Traditions Examined - Mark 7:1-13 - May 10, 2020

These are the Sermon Notes for May 10, 2020. Watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.

Mark 7:1-13 Traditions Examined

We are returning to the Gospel of Mark, in chapter seven, verses 1-13. What a timely Scripture this is that we are going to examine! I say that because we are living in a time when people are beginning to examine the traditions of the church.

There have been several articles and discussions lately about what it means to “go back to church.” “Church” meaning the event that traditionally happened on Sunday mornings in a church building. Our brothers and sisters in Maine and in various other states now get to do “drive-in” church where everybody just stays in their cars, honk twice to say, “amen,” turn on the windshield wipers to raise their hands in worship, one long honk of the horn because they’ve fallen asleep and are slumped over onto the steering wheel…

This discussion about going back to church and how to do that best is an important one. Every church has traditions and ideas about what church is supposed to be like, CrossRoads Church is no different. But what we have the privilege of doing now in this time where we are not allowed to gather together for corporate worship is to examine our traditions and see if they measure up to Scripture or if they are based just in our own ideas of how we should please God.

Jesus had a similar opportunity in our text today, Mark 7:1-13 where He was confronted by a group of Scribes and Pharisees over adherence to their traditions. So let’s look at that together and see if we can glean any guidance for our own situation as a church family.

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Now this is only part one of a two part teaching of Jesus on the idea of defilement or what defiles a person, and we’ll look at the second part next time. In the first part of Jesus’ teaching here He deals, in a general sense, with the idea of traditions and their motivation behind them.

The first tradition examined is the tradition of ceremonial hand washing before eating. Now to be clear, since we are in the age of diligent hand washing to avoid a virus, the interest here was not hand washing for sanitary reasons. Their concern had nothing really to do with washing off dirt or germs. Their concern was preserving adherence to the traditions of the elders.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The Jews called tradition ‘the fence of the Law.’ It is not the Law that protected the tradition but the tradition that protected the Law!”

We’ve talked about this idea before when dealing with the Sabbath laws. God said to keep the Sabbath holy and that the people were not to do any work on the Sabbath, so in order to protect the Law they put in place specific rules defining just exactly what one could do before it was considered work, how many steps one could take and things like that. 

What began as a desire to keep the Law of God became a law unto itself, an empty law that became even more revered than the Law of God. In fact, in the Talmud, the collection of all these teachings it’s recorded, “It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.”

There were Levitical Laws concerning washing and ceremonial cleanness but the traditions of the elders took those Laws to a whole new level to the point where cleanness wasn’t the point, adherence to the tradition was.

I want to skip down to verse 9 and then we’ll circle back to verses 6-8.

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

The Pharisees had developed their own loophole to God’s commands and this truly exposes what their real concern was. 

Verse 10 says, For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Honoring one’s father and mother was the fifth commandment, our parents who raised us, fed us, and taught us deserve our love and support when they reach old age and need us to do for them what they did for us, and caring for them in this way is a way to honor God by obeying His commandment. 

Paul also wrote about this in 1 Timothy 5:4, 8:

4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God…

And…

8 …if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

But the Pharisees, the traditions of the elders said, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

This is in essence saying something like, “Mom and Dad, I know that it’s not really safe for you to live on your own and I do have that nice big spare room but… The church really needs a place to store the costumes and sets for the Christmas play so you’re just going to have to figure something out for yourselves.

There were no nursing homes, there were no convalescent centers, this was a sentence of poverty and destitution.

What this exposes was that the Scribes and Pharisees had no interest in real holiness, or in real cleanness, it had to do with preserving their own wealth, power, and influence. 

Jesus posed a threat to their influence because people were flocking to Him, He was a threat to their power because he came to give freedom to the captives, and a loss of their influence and power over people was a threat to their wealth and comfortable lifestyle.

Traditions can be a way that some people preserve their own power and influence, and as Matthew Henry wrote, “Corrupt customs are best cured by rectifying corrupt notions.”

6 [Jesus] said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 

But what about us?

Traditions sometimes are based on a misinterpretation of Scripture, sometimes they are added on top of the requirements of Scripture, and sometimes they ignore Scripture altogether!

But not all traditions are bad, so how can we tell the difference? How can we tell if a tradition that we hold, something that we do as a church family is a command of God, or is sinful, or is something totally innocuous, something that is just practical?

Scripture is the key! Does the tradition misinterpret Scripture, does it add requirements on top of Scripture, does it ignore the teaching of Scripture?

We must also be careful to avoid using the rights words but the wrong attitude, just because our description or defense of a particular tradition sounds “bible-ish” doesn’t make it correct.

Does the tradition lead to a feeling of self righteousness, as if our adherence to that particular tradition is what makes us acceptable to God in our minds?

Are we just using worldly philosophies cloaked in religious words?

Are we adding a secondary set of rules as if the plain commands of God are not enough?

True confession: It seems as if I’ve made a career out of bucking tradition and questioning everything the church does and that certainly hasn’t made my life any easier, but I don’t regret it. The truth is that if the Bible is not our true source of how we practice our “religion,” we are only leading people to an imaginary god of our own making.

The One True Living God has made Himself known, He has revealed to the world how we can have a relationship with Him through faith in His Son Jesus Christ and be filled with His Holy Spirit so that we can interpret His holy Word. He has given us everything we need, we don’t need to add to it.

Some traditions we hold are outside the scope of biblical teaching, some may very well be against it, and some may be perfectly in line, but let’s all examine them together as a family so that we can know for certain that our traditions are in keeping with the Father’s instruction through Christ and His Apostles so that as we move forward as a church family we bring honor and glory to Him alone.

Amen.

NH Stay at Home 2.0 update - May 1, 2020

A Stay at Home 2.0 update from Pastor Heath.

The Most Embarrassing Lesson - Mark 6:45-56 - May 3, 2020

These are the Sermon Notes for May 3, 2020. Watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.

Mark 6:45-56 The Most Embarrassing Lesson

Last week we looked at Jesus feeding the five thousand and how that miraculous event was really aimed at teaching the disciples a lesson in humility. They had returned from a successful missions trip where they had preached and cast out demons and healed many who were sick in Jesus’ Name, and then when faced with an inconvenient hungry crowd Jesus challenged their pride in their accomplishments and said to them, “You feed them.”

Jesus proved to them that the power to accomplish His work on the earth came from God and not from them, that they were merely clay pots that the Lord had chosen to manifest His power through. Unfortunately for them, Jesus was not finished teaching them this lesson.

We are going to pick up Mark’s account in Mark 6:45-56 and we are going to look at, what I think, is the most embarrassing and humiliating moment in the Disciples’ lives.

45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. 

53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

Before we go too far, I want you to consider what is missing from Mark’s account. I’m sure many of you have heard of Jesus walking on water but who else is usually included in the story? Peter, right?

In Matthew’s Gospel he includes Peter asking Jesus to invite him out on the water in order to prove that it’s really Him, and, of course, Peter takes his eyes off the Lord and focuses instead on the wind and the waves and began to sink. Peter cried out to Jesus and He saves him and they both get into the boat.

Now, you have to remember that Mark is recording Peter’s recollection of these events. This is most likely why this part of the story is left out, either because Peter didn’t want people to get the wrong idea and think too much of him, or he was embarrassed by his failure.

Either way, there was enough embarrassment to go around.

After everyone had eaten their fill and the disciples picked up the twelve basketfuls of leftovers Jesus compelled the disciples to get into their boat and go to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd.

I’m sure the disciples didn’t want to go without Him and that is apparent in the language there, “He made His disciples get into the boat and go…” But they went and paddled off for the other side of the lake.

Jesus remained and dismissed the crowd, then went up on the mountain to pray. “Mountain” is a generous word especially compared to the White Mountains where we live, nevertheless, He went up on the hillside to pray.

And He prays until about the fourth watch of the night there on the hillside where he can see the disciples struggling against a headwind down on the lake and He decides to go to them, walking on the water.

Now imagine yourself in the disciples’ shoes, or sandals, I guess.

The disciples had just witnessed the glory of God manifested in the feeding of five thousand men with the equivalent of a tuna melt. In fact, they most likely had the twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread and fish in the boat with them. And when Jesus comes to them in the fourth watch of the night, that’s somewhere between three and six in the morning, when He comes to them walking on the water, how do they respond?

…when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified.

They thought He was a ghost. They thought the same as King Herod thinking Jesus was the ghost of John the Baptist.

They had just been on a spiritual mountaintop and fallen off a cliff!

The scholars say it like this: “The disciples did not properly consider the glory of Christ which was exhibited in the multiplication of the loaves…”

I say it like this: what a bunch of morons! They had full bellies, and most likely full baskets of bread, all by Jesus’ hand and now when they see Him walking on the water they freak out and think he’s a ghost! What on earth is their problem?!

49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. 

So, what on earth was their problem? Their hearts were hardened, they were literally unwilling to learn and accept new information, they did not yet recognize that Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God.

Even after Jesus got into the boat and calmed the wind, even after they recognized that it was truly Him and not a ghost, they were, “utterly astounded,” completely flabbergasted as Ray Steadman put it.

The fact of the matter is regardless of what they had seen Jesus do or what they had heard Him say they still did not know who He really was. They were blinded.

53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

Even after they landed at Gennesaret, just south of Capernaum, people flocked to Jesus for healing, but, like the disciples, their understanding of who Jesus is was limited only to what He could do for them right then. To even touch the hem of his garment brought healing to the sick. He met their immediate need but what about their eternal need?

And what about the disciples? How did this bunch of dim-witted, dull-eyed, dopes go on to change the world? There are cities named after these men all over the world because of what they did, so what changed?

Fast-forward a year or so to Acts chapter 2…

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” 

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 

17 “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.     19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ 

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ 

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Peter, the disciple too embarrassed to include his failure at walking on water in Mark’s Gospel preached this message and about three thousand souls came to Christ in faith. 

What was the difference? The presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

John Calvin wrote, “It is no new thing if men have their eyes closed against the manifest works of God, till they are enlightened from above.”

When people are enlightened from above by the power of the Holy Spirit they are given new eyes to see, new eyes that are no longer blinded to the purposes of God in their lives and in the world.

May we see the world with new eyes, may we seek the Lord with new eyes.

Amen.

The Real Hero of Your Story - Mark 6:30-44 - April 26th, 2020

These are the Sermon Notes for April 25, 2020. Watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.

Mark 6:30-44 The Real Hero of Your Story

Good morning! We are returning to the Gospel of Mark this morning with chapter six, verses 30-44, and we are going to look at Mark’s account of one of Jesus’ most famous miracles, the feeding of the five thousand.

As I’ve said before, there is a great deal of intentionality and strategy in which accounts are included in Mark’s Gospel and this account is no different. Unfortunately, the lesson of this text is often missed. Maybe it’s only me that’s missed it, but either way, it hit me between the eyes in my study this week.

Before we read out text, let’s remember that Jesus had sent out the Twelve two by two and proclaimed that people should repent, and cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. Here in verse 30, we see what happens when they all return from their wildly successful missions trip.

30The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

So here we have Jesus and His disciples, called apostles here for the first time. (The word “apostle” means “one who is sent,” like an emissary or a missionary.) 

The apostles come back with this great report of all the preaching that they did, the demons that they cast out, and the people that they healed and they were exhausted. 

Jesus was very popular at this time, there was a lot going on, a lot of people coming and going, Jesus’ name was known all over as we saw last week. There wasn’t even time to stop and eat!

Jesus offers the best suggestion, “Let’s go camping!”

This exposes an important ministry reality: it’s tiring. An equally important ministry reality is that real rest is important, but is often hard to come by. I hope that our time in lockdown is giving you ample opportunity to rest, this time is a gift!

Jesus and the Apostles get into their boat and sail along the shore to a desolate place, out of town, in the wilderness. But as they are going, as they are sailing along people on shore recognize them and take off on foot to where they assumed that they were headed so that they could get more of Jesus. 

I can hardly blame them! How many miles would you run to get some time with Jesus?

So what began as a restful camping trip turned into another ministry opportunity for Jesus. And this, I think, is the popular message from this passage: where we see problems Jesus sees potential.

And that idea is not wrong exactly, every obstacle we face in life is an opportunity for the Lord to show Himself strong, and Jesus certainly did in this instance, but I don’t think that’s the main message here in this text.

Jesus has compassion on this crowd, He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, He saw a scarcity of good teaching, He saw the hunger of their souls not just of their bodies. He also knew that He Himself was the solution for their problems.

The Apostles however, only saw the problems. They were exhausted and hungry already, this huge crowd had rudely ruined their camping trip and now it was getting late and there was nothing to eat for them and all these people. 

So they came to Jesus and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

Now, maybe I’m reading a little too far into this, but Jesus response to their suggestion has got to be one of the most humbling responses He could have given them. We often laugh it off as ridiculous but I don’t think Jesus was joking.

In verse 37 Jesus answered them, “You give them something to eat.”

Why is this statement significant?

Remember that the Apostles had just returned from their very successful missions trips where they had preached and healed a bunch of people and cast out a lot of demons, Jesus wasn’t there it was only them sent out two by two. 

We have to be very careful with how we view the Apostles at this point, they had almost no clue what they were involved in and Jesus used this opportunity in the wilderness to expose their ignorance, pride, and powerlessness. 

All that demon casting out, all that healing, the power for that did not come from them, not from their own abilities or charisma, all that power came from Jesus. 

The disciples didn’t even have the power to come up with a decent plan to feed the crowd, they didn’t even have the power to trust Jesus to provide a solution to their problem.

These people weren’t starving, this account only spans three or four hours, it wasn’t even evening yet, it was only around three o’clock in the afternoon. 

The Apostles just wanted them to go away so they could rest. 

The real obstacle here in this account is pride.

Augustine rightly said that pride is the sin that is pregnant with all the others. The Apostles were proud of their accomplishments, proud of their success, but they were wrong about the source of their success. 

Their success didn’t come from their own power, it came from Jesus. 

This was exposed when Jesus said, “You feed them,” but they couldn’t, they didn’t even have enough money to buy bread for everyone to even have a little. 

They were powerless. But Jesus is all powerful.

He asks them what they do have, how many loaves? When they had found out, they said, “five loaves, and two fish.”

39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.

In verse 41 after Jesus said a blessing, he broke the loves and gave them to the disciples. There is something very important about the word “gave” that is not clear in our English translations. 

The verb, “gave,” is in the “active, imperfect” tense. 

If it were translated literally it would say that He broke the loaves and gave them and continued giving them to the disciples. The loaves were multiplied in Jesus’ hands and the disciples had to continually return to Him for more bread to serve the people.

The disciples were ministers of Jesus’ divine power by submitting to Him and serving the bread. Their problem was that they weren’t yet looking to Jesus as the divine source, they still saw themselves as the heroes of their own stories. We’ll see in next week’s passage that they still didn’t understand this lesson.

We are faced with the same problem. On Easter Sunday we talked about how the Bible is not just a collection of random stories but is one long story of God’s work of redemption with Jesus as the hero. 

Our stories are no different, they are stories of God’s redemptive work in us and in the world. But all too often, just as the disciples did, we see ourselves as the heroes of our own stories but we’re not, Jesus is!

We have two advantages that the disciples did not at this point. 

One, we can see how the story ends, at least their part in it, we have the perspective that they lacked in this moment. 

The second advantage, through faith in Jesus Christ, is that we are filled with the Holy Spirit who guides us and helps us make sense of God’s Word, at this point the disciples did not, they were not filled with the Holy Spirit until the Day of Pentecost after Jesus ascended back into heaven.

Though we have these advantages, we often have the same problem, we see ourselves as the heroes of our stories instead of Jesus, we see ourselves as the source of our successes, our talent and hard work and tenacity, when, as James put it, “every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights.”

One of my favorite verses sums up this account and this lesson perfectly. 2 Corinthians 4:7, “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

The disciples hadn’t figured this out yet, I hope that we all will.

Let’s pray.