S121P11 – The Savior’s many faces: the great multiplier
Mt. 14:15-18
When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to Me.”
I think we sometimes forget the humanity of the disciples and how that humanity sometimes fogged and distorted their view of the Lord. They were men, and He was a man, and that seemed to oppose his diety. These guys had an intimate friendship with the Lord, a fellowship of brothers who lived a nomadic life dependent on each other and the Father. Jesus got cold as they got cold. Jesus got hungry as they got hungry. The Lord they followed experienced the same natural needs and struggles as they, and even though they saw him perform incredible miracles, it seems they often forgot that Jesus was more than just a man as they were.
Jesus here poses a new kind of assignment [or challenge] to his disciples. He had sent them out earlier in pairs to do what they saw him do. They had been commanded to heal the sick and deliver the demoned possessed, and we can assume that they returned having completed some such miracles. This new task, however, was something they had not seen done. They had barely enough food for themselves, and Jesus was telling them to feed thousands. He presented them an opportunity to operate in the miraculous or at least ask how this could be done, but they instead simply looked at the physical reality of their situation and bowed to that. Jesus, on the other hand, responded to the opportunity to showcase his Father’s power.
The disciples certainly lacked discernment here in not recognizing the opportunity before them to perform a great miracle. They could have worn the face that Christ wore here, that of the great multiplier, but they did not see the option before them. This passage talks about bread and fish, but this idea applies to much more than that for us. When we see ourselves lacking in any area of life, God’s power of provision can take what looks like nothing and make it more than we need. Whether a penny, a grain of rice, or a cup of water, the Lord can multiply it to yield more than we would even think to ask. Father, we praise You for this miraculous power of provision and for the ability to walk in this power as your Son did.