To Believe in Jesus – Part 59

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:4-6

4སྐབས་དེ་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་པེ་སག་གི་དུས་ཆེན་ལའང་སླེབས་ལ༌ཉེའོ།།

5དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཡར་བལྟས་པ་ན་མི་ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་པོ་ཁོང་གི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་བཞིན་པ་གཟིགས་ཏེ་ཕི་ལིབ་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་འདི་རྣམས་ལ་ཁ་ཟས་སྟེར་བའི་བག་ལེབ་ཡུལ་གང་ནས་ཉོ་བར་བྱེད་དམ་ཞེས་གསུངས༌ཤིང༌། 6ཁོང་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཛད་དགོས་པ་མཁྱེན་ནའང་ཕི་ལིབ་ལ་བརྟག་ཆེད་དེ་ལྟར་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 6:4-6

4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

 

Continuing from previous post, let’s look into the details of how and why Jesus fed the multitude.

The gospel writer John noted Jesus knew what He would do before feeding the multitude. How did that happen?

The records of John had highlighted Jesus’ relationship with the Father in heaven and how He lived and ministered in obedience to the Father’s will

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:19

19དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར༌སྨྲ་སྟེ། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་དོན་གང་ཞིག་མཛད་པ་བཞིན་སྲས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་དེ་ལྟར་མཛད༌པས། སྲས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པར་ལས་ཅི་ཡང་བྱ་མི་ནུས༌ཤིང༌།

John 5:19

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

 

Jesus was known to be a man of God, a servant of God, even among those who had yet to recognize that He is the Messiah chosen of God during the time of John the Baptist. And those people who came to seek Jesus in person for healing and blessings or even just to hear Him preach knew Jesus to be a person close to God.

We do often read of clashes between Jesus and certain members of the Pharisees and the Temple leaderships namely the Sadducees, but Jesus was well known to be a godly person, and the presence of God could be felt by those who approach Him.

So the writer John noted how Jesus was prepared to feed the multitude and knowing what we had learn about Jesus’ character we can understand He was going to do the will of God to feed the hungry folks.

 

The important point is Jesus did the will of God!

 

This feeding of the multitude was an act of God’s compassion for the poor and needy, and Jesus being obedient to the Father demonstrated the will of the Father to show compassion for the poor and needy.

And we will notice from this incident in John 6, the connection back to the time of Exodus when God fed the nation of Israel with manna. God because of His compassion rescued the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt and provided for them even when that generation failed to show gratitude.

This incident in John 6, these Jewish folks who came to Jerusalem for the Passover, as they ate of the bread and fish provided by Jesus and distributed through His disciples, were they thinking and remembering how God fed their forefathers when they wondered through the wilderness after leaving Egypt? I believe they did.

What seems to be interesting that the author noted this incident was happening during Passover when these Jewish folks who were supposed to be at the Temple but instead moved away from the Temple to seek Jesus. Does that mean the Temple leaderships of that time failed to take care of the needs of these poor people who came to seek God? And if that was the situation it added credibility towards God’s compassion to take care of the poor and needy.

And among the disciples of Jesus, Philip was mentioned in particular when Jesus tested Philip about what to do with these large crowds of hungry folks.

 

Why did Jesus do that to test Philip?

 

I don’t think all the Four Gospel recorded every miraculous feeding by Jesus. I believe there were more incidents of Jesus feeding the poor and needy not recorded in the Four Gospel.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 21:25

25སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཛད་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་ཡང་བདག་གི་བསམ་ཚུལ༌ལ། གལ་སྲིད་མཛད་འཕྲིན་ཐམས་ཅད་རེ་རེ་བཞིན་ཡི་གེར་བཀོད༌ན། བྲིས་པའི་དཔེ་ཆ་རྣམས་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་ཡང་མི་ཤོང་ངོ་།།

John 21:25

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

 

I believe those disciples of Jesus who had followed Him around during those few years of ministries would have seen more miracles not recorded.

I believe when Jesus tested Philip before feeding the multitude, Jesus was refreshing the memory of Philip. Remember back in John 3 when Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding in Cana?

Philip was there at the wedding among other disciples. They knew what Jesus did although they may not fully understand at that time.

How Philip answered Jesus speaks of the obvious human limitations to feed the multitude but apparently Jesus had shown clear determination to feed the masses of people because He knew the will of God to do so and He knew the Father is able to provide.

This testing of Philip was more like refreshing his memory and on many occasions we need to refresh our memory as well.

We need to remember the kindness and compassion of our Father in heaven.

We need to remember what Jesus did for mankind.

We need to remember how Jesus had taught us to observe and do the Father’s will.

To be continue …

 

David Z