To Believe in Jesus – Part 60

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:7-10

7ཕི་ལིབ་ན༌རེ། དངུལ་སྒོར་ཉིས་བརྒྱ་བཀོལ་ནས་ཉོས་པའི་བག་ལེབ་དེ་དག་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལ་ཅུང་ཙམ་རེ་བགོས་ཀྱང་འདང་བ་མིན་ཞེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 8དེ་ནས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ལས་སི་མོན་པེ་ཏྲོའི་སྤུན་ཏེ་ཨན་དྲི་ཡཱ་ན༌རེ། 9འདིར་བྱིས་པ་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་དེའི་ལག་ཏུ་ནས་ཕྱེའི་བག་ལེབ་ལྔ་དང་ཉ་གཉིས་ཡོད་ནའང་མི་འདི་འདྲ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་ལ་བགོས་ཀྱང་འདང་ངམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ན། 10སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་མི་རྣམས་ས་རུ་སྡོད་དུ་ཆུག་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།། གནས་དེར་རྩྭ་སྔོན་སྐྱེས་པ་བཟང་ལ་མི་རྣམས་ས་རུ་བསྡད༌ཅིང༌། སྐྱེས་པའི་གྲངས་ཀ་མི་ལྔ་སྟོང་ཙམ་ཡོད༌པ་རེད།

John 6:7-10

7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

 

Continue from previous post, this happened during Passover when the people were expected to be at the Temple but instead came to Jesus.

Jesus knew they came to seek Him as they saw those miracles He did before and were in need of help. And Jesus in His act of compassion fed the multitude for He knew they were hungry and in need of food.

The gospel writer John recorded this conversation between Jesus and two of His disciples, Philip and Andrew, showing us how these disciples related to their master and something worth learning for us as we look to Jesus as our Master and Lord.

 

Master and Disciple Relationship

 

There were no arguments or any expression of intention to go against their master’s will to show compassion to feed the multitude but meaningful and constructive feedback and responses.

Philip in response to Jesus’ question “where to buy bread” disclosed the cost involved, an estimate of that day how much money they would need for the numbers of people.

Philip did not response with scorn and disbelieve but accepted it was Jesus’ intention to feed the multitude but a question of having the money to buy enough bread for everyone.

The next disciple mentioned was Andrew who already identified a boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Apparently that boy was willing to share his food but Andrew highlighted what any of us would have thought of as well – not enough for everyone.

What we can observe here was that Jesus, although He knew what He was going to do to feed the multitude, first tested His disciples about their opinions, their perspectives, and how they would response.

So Philip’s response seems to suggest yes they agree to feed the multitude but they had limited budget at that moment. Andrew got a boy who was willing to share his food but surely that portion was not enough. So the point is, they agree with Jesus and wanted to follow through with the master’s wish but they have limited resources. That was the fact and reality they were dealing with.

So it was back to their master to make any final decision!

Previous post I mentioned the purpose of testing Philip was to refresh his memory and together with the rest of Jesus’ disciples they might had remembered what other miracles Jesus had done before.

When Andrew brought the boy with five barley loaves and two fish to Jesus, I believe there was the intention to see if their master could do something He did before. Back in John 3 when Jesus turned water in to wine, His disciples were there and they knew what Jesus did.

So after how the disciples responded to Jesus here in John 6 before the multitude of hungry folks, Jesus gave the order –

 

10སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་མི་རྣམས་ས་རུ་སྡོད་དུ་ཆུག་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།། གནས་དེར་རྩྭ་སྔོན་སྐྱེས་པ་བཟང་ལ་མི་རྣམས་ས་རུ་བསྡད༌ཅིང༌། སྐྱེས་པའི་གྲངས་ཀ་མི་ལྔ་སྟོང་ཙམ་ཡོད༌པ་རེད།

10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

 

In previous post I mentioned the actual numbers could be at about 20 000 or more as the custom of that time to count only the family men as head of households and with average family units of 4 or more.

That is a lot of people to get organized! I mean how does anyone do crowd control with about 20 000 people and expect them to listen and sit down in peaceful manners?

The multitude could had first listened to the disciples’ instructions to sit in order and groups due to their expectation they were going to receive something from Jesus. But I believe the disciples would had felt stressed up, at least some of them, thinking if these hungry folks don’t get their food they might starts to riot!

Nevertheless the disciples did what their master told them to do.

What can we learn here?

Our Father in heaven cares for the hungry?

Presenting our need to our Lord and Savior?

We have limited resources but God can multiply?

That boy could have kept his fish and bread but he gives it and share. His willingness to sacrifice was used of Jesus for good!

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་པོ། 5:6-7

6 དེའི་ཕྱིར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དབང་ལྡན་པའི་ཕྱག་འོག་ཏུ་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་དམའ་ས་བཟུང་ཞིང༌། དུས་ལ་བབས་པའི་ཚེ་ཁོང་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་མཐོ་བར་མཛད།

7 ཁོང་གིས་ཁྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་གཟིགས་སྐྱོང་མཛད་པས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཁྲལ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁོང་ལ་གཏོད།

1 Peter 5:6-7

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

 

Peter reminds the sheep that we have a God who cares for us. We need to present our prayers to God and we need to learn to trust and obey what Jesus had taught us about how to relate to God.

To be continue …

 

David Z