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

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