John 6:1-12
Jesus had gone across the sea of Galilee, and as was usually the case whenever He went anywhere, "a great multitude followed Him." Why was it that people flocked in such numbers around this poor man--a man so poor that He had no home, no place where He could lay His head?--It was because He had something to give which they wanted. It was not food or money, although even in His poverty He did give those things; but such gifts were only secondary; the people could work and earn money, and buy bread, but He gave them freely that which money could not buy. They followed Him "because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased." He had a message of power, words of life,--and people were drawn to Him by an attraction which they could not understand or explain.
When Jesus saw the multitude around Him as He taught (for there were not fewer than five thousand men, besides women and children), He said to Philip, but in the hearing of all the disciples, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" Philip made a hasty calculation, and said; "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone of them may take a little." Remember that the purchasing power of money was very different then from what it is now. A penny was the ordinary wage for a day's labour. (See Matt. 20:1, 2) Two pence was a good deposit toward the lodging and care of an invalid at an inn. (See Luke 10:30-35) Two hundred pence would therefore buy a great quantity of bread, yet not enough so that each one of the company could have just a taste, and Philip could see no way of helping the hungry crowd.
It was very evident to the disciples that no matter how great the need of the company, and how disposed they themselves were to assist them, the thing could not be done. So they said to Jesus, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals." (Matt. 14:15) But even if this were done, many must have gone hungry, having no money to buy with. "Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat." Again the business sense of the disciples was brought into requisition, and they looked over their resources, and found so meager a supply that it was useless to speak about it. Peter, acting as a spokesman for the twelve, said, "There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?" Clearly nothing could be done. "Oh, no; it is useless to talk; we should like to feed these hungry people, but we have nothing worth mentioning to do it with; we have carefully considered the situation, and it is absolutely impossible to do anything. Oh, if we only had means!"
All this time Jesus "Himself knew what He would do." The business calculations of the disciples, and the demonstration that they were in too straitened circumstances to allow of their doing anything to help, did not effect Him in the least. He was not discouraged at the prospect. Five loaves and two fishes? Oh, that is an abundance! "Make the men sit down." Everything must be orderly. We don't want any pushing and crowding, any unseemly scramble for the over now of food that is to be provided. There must be no chance for some weak, timid person to be overlooked. Moreover there must be quiet, so that all can have opportunity to think upon the wondrous gift of God, and upon the Giver. Let the men be still, that they may recognize God. So the men sat down, "and Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, He said unto His disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten."
Here is the story complete; only a few of the lessons that it teaches can be noted at present. For the first we may see the tender compassion of Jesus on the poor and needy. His heart was and is always touched by the sight of human need and suffering. Everything moves Him. He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." But He doesn't rest content with mere pity and expressions of sympathy. He wastes no time in regrets that He is not able to help; but from His abundant fullness He supplies the want. His sympathy is practical, and always accomplishes something. He sympathizes; He longs to do something to help; He knows what He will do; and He does it. He knows the need; He cares for it; and He is able and willing to relieve.
The Lord allows us to realize our helplessness. His question, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" was calculated to emphasize the great need and their lack of means. But remember that the question was not one of doubt. "He Himself knew what He would do." Let this case, then, stand as the type of all. How often we have felt our hearts stirred as we have seen poverty and suffering, and have longed to help, and have mourned our inability. Now that desperate situation, that was made so vivid to us, was only the repetition of the Lord's question to Philip, Whence shall we supply these hungry souls with food? And just as the question was asked then to prove the disciples, so the desperate need is set before us so vividly in order to prove us. How often we have been tested in this manner, and yet we have not learned the lesson. May we begin now.
Jesus would not send people away hungry. He would not allow the disciples to do so. He always feeds the hungry. Therefore we may be assure that when we allow people to go away hungry for food either for the body or the soul, we ignore or deny the presence of the Master among us. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." (1 John 2:6) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father." (John 14:12) "They need not depart; give ye them to eat." Why did Jesus say that?--Because it was so. Jesus did not trifle with the disciples. He knew what He would do; the question was, Did they know what they would do? Yes; they knew that they would send the multitude away empty; but they did not need to. His question to Philip was for the purpose of proving him, and the rest of the disciples as well. The words of Jesus show that if they had but recognized their opportunity they might have fed the multitude the same as He did. And the lesson is recorded for our sakes.
"How can we give when we have nothing?"--Just the same as Jesus did when He had nothing; for He did not do anything while here on this earth, except as man.
"Yes; but it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, and it was of the abundant fullness that was in Him, that He fed the multitudes." Very true; "and of His fullness have all we received." (John 1:16) The same Christ is alive today, and dwells among us; and if we but allow Him to dwell in our hearts by faith, we shall also "be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:19) What a marvelous manifestation of the power of God's grace! that having nothing we should be able to give everything. "We then as workers together with Him beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain;" and we approve ourselves as the ministers of God, "as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." (2 Cor. 6:1, 10) Peter and John found a man at the gate of the temple in sore need. He asked for money, but Peter had none to give him. This did not, however, make it necessary for Peter to pass by with a sympathetic greeting and a remark, "Poor fellow! how I wish I could do something for him." No; Peter gave the man something better than money,--something that money could not buy, but that which would enable him to get money if he needed it. When all God's professed people have Christ's abiding presence through the Holy Spirit, as a reality of which they are conscious, they will never pass a needy soul by without supplying more than he asks or thinks to receive.
God gives us richly all things to enjoy. "He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." (Acts. 17:25) Everybody therefore has everything given to him. Most people, however, do not recognize the gifts of God. Not only do they not know God as the Giver of every good and perfect gift, but they do not know how abundantly He gives, even when they know that He does give something. II is the business of God's servants, therefore, "to open the blind eyes" (Isa. 42:7), that men may know the boundless grace of God, and the gift by grace. They are to be "good stewards of the manifold grace of God." (1 Peter 4:10) But oh, how sad it is when those who profess to know God are themselves blind to the riches of the glory of their inheritance. Who is there of us who has not discounted the words of Jesus, and the lessons that He has left us, so much that they have scarcely any more meaning to us than as mere stories? Shall we not learn?
As we have freely received, so are we freely to give. That is, we are to give as much as we have received, and on the same terms. We have received everything; we are to give everything. The fact that we do not have a big stock to carry about with us to exhibit, does not prove that we have nothing. God is our treasure house. "The unsearchable riches of Christ" are all and always "in Him," for "in Him are all things created," and "in Him all things consist," and He is ours. He saves us the trouble of looking after and caring for our vast property, while we have all the use of it on demand. He says, "Concerning the work of My hands, command ye Me." (Isa. 45:11) These are realities, and not empty words.
In all this God is trying to teach the world that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" or seemeth to have. He would have us know, and teach others, that He cares for us, and keeps us. He would have all men know that all things come from Him, so that all may give Him glory, by receiving from Him the things that He gives. True, He has said that the man who will not work shall not eat, but that does not teach us that man must support himself. No man on earth "earns his own living." No man can earn a living. Life is too precious a commodity to be bought with money, or earned by human labour. Life is a gift. God "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." The occasions when He gives us help, when it is manifest that we are unable to do anything for ourselves, are to show us that even where we are most active we simply gather up what He showers down.
Now when Christ's followers rise to their privileges as "workers together with Him," realizing that He was on earth as a representative Man, showing what every child of God ought to do when occasion calls for it, the world will see that there is something better than what this world can give. They will not all believe, but the work that God designs for the world will speedily be accomplished. They will see that poverty does not handicap a man of God; that the expression "rich in faith" is not an empty phrase; and that the poor Christian can do what the wealthy worldling cannot. How to give with nothing is the lesson that God teaches, for He takes the things that are not, when He has a great work to do.
Therefore let us know that a great need only magnifies God's gift. Instead of despairing when we cannot see the way to accomplish a necessary thing, remember that Christ Himself is the way. Yea, He is a "new and living way." With Him at hand, knowing His real presence, we do not need to be worried over "ways and means." When the Lord asked Philip how they could buy bread for the multitude, Philip might well have answered, "Lord, Thou knowest, for Thou art the Bread."
Christ "gave Himself for us," and the reality of the gift is demonstrated in the feeding of the multitude, for He literally gave Himself to them. But as He Himself said, He could do nothing of Himself. It was the Father dwelling in Him who did the works. He comes to dwell in believers, that they may be filled with the fullness of God, so that they may also do the same as He did. We see that the disciples did give the people bread, after all. They took it from Jesus, and gave it to the multitude. That is to show us that we may feed the hungry when we are in touch with Him. Let each servant of Christ take the bread of life fresh from Him, and pass it on.
As Christ gave Himself, so are we to give ourselves. This we can really do when we can say, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2:20) He who does not give himself gives nothing, even though he bestows thousands of gold and silver. He who gives himself (and he can do it only by the grace of Christ dwelling in him), gives everything that any soul can need, even though he has not a penny.
What will then follow?--The same thing that took place with Jesus. Multitudes ran after Him, because He gave them Himself. So "thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee." (Isa. 55:5) If He has glorified thee, then "the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." (Isa. 55:3) All will receive abundantly, but there will be no waste. Doubtless there were many "unworthy" persons in the crowd that day. He fed them all; for He was the Son of the Highest, who "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust." (Matt. 5:45) He even causes it to "rain on the earth where no man is; in the wilderness, wherein there is no man." (Job 38:26) The ocean also, where there is no need of water, receives showers equally with the dry land. So lavish is God with His gifts. Yet there is no waste; for He draweth again all the drops of water to Himself. He gathers up the fragments so that nothing is lost. All comes back to Him, to be again given forth. What if the recipient be unworthy? Know that God does not ask you to give because He needs your help to supply the needy, but that you may be blessed in giving. If it were simply to see that somebody's wants were supplied, God could do that without your appearance on the scene. He allows you to share His work, that you may be partaker of His riches and joy; and this is accomplished for you, no matter what be the character of the one helped. So to him that gives shall there be given. That which he imparts, namely the life of God, will come back to him again, to make him doubly rich. Thus may we be channels for the great stream of life that flows from God throughout all the universe, and retuming to His bosom flows forth again ever fresh and new.
--February 9, 1899