"You provide the food" - Jesus Christ

Matthew 14, Mark, Luke 9:1-17

These stories are read chronologically, and it is so interesting to note that up to this point in Jesus' ministry, it is Jesus only who has been doing the ministry - preaching, healing, miracles, driving out demons, proclaiming the kingdom of God and telling people to repent.

But now Jesus calls the Twelve together and gives them authority and power to do the same! This is part of Jesus' discipleship strategy - first: watch me do it. now: you do it and I'll watch you.
Jesus knew he would be leaving, and the Twelve would carry on the work. But there had to come a time when the Twelve would need to learn these things themselves. Very wise leadership from Jesus.

And so, the story of feeding the 5000, right at that time...and so when the disciples told Jesus to send the people away to find food, note how Jesus cleverly uses this for their learning. Instead of just performing the miracle himself, as he perhaps normally did, he asks them: "You provide the food".

Imagine them freaking out! 8 months of wages Jesus?! are you out of your mind?? Impossible! How often do we feel like this in ministry. When we have to minister out of what we dont have, when the situation clearly can only been resolved with supernatural intervention...

I can just imagine Jesus smiling internally when he said "you provide the food'. This was a test for them. Too easy to get Jesus to do the miracles all the time. They had to step up, this was a discipleship moment. These are the moments when followers become leaders.

In Mark 6 account, it says that Jesus asks them, in response to their unbelief: "How many loaves do you have? Go and see".  Its like they were so stumped with unbelief that he helps them a bit along by saying "Look guys, at least go and see what you have!" Which they do...5 loaves and 2 fish...and at this point, as if the lesson could not be learned any more, Jesus takes over again and performs the miracle. The fact that this was a test is clearly explained in the gospel of John 6:5-6, "When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Phillip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do."

And then straight after this event, Jesus tells them to go ahead and get into the boat to sail to Bethsaida, while he himself dismissed the crowd and went up on a mountainside to pray. Then they face the storm on their own, without Jesus, thinking they would die - but Jesus arrives again in impeccable time to calm the wind and waves and save the day.

WOW. Very clearly - in these 2 consecutive events we see that Jesus is beginning to 'pull away' from them, handing over the reigns, giving them a taste of how it would be when he would no longer be with them. He asked them to feed the 5000....then has them climb into a boat on their own to face the storm...Jesus is very intentional in his leadership strategy. How would they learn if Jesus did not allow them to face these seemingly impossible situations? How could they be men of faith if they did did not face situations where faith would be required?

Therefore for the Christian, in the face of difficulty and seemingly impossibility - rather than walk away or give up in frustration, perhaps difficult situations present an opportunity for faith. For followers to becomes leaders. And perhaps the wonder of it all, is that God allows these things to develop and strengthen our faith.

"You provide the food".
"You sail ahead without me"

Yikes. Christ's school of Leadership, Course 101. And we are all enrolled!