Tag: Jesus

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Will Someone Take Care of Me?

Mosaic of Fish and Loaves at the Church of Multiplication in Tabgha, Israel
Jesus’ miracle in multiplying the loaves and the fish is one of the most well-known in the Bible. There is so much fruit for reflection in this event.

The accounts of Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fish bring us face to face with the most basic question of our existence: how will we be provided for? In spite of all our advances in technology, we still fear interruption of our provision for our lives and well-being.

Even if we are not afraid of having bread and fish, we worry that we will not have jobs, good family relationships, safety, security from foreign enemies, continued freedom, freedom from discrimination, and a good place to live.

On a daily basis, we worry about retirement funds, having enough money to get the things for our children that we need, besides being able to provide for ourselves good things to enjoy like vacations, entertainment, and so on.

There are three different perspectives from which we can view these issues.

The Disciples and Jesus
The first is Jesus and the disciples. The disciples have just returned from a preaching and ministry tour of Israel. When they get back, things are as busy as ever, and they don’t even have time to eat.

At this point, Jesus says, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (v. 31). I love this passage because I imagine Jesus saying this to me at times, and I take comfort in the fact that He cares about that.

When they actually go to rest, the crowds find Jesus and ministry work immediately begins again. How do you react when God interrupts your day, especially a day you planned for rest? If you’re like me, probably not that well.

Do I ever get a break? We might think.

Notice the end of the story, though. Jesus gives them rest: there were 12 baskets left over. Jesus still cares about our rest, even when He interrupts it.

The Disciples and the Crowd
The second perspective is the disciples and the crowd.

At the end of the day, the disciples start to worry. “This is a remote place . . . and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat” (35–36).

They seek to solve the problem for Jesus because of their own worry. Do you ever seek to solve the problems of someone else, even Jesus, when you worry?

Since they want to take the problem, Jesus gives it over to them. He says something very interesting, “You give them something to eat.”

Why does He say that? Does he actually want them to perform a miracle? Does He want them to see their own inability? Is he being playful to calm their anxiety? Difficult to say.

At any rate, as they contemplate the magnitude of the problem, they will have to look to Jesus.

That’s what we’ll often find in life. Our resources are totally incapable of accomplishing what they need to.

What do they need to do in such circumstances? Follow Jesus’ instructions, and something amazing will happen.

Jesus and the Crowd
The problem with Jesus is that He is so perfect that we might wonder if we can even go to Him. We all have shame that makes us want to hide. We all have things that make us unworthy.

The crowd approaches Jesus in the midst of His time with His disciples. What will He do? Mark says that He has compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Luke says, “He welcomed them.”

And He will welcome us, whoever we are, wherever we’ve been, whatever we’ve done.

And through this miracles where He provides for the crowd by multiplying five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand, He shows that He will provide for us.

In Jesus, we have everything we need, and He will welcome us. “I am the bread of life,” He says. “Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:35). In Jesus, we have someone who will satisfy all the deepest longings of our soul.

Conclusion
Jesus has compassion on us, but He also challenges us. He may call us to work when we’re ready to rest. He may not enter into our worry. He may put us in impossible situations.

But that doesn’t mean He doesn’t care. He cares, and He will provide. He will provide for us what we need and do amazing things that we thought could never be done.

There is someone who will take care of us, and He challenges us to trust Him when we don’t know where our provision will come from.

That’s the comfort and challenge of Jesus.

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The Comfort and Challenge of Jesus

“Comfort! Comfort!” These are the words announcing Christmas, the coming of the long-promised Messiah in Isaiah 40.

Isaiah declares immediately after that every mountain needs to be leveled and every valley filled in. The coming of God brings comfort, but it also presents a challenge. Our lives will have to adjust to fit the new reign of God.

It’s not surprising, then, that when we meet Jesus in the Gospels that we find a person who brings amazing comfort but who also presents significant challenges.

He is His own person, has His own goals, is willing to challenge people at almost any time, and is unwilling to get caught up in the torrent of our emotions. But He also stays connected; welcomes everybody; and provides help, blessing, and comfort beyond our wildest expectation.

The account of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4 is an illustration of the comfort and challenge of Jesus.

After a long day of teaching, Jesus is tired and enters a boat with His disciples to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Mark reports, “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped” (v. 37). This was no small or imagined problem. Their lives were in mortal danger.

And what was Jesus doing? “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion” (v. 38). As followers of Jesus, we will often feel like we are in mortal danger, and we will wonder, why isn’t Jesus more concerned about this?

When we feel anxious about a situation, we generally want others to feel the same way. It’s not easy to tolerate a calm presence when we are filled with anxiety. So, what do we do? We’ll try to pull people in, and we’ve got a lot of ways of doing this.

One way we try to bring people into our anxiety is through accusatory questions. The disciples seek to pull Jesus into this situation by waking and asking Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

This is just the sort of question that is designed to awaken our anxieties as parents, pastors, bosses, and leaders. Our response is generally to defend ourselves, to reassure, or to argue.

But that’s not what Jesus does. He actually doesn’t address that issue at all. In essence, He says, “I’m not going to get into that with you, but here’s what I’d like to talk about: why are you so afraid, and where is your faith?”

This is the sort of question that would probably deeply disturb and annoy us. Here we are, we might say, in serious trouble, and you want to challenge our emotions and our faith!

It’s frustrating! Here’s a serious issue, and Jesus is telling us that we should not be afraid and have faith. A real challenge!

The fact is, though, that Jesus does care about them and us, and He is willing to help them. He stands up and responds to the storm, “Quiet! Be still!” –

Remember that at this point the disciples are just beginning to understand who Jesus is. So, they are terrified. The Greek adjective is mega. They are terrified with a mega-fear. They are in total disbelief at what has just happend.

Who is this? They ask. And that’s a great question for us to consider this Christmas. Who is this man? What kind of person is He?

In calming the storm, He not only solves their problems but gives them the key to controlling their anxiety and fear in every situation. Instead of seeing the storm, they need to see Jesus who is Lord above all storms. If they can understand that, then they will have a foundation for faith that can give them peace in the midst of every storm.

That’s why the question that Jesus asks is so crucial. Jesus has compassion on us but doesn’t enter into our anxious responses. He challenges us to have a faith that is the antidote to every anxious response.

So, where are you feeling anxiety this week? What are you anxious about? If you could see Jesus as for you and Lord over the totality of those events that you are worried about, wouldn’t that make a big difference? Wouldn’t that calm our anxious nerves?

But it’s hard to let go. It’s a real act of faith to say that we’ll let go of our own anxious responses and trust Jesus and His solutions.

That’s the comfort and the challenge of Jesus.

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Jesus As Food

This figure that Jesus Christ presents to us under the image of food is itself very full and beautiful, being founded on an almost infinite number of comparisons or relationships that there are between the body and blood of our Savior in regard to our spiritual life and food in regard to our bodily life. At this point, I will not make an exhaustive list, it will be sufficient to notice three that can serve as a door to the others.

First, food is something naturally outside of ourselves that changes into our substance when we partake of it, and it is so absolutely necessary that without it we cannot exist so that the desire for food is violent and insatiable. In the same way, Jesus Christ is a principle of life which is outside of us, but being received by devotion and faith, communicates Him to us in such a way that we are filled with the power of His death and resurrection. Further, this is so necessary for the rest and peace of our consciences that without Him we cannot have any holiness, consolation, hope, or even the least spark of joy or spiritual life. That’s why the anxieties of a soul deprived of this great support are compared by Jesus Christ to hunger and thirst. “Blessed are those,” He says, “who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled” (Mt. 5).

Second, just as there is delight in taking food, since nature wanted to join pleasure to the usage of something so necessary and just as the body feels established and a certain tranquility after eating, so is it with Jesus Christ. The Christian soul cannot meditate on Him without an indescribable pleasure nor receive Him without enjoying a perfect rest.
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