Where He Leads me.
The Feeding of the 5000 gives us a clear picture of Christ and his Church. It is Christ who calls people to follow him, and as they follow, he leads them out of their old life and into a new one. That passing from the one life to the other goes through a desolate place.
When we leave this world behind and still have to live in it, the world becomes a desert to us. It is where we strip ourselves of the old ways and begin learning to walk in the way of Christ. The crowd shows us this by following Christ and being where he is. Before we ever come into our home, we will spend a season that is like the desert, a place where we have nothing because we left it all behind, and where we are left to rely on God alone to provide for our new lives.
It is there that the loaves and the fish teach us how he provides, and that he provides more than what is needed. What is needed is represented in both the number and the material. The five loaves are the five books of the Law, the word of God by which his people are fed. This is the same word Jesus himself feasted on when he was in the wilderness, when he answered the tempter that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Christ feeds his Church in the desert the same way he was fed in the desert. The two fish are the fishermen, the disciples who will be charged with leading the Church to become what Jesus desires, and their teaching becomes the continued guidance of the Church. What the people do not eat is gathered back up and remains in the church, to be taken up and used to feed others later.
Christ cares for his Church and gives them what they need to live in his way. When you go out to come where Christ is, you can be sure that he provides his Church what it needs to live and grow.
What Christ accomplishes in that desolate place with the five thousand is more than nourishment. It is also relationship. He does not send them away to eat. He wants them to stay with him, and if they need to eat, he will supply it. The act of eating a meal together is relational, and in every culture eating together is an act of fellowship and bonding. The Church comes out seeking Christ, and when they have come to where he is, he dines with them.
This is why the most important and intimate thing we do in worship is to show up and commune with Jesus at his table. Communion does more with our relationship to Christ than any heartfelt spiritual song, any personal prayer, or any devotion to scripture can achieve. It is where we meet with Christ in a real way and delight in our relationship to him. It is better to miss out on your quiet time with Jesus than to miss out on Communion. The presence of Christ and our communion with him is more real at his table than at our own.
Notice, too, that Jesus provided everything. The place, the company, the food. I think it is safe to assume that the crowd did not miss their homes and did not think about what they did not have. Even in a desolate place, there was nowhere else they would rather be, and it did not cost them anything but the journey toward Christ. This is the very meaning of the phrase, the best things in life are free. Leaving it all behind, they gained everything they ever hoped for in Jesus.
What we have in this passage is an actual event in the ministry of Christ, written down so that the Church would know what he does with us and for us when we gather in worship and follow him to the place where he is. We are not left to guess at it or to build our life together out of our own good ideas. The Gospel gives us the picture. The Church responds to Christ by going out to where he is, and Christ meets his Church with the word that feeds them, the apostles' teaching that guides them, and the table where they commune with him.
Hearing where Jesus is, will you follow him wherever he leads? Will you follow him out of what is comfortable, what you find safe and secure, what is easier, to the place where he is, and trust him to provide all you need? Have you followed him into the desolate place? This is a pattern with God. In the Old Testament he leads his people out of the places that enslave them, first into a place of destitution, and then into a home. Where are you in your journey of following Christ, and where is this church presently? May we ask of God the mercy and grace to follow him wherever he leads, and to trust him to give us everything we could ever hope or imagine.
Peace be with you,
Pastor Bruce
