Saturday, July 18, 2009

God in The New Thing

John 6:1-21
6:1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 6:2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 6:3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.6:4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 6:5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" 6:6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 6:7 Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." 6:8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 6:9 "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" 6:10 Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 6:11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 6:12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." 6:13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 6:14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." 6:15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
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Philip was one of the first disciples of the Lord. Jesus had asked Philip to follow Him. That’s all it took. Something about Jesus was so compelling that Philip not only followed, but sought out his brother, Nathaniel, and called him to come and see Jesus, declaring, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:45) The fact that Jesus was from Nazareth and, as far as Philip knew, the son of Joseph, did not stand in the way of Philip’s faith in this Jesus.

Philip was probably there when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus’ disciples saw that first sign and believed. Early on, Philip was a follower, an evangelist, and a believer. He probably was there, along with the other disciples, when Jesus cleansed the temple and talked with the Samaritan woman. He must have known that Jesus had miraculously healed the dying son of a royal official in Capernaum (Jesus’ second miraculous sign in this Gospel), and then miraculously healed the man who’d been lame for 38 years.

Philip was there from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He’d seen Jesus, made the decision to follow Jesus, believed in Jesus, and seen His power to heal, and heard the authority with which Jesus taught and admonished.

Impressively, Philip had figured out, even before Jesus’ miraculous signs, that Jesus was “the one” – the one that Moses and the prophets had written about in sacred Scripture.

So how come, with this enviable background, this disciple fails the test here? Did you see that in this text?

The text tells us that when Jesus looked up “ and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" He said this to test him [Philip], for he himself knew what he was going to do.”

If this was a test, what might the correct answer have been? Perhaps, “Well, Lord, I saw you turn water into wine at that wedding when they’d run out of wine. I’ve seen you heal miraculously. So, maybe you could provide bread for these many people to eat now. I know there isn’t any way we can feed this number naturally. But, I believe in you. And, so, I believe you can work a miracle right now.”

Something like that? Maybe?

But, Philip answers in a way that is perfectly understandable and reasonable, given that there were at least 5,000 people there. He says, “"Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little."

In other words, “Jesus! Do you see this crowd! We can’t possibly feed them here and now. Or ever, really. I mean we don’t have enough money. Not even to feed them a little bit!” (I wonder if his unexpressed thoughts were these: “We’ve been following you, so you should know this. It’s not like we’re making an enormous living by following you.)

So, Philip failed the test. His words and his expectations and his reasoning had no faith in Christ built into it. It was perfectly rational. And, as if to emphasize Philip’s point, Andrew tells Jesus about the boy with five barley loaves and two fish. It's like he's saying, "That’s the little we have with us. There isn’t even close to enough. It’s simply not possible to feed this many people."

They both fail the test, really. That test of faith in the power of the Lord.

I’ve been wondering why that might have been, given that they’d witnessed his power to heal and to make wine out of water, and that had caused them to believe. I wonder if their faith eluded them here because it was a new experience with Him. I mean, if those were 5,000 guests at another wedding and the wine had run out, perhaps they’d have rememered the wedding in Cana and said to Jesus, “Well, you make the best wine, Lord! Maybe we can find a little water somewhere, and you can do what you did before. That was amazing!”

But, here they were, confronted by a new set of humanly impossible circumstances, and their faith faltered. Instead of focussing on the Lord and His power, they looked on the circumstances and their powerlerlessness to meet them, illustrated by the meagre means at their disposal. They didn't have a personal memory of a similar experience in which the Lord had worked miraculously. And so they forgot to remember the Lord.

In my reading of this text, I might be influenced by what I read recently in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 43:18-19, the Lord says to Israel, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

In this Gospel text, here is Jesus on the mountain about to do a new thing in the disciples’ lives: feed them and a great multitude of people until they were fully satisfied, without sufficient resources. Except His own. His disciples could not perceive the new thing He was about to do, because they had no similar experience to call to mind. Sure, they knew about how God fed the Isrealites in the desert. The Scritpures testified to that. It was easy to believe that kind of thing happened then and there. But here and now? It was alien to their experience.

Rememberance plays a great part in our life of faith. But, I think there may be times when it acts as a stumbling block to faith. Like when God decides that He is going to do a new thing in our lives. We often fail to perceive it. We fail the test of our faith because our minds are too caught up in the exact way that things have always been. So, instead of focussing on our Lord, and abiding in Him, we focus on the circumstances in which He has worked before, and “abide in our past” as it were, unable to perceive the new thing God is about to do.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”

If we are to follow Him, we cannot dwell on the past, we need to move with Him, even on to new and uncharted territory. The promised land, after all, was a new land to God’s people. As precious and instructive as our faith experiences are, our faith in Jesus Christ cannot be grounded on our past experience of Jesus Christ. Christ Himself must be the foundation of our faith, even on new ground.

So, Philip failed the test. But, look at the wonderful good news in this passage! It doesn’t stop Jesus from doing what He had planned to do! He doesn’t respond to either Philip’s or Andrew’s lack of faith. But, He goes on to demonstrate His power even in these circumstances which they hadn’t experienced with Him before. Christ does what He had planned to do. Miraculously. With just those five barley loaves and two fish, Jesus takes the initiative and takes charge and does what He had planned to do. That is, He does the impossible. He feeds those five thousand people as much as they wanted, until they were satisfied!

So, while Philip had despaired of feeding them even a little, Jesus actually fed them until they were satisfied! And, not just that, but there were 12 baskets full of leftovers. Plenty more to go around.

Maybe Jesus tells the disciples to gather the left overs so that they would learn how wrong they’d got it! He was in no way limited by their faith experience, any more than He was limited by meagre resources. Can you imagine what was going through Philip and Andrew’s mind as they kept having to pick up the left overs, after everyone there had eaten until they were satisfied. They must have felt a little foolish. They must have felt a little embarrassed by their little faith. Each basket full of leftovers might well have been an equivalent measure of faith in this Lord, on whom they had not counted when they’d considred this new and impossible situation. Philip had been counting on wages; Andrew on what was available.

Neither of them counted on Jesus Christ. They believed in Him. They followed Him. They listened to Him. Yet, when the new thing confronted them, their faith floundered on their limited experience. Thankfully, God’s power and willingness to redeem is not constrained by our limited experiences of His power. Along with His power, His love and grace are unlimited. So, along with the Psalmist we can “hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.” (Psalm 130)

In our own life experiences, if we faithfully follow this unpredictable Lord of ours, we will surely find ourselves in uncharted territory, where we will have no faith memory to fall back on. Still, even when we cannot lean on our own experience with the Lord, we can and should remember and lean on the Lord Himself. Maybe that’s why in instituting the Lord’s supper, Jesus asked His disciples to “Do this in rememberance of me.”

We need to remember our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith requires us to lean on Him. If all we do is lean on our particular and limited experiences of Him, then, inevitably, our faith will flounder as Philip and Andrew’s did on that crowded mountain.

“Abide in me.” He says. “Remember me.” He exhorts.

This is entirely personal. Far bigger than mere experience.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Jesus says, later in this Gospel. (John 17:3)

Know Jesus. Remember Him. Count on Him. Trust in Him.

And as you go with Him through life’s unpredictable journey, you may find, to your surprise and delight, that the new thing He is doing, which caused you to doubt His ability, is actually His means of satisfying you, impossibly, and storing up for you baskets full of faith and wonder.

So may it be. Amen.

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