John 6:10
"Make the men sit down"
Imagine this scene:
You are with your leader - a doctor - and companions in a place far from civilisation, a desert. You had travelled there by boat and been followed by thousands of people who had heard of the doctor's healing powers. The doctor, being a man of great compassion had healed all who came to him, but it was now almost evening and getting late.
As you are surrounded by all these thousands of people, some of whom are families, and perhaps whose children are starting to cry from hunger, the doctor turns to you and says, 'Where are we going to get food from to feed all these people?'
You look at him in amazement, perhaps shrug your shoulders, maybe you even think to yourself it isn't your problem - but as you rack your brains you answer, 'Not even two hundred pennyworth of bread would be enough to give even a little to each one'. You know that you haven't got the money to feed all these thousands.
You start asking the people nearby if they have any food with them, thinking that maybe they could share it. One of your companions presses through the crowd towing a lad with him, 'Here's a lad with 5 barley loaves, and 2 small fishes - but how's that going to help with so many mouths to feed?!'
You look at each other hopelessly. Some of you urge the doctor to send the people away so that they can get food for themselves from the surrounding villages, but the doctor says it isn't necessary.
'Make the men sit down' he says.
As I was reading this account in John 6 of Jesus feeding the 5,000 I was really struck by this command of Jesus. We have just imagined the scene and the utter impossibility facing Jesus' disciples to feed all these people and yet Jesus tells them to, 'Make the men sit down'!
Jesus is telling the disciples to prepare the people to eat and yet there is no food of any significance to be seen. What must these disciples have been thinking, and what sort of conflict may they have experienced not only within themselves but from the mystified questions of the crowd?!
Does this remind you of situations when you receive a command or message from the Lord, but it seems impossible or futile to carry it out because of what you know of the surrounding circumstances?
How do we react and what do we think in these situations?
Let us continue to imagine the scene here...
You and your companions start calling and organising the people, shepherding them into groups of fifty sat on the grassy ground.
'Could you all sit down please...that's right...you there... move up here, 1,2,3.....49,50....now a few more of you over here...Yes, the Doctor says so...I know you're hungry but he says you don't need to go and buy food, don't ask me how...I don't know how long it's going to take...no, nobody has gone to the villages for food...that's it - all sit down please...hurry up...it's getting late...'
Despite having no knowledge of how these people are going to be fed, you trust and obey the doctor's commands.
Privately you might be thinking, 'How on earth are we going to do this?...if we average one loaf of bread per 10 people, there's well over 5000 here, so that's at least 500 loaves...who is going to have that much bread prepared, and how will we carry it here, and all the people are expecting it now and what if we let them down?'
But perhaps you have a sense of peace and expectancy.
You have seen the miraculous healing powers the doctor has. You remember the time he told some of you to take the boats out when there were no fish biting - you had been overcome and the nets breaking with all the fish. You remember the wedding where they ran out of wine and Jesus turned water into the best wine you had all tasted. Like Mary, Jesus' mother, and her message to the servants at that time you have a sense of 'whatsoever he saith unto you, do it'.
So, in anticipation you continue helping to organise all this vast crowd of hungry people.
Dear reader, you may well know the end of this account - that Jesus takes the 5 loaves and 2 fishes and after thanking his Father for them breaks them into pieces and gives them to his disciples to give out to the people - and the food goes on and on! In fact there was so much food, that afterwards the disciples cleared up 12 basket loads of left over bread fragments!
But when you imagine the scene and think of all the questions and impossibilities does it make us think how we would have behaved and how we behave now in all of our situations?
The disciples could have quibbled, disagreed, questioned, and even complained at the impossibility and hardness of the task of organising 5,000 men plus their families to sit down to eat when there was no food to serve them (apart from the small amount of food belonging to the lad, which you would probably dismiss as having any significance).
It seems to speak to me of situations which we are in, where all seems confusing, difficult, impossible. When our mind goes round and round searching for answers, trying to make sense of the situation.
Has the Lord given you a command which tries your faith?
Perhaps like the 2 fishes and 5 loaves you feel so inadequate for the task. What you have seems so small in comparison to what you are faced with. And yet the Lord indicated he would use this in his consequent command, 'Make the men sit down'.
Do we fight against it?
Do we obey, but grudgingly and reluctantly?
Think of Abraham, immediately getting up in the morning and taking his long awaited for, ONLY son, Isaac, to sacrifice him after being commanded to by God. What an example of obedience and trust!
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Dear reader, whatever situation you and I are in, let us remember that when Jesus asked Philip where they could buy food from to feed everyone we read, 'this he said to prove (test) him: for he himself knew what he would do'.
Is he testing us?
Is he asking us to search around and try to find answers to this situation? Is he asking us to worry, to scheme, to ask everyone we know what they think and what we should do?
Or is he looking to see whether we will turn to him and say, 'Lord, I have no idea how this can be done, it is impossible - or, I'm not up to this Lord, I feel so inadequate, I haven't the ability or strength, BUT, I am trusting thee Lord'.
Whatever situation you are in, whatever seems to lie before you and seems to be the way your Heavenly Father is ordering you to walk, take comfort that he knows what he is doing and what he will do! Remember that he can do and bring great things out of your inadequacy or smallness or difficult situation.
May he help you to trust and obey him as you go forward in your own path of 'make the men sit down', and may you see wonderful things happen in your life as he blesses you.
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