Just put yourself in Jesus shoes for a while. Imagine
you have heard news that someone who is very dear to you has passed on. And
like Jesus, you sought a place of quiet solitude to think through and be by
yourself for a while. And the last thing you would be thinking about would be
ministry. But much to your chagrin, where you were was found out. And your
friends and people, whom you have blessed and ministered to in life, came in
drove to where you are, yearning to hear your wisdom. What would you have done?
This was the precise place where Jesus is, in these
verses. News of John’s death reached Him, he departed to a secluded place for
solitude, somewhat sad and disheartened. And soon He discovered a throng of
people seeking Him out, wanting to be ministered to. What Jesus did was to convert
His sadness into ministry. He did not chase the people away, and then sat there
and mopped over the demise of His cousin and partner in ministry. He channeled
His energy to minister to the people and brought healing to those who were
sick. What a marvelous self-sacrificing Lord!
And when evening came, He even thought of the physical
needs of the crowd. It was already late and the nearest town where they could
get some food for the people was four hours away. It was impossible to get
anything for them to eat. However, he was told by the crowd that there were five
loaves of bread and two fish. In a similar account in John’s Gospel, we are
told that these food belonged to a small lad. So Jesus asked for them to be
brought to Him. He instructed the people to sit all over the field probably in
groups. He then took the bread and the fish, looking toward heaven, He blessed
them, broke the bread and gave them to His disciples to be distributed to the
people. The amazing thing here is that the supply equal the demands. That’s
God’s economy. God doesn’t just add, He multiplies. So everyone had their fill
and were totally satisfied. And when they collected the left overs of broken
pieces, they could fill up 12 baskets full. Matthew tells us that besides the
men, there were women and children that ate and were fully filled.
Each
one of us probably would go away taking different lessons from this account.
Allow me to offer some thoughts here. We should not allow a deep sorrow to
de-capacitate us and keep us from doing what God has called us to do. We should
not disappoint anyone seeking for ministry for a touch from the Lord, even
during the time of our deepest disappointment and pain. Let’s seek avenues to
serve and meet the needs of others despite our own personal hurt. There is no
problem too small that the Lord would not take notice. There is no resource too
little that the Lord cannot multiply to meet the needs of many. What little we
bring to Him could be turn into huge resources to meet the needs of the
multitude. If anyone of us needs to evaluate how much it would cost to follow
Him, take into account what it costs Him to offer His leadership, so that you
can freely follow Him.
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