Sermon for January 23rd, 2022: “In His Hands…” (John 6: 1-14)
(Please read Psalm 25 and Genesis 22: 1-14)
Hands are amazing, aren’t they? Take a look at yours now. The hand is one of the most amazing pieces of human machinery: delicate, complex, 65 muscles, 27 bones, 35 joints, all working together in harmony. So complex (in fact) the scientists and engineers cannot replicate it. Hands speak to me of the wisdom of God. When I hold a tennis ball in my left hand and a racket in my right, the result is at best mild amusement, but place those same objects into the hands of Roger Federer, you have poetry in motion, controlled power and 8 Wimbledon titles. Put a paintbrush in any one of our hands… you have a paintbrush, but ask Picasso, Titian or Turner to pick up the paintbrush, dip it in paint, it becomes a masterpiece worth millions…
This passage from John is well-known; so important is it that it’s the only miracle (apart from the Resurrection) in all four gospels. In it we see Jesus asking the disciple Philip to do something which he (Philip) thinks is probably quite stupid, unreasonable and frankly even impossible.
John 6: 1-4: Jesus and his disciples had been on an exhausting tour of duty in and around Jerusalem; many had rejected the claims of Jesus; we can only guess at how tired they felt; it was only natural that they should head for the hills beyond Bethsaida to sit down and talk (about their feelings of grief at the Baptist’s death) and take some much-needed time to reflect on their mission. They needed time out. But thousands follow them to the water; they have seen the miracles, the diseases healed, they’ve seen lives transformed; they’re caught up in the excitement of miracles. We can picture the unexpected guests trooping by the thousands up the hillside toward a band of tired men (Verse 5). Picture the disciples raising their own hands and exclaiming, “Why don’t they just leave us alone?!”
Jesus’ response is to ask Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” It seems a curious question, but they are in Philip’s “neck of the woods”; he would know better than the others where the bakers were, and he couldn’t think of one in the vicinity.
The text says that Jesus asked this question because he was testing Philip. What he didn’t know was that Jesus had it all under control (Verse 6).
It seems almost cruel, but I believe Jesus is asking the disciple some even bigger (basic) questions: Jesus is saying to him, “Philip, I want you to respond with faith and trust to a situation that you think is ridiculous, illogical, and even impossible. What I want to know is whether you will help me to help these hungry and empty people, even if it seems impossible. I want you to step out in faith; I want you to depend completely on God. I want you to put the problem into the hands of God. Put it in my hands! I know that you would like me to outline the plan for you, step-by-step, to point out where the pot-holes are along the road....”
What is Philip’s response? “What you are asking, Jesus, will cost too much, I’ve done the maths, we can’t afford it (Verse 7)! What you are asking has never been done before; what you are asking is impossible.” Don’t we all have something of the Philip about us? I don’t want to pay the price; it’s unreasonable...
Does the Lord Jesus still test us today? I have no doubt that the answer is a resounding, “Yes.” Perhaps you are being tested now; perhaps you face a new challenge in life, a new job or a new ministry and are asking, “God, why are you testing me now?
I suppose the right response would have been, “Lord, I have no idea where we are going to come up with all the food (the resources) we need to feed this ravenous multitude, but because I trust you completely, I’ll show you now a place where we can find bread.”
Instead, Philip’s plan is to send the people away. I’m glad the Lord didn’t send me packing when I came to him; I’m glad he had time for me in his busy schedule!
Andrew’s response is only marginally better, “How far will this go amongst so many?! (Verse 9) The Bible warns us not to despise the small things in life (Zechariah 4:10). The 5 barley loaves were really poor man’s bread (Tesco white sliced as opposed to Warburtons best!); the fish were tiny. This was a boy’s portion…
Don’t we sometimes feel that that what we have (our time, our talents, our treasures) amount to about the same as this small, meagre meal? (Matthew 25: 25) There are times when we feel what we have is useless in God’s service, and that we shouldn’t even offer it up. We minimise – not only ourselves – but we reduce God: we are not anxious to put what we do have in the hands of God. We are paralysed by the size of the task and we don’t know where to look. The disciples still don’t know where to look for their help; it is in their midst. The bread they need is right there, the Bread of Life, the bread that lasts forever! Miracle after miracle…. and they still haven’t got it! They seem to be failing their “mid-term” test!
It reminds me of me, I have to confess – I still doubt that God will provide and yet in his outrageous grace he does, over and over again. When will be learn to trust and obey? Rather than place this dilemma in his hands; they throw their hands up in consternation and want to dismiss the crowd. How often do we walk away from a task that the Lord has given us, from a burden that he has placed on our hearts by the prompting of his Holy Spirit? Maybe more often than we would care to admit! In our OT passage, Abraham (even under the sternest test) always said, “Here I am, LORD!” (Genesis 22: 1, 11)
The small boy was there - with his small meal, he didn’t count for much in the culture of his times; he probably wasn’t even counted in the 5000. It is typical of Jesus that he uses the resources of a social nobody to perform this miracle. What do you (small person) have to bring and place in the hands of Jesus? Remember the poor widow who left her 2 small coins in the offering box, and how these meant more to God than the rich men’s offerings, because she gave what she had, not what she didn’t have! (Luke 21:2) What could God do with that paltry amount? To God that was a royal ransom; to Jesus these loaves and fishes (given freely) were the start of something big; the lad didn’t work out the difficult calculations; if he had done he would have kept the meal for himself! Instead, he brought to the Lord; he personally handed it to Jesus. Take what I have; “Philip, Andrew & the rest of you – look!”
The account in Matthew tells us that Jesus blessed and broke the bread in his hands. He looked to heaven and prayed, he gave thanks simply for the bread (Matthew 14: 19). Jesus shows his dependence on the Father; I’m not asking you to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. I have noticed how keen God is to use broken things and even broken people, people who are seen as foolish and of no consequence.
We live in wasteful times - we throw broken things away; we discard them as useless. The Psalmist says that the sacrifice most acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51: 17). Our wills and our hearts have to be broken and then what we offer (our minds, our hearts, our tongues and our hands too) will be real and acceptable to the Lord, giving without calculation, trusting without minimising the power of God. We have to be broken of our tendencies to receive help anywhere else other than the hands of Christ; broken of the belief that our ways, our means, and our hands are sufficient.
He breaks the bread and hands it directly to his disciples (You feed them!). And they give the food to the crowd; time and time again they go back to Jesus to get what they need to feed the people. They might just have started to believe:
“Everything I need for them, I know, I’ll get it from Jesus!” Or, “It’s not about me making a little go a long way – it’s about Jesus taking my meagre resources and making them stretch, stretch further than I ever believed possible. He wants to use these hands of mine, too!”
Faith in God does not by-pass the disciple; he doesn’t spoon-feed the people; here is a wonderful picture of our job as church: you feed them!
This miracle is really about taking the message of the true bread from heaven and bringing it to the multitude hereabouts; the multitude represent a people who are in bad shape, who are starving and dying spiritually; it is about sheep without a shepherd; people dead in their sins without hope, lost without Christ and without God in the world – people like we used to be – people we know and many we don’t. Jesus is the Bread of Life and he can provide life and supply it for the world (John 6:35). In his hands the resources are there and can be multiplied beyond our ability to imagine.
IF YOU PUT WHAT TO HAVE IN THE RIGHT HANDS, YOU’LL GET AMAZING RESULTS!
I want to ask a question (the same question I have been asking since working on this sermon): Why can’t we do that with God? What would happen – really – if you or I put what we have (our limited means & resources) into the hands of God? What would we witness? What would we experience in our lives, our families, our churches?
Just a few thoughts...
IF YOU PUT WHAT YOU HAVE IN THE RIGHT HANDS YOU’LL SEE AMAZING RESULTS!
MFR
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“One pair of hands, the hands of Jesus, (they look much like yours and mine) powerful and skilled hands of a Master Craftsman and yet most gentle, he held babes in them and blessed them; the cleanest hands ever.
One pair of hands, mighty, yet humble, hands never formed into a fist; hands that held the cup of suffering wrath, hands whose knuckles were white with Gethsemane pain; hands that pray for you even as we speak.
One pair of hands that stilled storms and cast out devils, which touched the ugly and gnarled and fed the empty thousands; hands that were too weak to carry a cross uphill without human help; hands that made the broken whole.
One pair of hands that were pierced because our hands were dirty; hands that flung stars into space; loving and helping hands that have never been withdrawn from you, hands in which you will always be safe.
One pair of hands, the hands of Jesus who brings the impossible within your reach the right hands for you to take, the very hands of God!”