August 13, 2006

Pentecost 10

When I hold a hockey stick in my hands, it’s just a piece of wood. But when you place that same stick in the hands of Wayne Gretzky, it turns into goals and Stanley Cups. Put a paintbrush in our hands, and it’s just a paintbrush. But put a paintbrush in the hands of Rembrandt, and you get priceless works of art.  If you put a trumpet in my hands, you’re going to get a lot of noise. But put that same trumpet in the hands of Wynton Marsalis, and you’ll get beautiful music.

The bottom line is that if you put what you have in the right hands, you will get amazing results. So why don’t we do that with God?  Imagine what happens when we put our limited resources into HIS hands!  Think for a moment what you could do for the Lord if you let Him use what you have!  Even if it’s not much!  In our Bible lesson, Philip is going to be asked to do something that he thinks is impossible. But he’ll find out that when you let Jesus use what you do have, things can happen that we never thought possible.

We should never try tackling problems on our own.  Never.  We need someone’s help.  We must recognize that need.  Jesus was trying to get his disciples to realize how much they needed Him.  So He gave them a test.  A large crowd had gathered to hear Jesus teach, and they had no food to eat.  Jesus’ heart went out to them and He wanted to help them.  So here came the test: He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”

Philip’s answer: “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”  In other words, Not Enough Money.  Then Andrew gave it a shot: “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”  In other words, Not Enough Food.  So the disciples’ answers were “Not Enough Money” and “Not Enough Food.”  Both of them failed the test.

Jesus did accomplish part of what He wanted to accomplish with the test.  He led them to see the hopelessness of the situation.  He led them to see that it would be humanly impossible for the disciples to feed 10,000 people.  There was not enough money.  Not enough food.  That much they were right about.  However, this realization did NOT lead them to the solution Jesus wanted them to reach.  It didn’t lead them to look to HIM for the solution!  A divine solution!  They were only thinking about earthly solutions.

What about us?  Doesn’t God give us tests all the time?  Bills comes due.  Repairs needed at home.  You have a financial need.  But you don’t have the money.  How are you going to pay for it?  Here’s the test!  And after looking at every option, it seems hopeless because none of them will work.  So is God just torturing us?  Or is He testing us?  Do you think that to God, maybe the important thing isn’t how we are going to pay those bills, but how we handle ourselves during the crisis?  That we don’t blow up on our spouse?  That we don’t take it out on our children?  That we remain content with what the Lord has given us?  That we know we have everything in Him?  That we come to Him for help?   That we rely on God for a solution?

Or you have a problem in one of your relationships.  A rift between you and someone else you can’t seem to fix.  You look at every option, you try everything, but none of them seem to work.  You come to the conclusion that it is hopeless.  Could it be a test from our Lord?  Could it be that He is asking you to come to Him for the solution?  Could it be that He is leading you to Christ-like humility?  Leading you to forgive as you have been forgiven?  To see the faults in yourself that you so easily see in others?  That it might be best to put it in God’s hands?

Or maybe there is a challenge in front of you that you have never faced before.  It is emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausting.  You feel like a failure.  You don’t think you can do it.  You have examined every option and think it’s hopeless so you feel like quitting.  Do you think maybe the Lord is inviting you to come to Him for help?  Is He maybe drawing you to rely on Him and wanting you to trust his promise that He will give you the strength we need?

How about our church?  Do we encounter tests as we set about our ministry?  Are there times where it seems it will be impossible to accomplish certain things?  That those things will never happen?  That we will never succeed at them?  Is our problem finances?  Is it manpower?  Is it time?  Is it the fact that the city makes it so hard for us to get land?  Or, is it a faith problem?  Is the Lord simply asking us to trust that He will give us what we need?  That He has the miraculous power to accomplish anything?  Is He testing us to strengthen our faith in Him?

Jesus’ first purpose in testing his disciples was to help them see the hopelessness of trying to feed 10,000 people by themselves.  And that much was accomplished.  Has Jesus accomplished that with us?  Have you been led to see in your life that you can’t do it without Christ?  That we are lost without Him?  Have you been led to see that you need God’s help?  That we really need to put it in God’s hands?  Good. 

But Jesus’ test did not lead the disciples to the solution He wanted them to reach.  He wanted them to see that even though they couldn’t do this thing on their own, God could do it for them.  He wanted them to come to Him for help.  Trusting that He could do what was needed.  God wants us to do the same – come to Him trusting that He can do what we need Him to do for us.  Because in our text Jesus showed the disciples what He was capable of!  Amazing miracles!

One day a woman cleaned out leftovers from the refrigerator. She gave the one remaining portion of tortellini to their 6-year-old son, Jeremy. Their 8-year-old son, Matthew, also wanted some, so bickering ensued. After several unsuccessful attempts to mediate the dispute, the father decided on a theological approach. Hoping to convince Jeremy to share his portion with Matthew, he said, “Jeremy, what would Jesus do in this situation?”  Jeremy immediately responded, “Oh, Dad, He would just make more!”   He certainly could, couldn’t He!

Jesus, God’s Son, has the power to do anything.  He can miraculously take care of our physical needs, if that is what is best.  In our text, we watch in awe as He throws a feast for about 10,000 people with a couple fish and a few small rolls.  A miracle!  A big one!  I mean, these were hungry people.  And there were leftovers!  You know what that tells us?  When God does things, He does them big!  His power is huge!  His grace is amazing!  He can do more than we would ever expect!  The leftovers from this feast point us to the magnitude of God’s generosity.

Hey, if He can do that, then can’t He throw us a million bucks?  Can’t He give me a nice house?  A great job?  A church building for Cross of Life?  Can’t He go straighten out our government?  Give us a comfortable life?  Of course He can!  He can do anything!  But do you think this is why He came here? Well, the people whose bellies He filled with fish and bread did.  They thought, this is nice, being fed and all, and not having to pay for it.  All we had to do was sit down and be served.  Didn’t even accept tips.  I could get used to that.  Let’s make this guy our leader and follow Him and we will never have to cook again!  No more dishes.  Maybe He can fix that hole in my mud-thatch roof, and hey, I bet He could even help us with the Romans!

You can see how people drew the wrong conclusions from the wonderful miracle Jesus did for them.  We do too, don’t we?  Sometimes we want God to take care of us in ways that wouldn’t be good for us.  We get caught up in the gifts He gives us that are less important than what we really need from Him.  We love it when our bellies are full, but what about our souls?

There’s a legend about a lighthouse keeper who knew that there were poor people living nearby, in hovels, who were cold at night because they couldn't afford oil for their heaters. He pitied them greatly, so he doled out to them the oil that was meant to keep the light lit. The people were a little warmer for a while, but the great light eventually went out, and, as the result, there was a shipwreck, and hundreds died. It illustrates how we can be so concerned with meeting people's immediate needs, that we neglect their larger needs. We need oil to keep us warm, but we also need a light to show us the way. We need bread, but we also need the Word of God.  That’s what Jesus wanted them to know.  And that’s what He wants us to know.

Jesus wanted to lead that crowd, his disciples, and you and me, to a trust in Him for our most important needs – spiritual needs.  Jesus fed this huge crowd with a little boy’s lunch, and there were leftovers!  That tells us God is generous when He gives!  This is the same God who wants us in heaven with Him!  The same God, who, in spite of how little we have trusted Him, in spite of how we have acted in our lives and grumbled and fought with each other, loved us anyway.  And the grace He showed us was HUGE!  It was more than 12-basketfuls-leftover-huge!  It was giving-up-his-own-Son-huge!  It was paying the price for the billions of sins you have committed so that you would be right with God and go to heaven huge!  That is the solution that Jesus, the bread of life, offers!  That is the solution, the only solution, that gets us into heaven.  Forgiveness and life through Jesus!  That is the solution that He wants us to come to Him for and trust in Him alone for!  That is the solution that is yours free of charge!  Have a seat in the grass!  It will be served to you!  You don’t even have to tip!  We have a generous God!

In his best selling book called, “Into Thin Air,” Jon Krakauer relates the hazards that plagued some climbers as they attempted to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Andy Harris, one of the expedition leaders, stayed at the peak too long and on his descent, he became in dire need of oxygen.  Harris radioed the base camp and told them about his predicament. He mentioned that he had come across a cache of oxygen canisters left by the other climbers but they were all empty. The climbers who already passed the canisters on their descent knew they were not empty, but full.  They pleaded with him on the radio to make use of them but it was to no avail. Harris was starved for oxygen but continued to argue that the canisters were empty.

The problem was that the lack of what he needed had so disoriented his mind that though he was surrounded by something that would give him life, he continued to complain of its absence. You might say that the very thing he held in his hand was absent in his brain. The lack of oxygen had ravaged his capacity to recognize what was right in front of him. What oxygen is to the body, the Bread of Life is to the soul.  Many of us may be suffocating and starving and we don’t even know it.  Jesus is offering life to us while we run around trying to appease our appetites.  Unlike the disciples who failed that test, let’s make sure we turn to Him for the real solution that we all need in life.

His love.  His grace.  His forgiveness.  His wisdom for our lives.  His miraculous power.  His promise to make everything that happens in our lives serve our good.  It’s all right here with Jesus.  It comes to us through his Word.  The solution is standing right next to us.  Let’s not try to run around and figure it out ourselves.  Let’s not be led to despair, because on our own, things are hopeless.  Let’s Put It In God’s Hands!  He is reaching out to you, waiting to help.  Let Him be your solution.   Amen.

 

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