In Mark chapter 6, you'll find the story of Jesus feeding thousands with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
Of course, this is a pretty incredible story and I am sure you have heard it before.
Something else caught my attention in this story though that I had never heard or noticed before.
It says (in my paraphrasing, go read it!) that Jesus' disciples were out teaching and spreading His word. They came back and were telling Jesus of all the things they had done. The place where they were talking to each other was crazy/busy though; there were so many other people around they didn't even have time to eat.
So Jesus told his disciples they all should go and find a quiet place together. So they all left on a boat.
But many people saw them leaving.
(read verses 30-33).
Who were these "many people" that saw them?
We find out later that the "many" numbered about 5,000.
All these people ran towards where they could see the boat was going. That is crazy.
5,000 people running to a deserted place together. As soon as the boat landed though Jesus saw them all and felt compassion for them. In verse 34 he said about those people, "they were like sheep with no shepherd."
Jesus then did what he usually does, he started teaching.
These people were insane, dedicated, confused, crazy, determined. At least in my opinion, they had to be to do what they did.
This led me to ask myself a few questions:
Would I have been one of those thousands?
Would I have just stayed back and thought,"eh, I'll just listen to Him some other time, when he gets back"?
I think these 5000 crazy runners add so much to the story. It's not like they were just chilling and Jesus came and taught, then fed them. No.
They ran after Jesus. They were determined. They were crazy. They wanted to hear him that bad. They were dedicated.
This is what led to a miracle of Him feeding them with 5 loaves and 2 fish.
5,000 crazy determined people broke the heart of God that day.
No comments:
Post a Comment