disciples to arrange the crowd into groups of fifty (Luke 9:14), took the loaves and fish and blessed them. The disciples were then instructed to distribute the food to the multitude. After everyone had eaten and was full, twelve baskets of left-overs were collected.
Here are a few thoughts I had this week...
-Give Your All
I would love to one day find out how the young boy responded to the request for his food. What did Andrew say to him? "Excuse me, would you mind donating your food to help feed this crowd? Thanks."
How would you even respond to that? "With all due respect sir, you should wear a hat and not spend so much time in the sun. Drink more water too, stay hydrated. Just sayin'..."
By all indications, this boy willingly gave everything he had even though it was clear it wouldn't be enough. When we are asked to do something big (maybe speaking in Church, a calling to the primary, etc) and everything seems to suggest our capacity may not be enough, we need to remember the Lord's math is different than what we normally use. Christ can do more with our mere loaves and fishes than we could, he just asks that we give him everything we have so he can make more of us than we could on our own. Seems like not a bad deal.
-Christ Never Runs Out
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "...Don't worry about Christ running out of ability to help you. His grace is sufficient. That is the spiritual, eternal lesson of the feeding of the five thousand" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Come Unto Me", BYU Fireside, 2 March 1997).
No matter what our problem or difficulty, we can be completely confident in Christ's ability not only to understand our situation, but also to provide the needed assistance. We may not understand how he can have more of us left over than what we started with, but fortunately he's not restricted to our understanding.
Along those same lines, have you ever had an experience where one verse or passage of scripture opened up and you learned far more than you ever thought you could? It usually happens to me while I'm preparing for a lesson. A seemingly insignificant passage I may be inclined to gloss over suddenly becomes a rich spiritual feast and I find myself having difficulties trying to catch it all.
-Gather Up the Extra
I wonder if the apostles gathering the remnants of the bread and fish could be symbolic of the gathering of the twelve tribes of Israel. Just sorta thinking aloud there...
I'd be very interested to learn what they did with those twelve baskets. Did they use it to sustain themselves, or did they share it with those in need as they traveled? Either way, nothing was wasted. I wonder how often in my life I have wasted the generous blessings I've been given. Probably more often than I care to admit.
Anyhow, I hope my ramblings make sense. I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have on this...
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