Remember that TV series, Mission Impossible? I just love that self-destructing mini-cassette player! Instructions were given once – and only once.
Well, I’d like to give you a “Mission Possible.” I don’t want to talk about a mission impossible – but a mission possible! Imagine your little mini-cassette recorder playing the words: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to trust in God for a miracle – a God-sized miracle – in the bold step to move forward without fear – to realize your dreams and goals.”
It is recorded in John 6 where Jesus is performing the miracle commonly known as the “Feeding of the Five Thousand.”
Every miracle that Jesus performed was a marvelous and meaningful miracle. But there are several things about the miracle today that makes it unique and especially significant.
First, it’s the only miracle mentioned in all four gospels. Of all the miracles Jesus performed, this is the only one that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all felt should be included in their respective gospels.
Second, it’s the only account where Jesus asked the advice of another person before He went on to perform the miracle.
And third, it’s the only time that Jesus ever performed a miracle before such a huge crowd.
Jesus had traveled all the way across the Sea of Galilee to get some rest and relief. A huge crowd had followed Him and it was time to eat – and they were out in the middle of nowhere. The sun was setting, evening was coming and stomachs were growling!
The twelve disciples were faced with the unenviable task of trying to feed more than five thousand people with absolutely nothing. You might call it “mission impossible.”
The disciples were convinced that this was, indeed, “mission impossible” – and it would have been except for Jesus. And this miracle proves that with Jesus, no mission is impossible.
There were actually two things that were missing that day. Two shortages. One shortage was obvious and the other was not. The first problem was the crowd lacked food.
Jesus knew their need before they did. It’s not recorded that people had complained about being hungry, but Jesus knew they were hungry – or soon going to be hungry.
The biggest problem was not that the crowd lacked food, but that the disciples lacked faith. Jesus asked Philip a rhetorical question. He wasn’t really asking Philip where to buy food, because He already knew what He was going to do.
Philip gets out his calculator and begins to figure out how much food would be needed and how much money it would cost to feed this large crowd. (Just to buy bread, with nothing else, would take more than six months wages, according to Philip.)
So Philip looks at the size of the task and the sum of the money, and he shrugs his shoulders and says, “Impossible!”
Andrew did a little better. While Philip was running his fingers over his calculator, Andrew went off looking for food. He finds a little boy who brought a lunch of five loaves of barley and two small fish.
Andrew looked at the size of the task, and then he looked at the source of the meal, and he says, “Illogical!”
Now, the reason why there was a failure in Philip’s and Andrew’s faith was because both of them had made the tragic mistake of calculating without God (whatever God is for you).
Don’t we catch ourselves doing the same thing? When an unexpected bill comes in that can break our bank account, do you pray, or do you say, “How am I going to pay this?”
I’m sure that Jesus was far more grieved over the lack of faith than He was the lack of food. A lack of food can never stop a miracle, but a lack of faith can. The disciples had seen Jesus turn water into wine; they had seen Jesus heal many people, and yet they still needed the faith of a mountain to move a mustard seed. They still didn’t get that all it takes is the faith of a mustard seed to move that mountain.
Whenever we doubt God, we’re saying one of two things: Either something is impossible, or something is illogical.
Let’s never doubt what God can do. There is no lack with God! Also, never deny whatever God asks you to give. God is in the multiplication business.
Now remember, there were more than 5,000 people. There were only five loaves and two fish. And yet, when all was said and done nobody could eat another bite.
There’s not a problem God cannot solve. There’s not a hunger God cannot satisfy. There’s not a thirst God cannot quench. There’s not a question God cannot answer.
P.S. You are invited to attend the wild and crazy Follies at The Met on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door ($15) and a spaghetti dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. ($10). It will be a fun time!
Rev. Dan Koeshall is the Senior Pastor at The Metropolitan Community Church (The Met) in San Diego, California, themetchurch.org.
