Why Did Jesus Feed the 5,000?

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part II of our series on Sharing Your Bread

From where?

That, as we identified in our last post is the most important question raised by Jesus in his feeding of the 5,000.

And if you answered, “From the little boy, with God’s help,” then you have officially missed the point of the story! So let’s leave the little boy alone and read further and see if we can answer Jesus’ question, “Where shall we buy bread for all of these people to eat?”

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 6:10-15)

Now skip ahead to verse 25 where Jesus explains the sign:

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” (John 6:25-26)

Let’s rephrase verse 26 in light of what we just learned about miracles and signs. We could say it this way:

“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me”—meaning, you’re following me around and trying to make me king—“in the physical realm because of what I can do for your body. But that’s because you’re focused only on the flesh and what your body needs. You’re missing the sign: the invisible realm is bursting into the visible! Look through me into the invisible realm and behold your true Father, who is providing for all of your needs—body, soul, and spirit—and who is calling you to have fellowship at his table.”

Jesus doesn’t feed the crowd because they are hungry or even because they ask.

He feeds the crowd because he is mirroring his Father’s goodness into the world, and part of his Father’s goodness is that his Father invites us to his table. As we learned last month, the vocation God intended (and still intends) for all human beings is mirroring God into the visible realm.

He doesn’t just want us to do good stuff. He wants us to mirror exactly what he is doing.

Have you experienced God’s invitation to his table?  What physical form did that take? How can you mirror that to others?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sharing Your Bread: From Where?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part I of our series on Sharing Your Bread

This month, as we begin our study of the Work of Mercy of sharing your bread, the primary question we may find ourselves asking is “With whom?”

With whom should I share my bread? My family? The poor? Strangers? Enemies?

But Jesus starts with a totally different question. Jesus’ question is: “From where?”

From where do we share our bread?

At first, that question doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. But let’s look at John 6:1-58 and work through it section by section in order to understand why the question of “from where” is the most important question to ask when it comes to the Work of Mercy of sharing our bread:

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?”  (John 6:1-5)

“From where” is the key question in the whole Gospel of John. As Brian Stoffregen notes, “If one knows the source of Jesus’ gifts, one comes close to recognizing Jesus’ identity.”

But “from where” isn’t even the second question we usually ask. The second question we usually ask when it comes to sharing our bread is, “How much is this going to cost?” And that’s how Phillip and the disciples respond to Jesus:

Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] 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?” (John 6:7-9)

Do you see that when we ask, “How much?” we’ve already answered the question, “From where?” By asking the question that way it’s clear that we assume that the bread is clearly going to come from us and from our labor. That’s why Philip says, “This is gonna cost more than half a year’s wages!”

So, let me ask you a question: What word would you use to describe Jesus’ feeding these five thousand people? Or what word would you use to describe Jesus healing people or raising Lazarus from the dead?

We often use the word “miracle” for events like these, but Jesus doesn’t. Look at John 6:2 to see the word Jesus uses:

…and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.

So what’s the difference between a sign and a miracle?

A miracle is what we call something when we think about it from the physical perspective. Something is “miraculous” because it doesn’t operate according to the laws of the physical world.

So a miracle points to the physical world. But a sign points to somewhere else. A sign points beyond the physical realm. A sign is designed to lead people to ask, “From where is this sign coming?”

And that is the most important question that is raised by Jesus’ sign of feeding the five thousand: Where is this bread coming from?

How does the shift in thinking about Jesus feeding the 5,000 as a sign, and not a miracle, impact how you understand it?  What does that change for you?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Four Giving-Related Questions You Should Ask Each Person Each Month

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part XI of our series on Doing Good

In our last post, we noted how the gold standard for Christian giving is purpose. So every month we should be praying, “God, how may I be a part of your giving this month?” That’s a very different question than, “God, how may you be a part of my giving this month?”

It’s God’s money, and you are God’s instrument. Never get that backwards!

So this is why at .W Church we collect the offering monthly instead of weekly. Each of us needs to be purposing what to give, not deciding at the last minute.

Throughout the month, each of us is disbursing the 70% of our offering that has been entrusted back to us and practicing the Works of Mercy we’ve learned about. As we pray daily and meet daily in family worship, we ask God and one another, “What should we be giving this month? What is God doing around us? How is he asking us to join him in that giving?”

We also conduct our “AAR” (After Action Review), asking each person or family to answer the following four questions about the giving they did for the month.

We don’t ask, “Did you tithe?” Because someone could tithe and still not give with purpose. And for most Christians (the ones who, for example, are not homeless or hungry), the tithe should be the minimum they give, not the maximum.

(And Christians who are poor should still give generously, by the way. You’ll see in the Scriptures that God uses the gifts of the poor to accomplish his most important work, whether it’s the widow feeding Elijah or the boy giving Jesus the fish and loaves. Everyone should give, sharing whatever they have. Everyone.)

So the four questions you should ask each person each month in each .W group are these:

Step 1: What was the intent of your gift last month? In other words, why did you make that gift? How did you decide to do it? What were you seeking to mirror about God’s character through your giving?

Step 2: What happened? Why? What are the implications?

Step 3: What lessons did you learn?

Step 4: Now what? In other words, how will you give differently—or more, or the same, or to a different person, or to the same person, or whatever—in the future?

It doesn’t matter if their giving was $0.05 or $50,000 for the month. We need to ask these four questions to each person each month as a means of accountability and as a means of helping them to grow.

Do not fail to be diligent in asking each member these questions each month. Few things can help members grow more than asking these questions. Few things can prevent members from growing than neglecting to ask questions like these.

Have you ever incorporated questions like these into your giving?  If so, how do you feel they helped?  What other questions would you add to this list?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment