Matthew 14: 13-21
Jesus loved drama as much as we do.....
and drama comes in all kinds of packages. Sometimes it is an hour of TV, sometimes it is 2 hours in a movie theater, and sometimes it is 30 minutes sittin' on the front porch on a summer's evening. Sometimes it comes in the surprise of a shifting paradigm--a sudden difference in how things happen or are perceived. Have you ever been thinking one thing is going to happen, but something very different is what you are suddenly involved in?
That is what happened to the disciples in Matthew 14. Jesus went to a deserted place, but was soon surrounded by 8,000 or so people (5,000 men with their women and children). So, being the master teacher that he was and is, Jesus turned it into a learning opportunity--three learning opportunities in fact.
The first learning opportunity was for the people, who were in a deserted place. Okay-so with 8,000 others it wasn't very deserted, but the deserted place here is actually in their hearts. They all came searching for some kind of healing--spiritual, emotional, or physical--it didn't matter. Jesus could fix it. He was listening in a new way, not the way of the Pharisees or the Sadducees. He was presenting a Paradigm Shift. And he got to work.
The second learning opportunity was for the disciples. As they watched Him work it reinforced what He had been teaching them. As they listened to Him, they understood more clearly. And then they saw a physical Paradigm Shift up close. When He broke the 5 loaves and the 2 fish to feed the 5,000 men and the women and children, creating 12 baskets of left-overs. The Shift? From a little comes much! From one comes full blessing! Sometimes one can do more than many! Big things come from small packages! YES--bigger and more is not better!! Take that, Babylon!
The last learning opportunity comes to us. You see, we can't do the feeding alone. We know we are to serve others, but we must count on Christ to provide the abundance. We may feel like we are still in the working part of the day. We are like Christ at mid-day, still healing, still teaching, moving around the crowds, listening, and helping however possible. And when the evening comes, when the drama settles, we may just get another dramatic event as we watch the sunset from our front porch--for that is when the abundance comes! Our abundance at Hebron is on the way! Keep working, saints!
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