Jerry’s Grill: The Replacements
The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded by all four Gospel writers . This makes this event quite significant.
There are many things that could be observed and said about this amazing feat. However, for our purposes, it is worth noting that when our Lord performed the incredible and the impossible, He did not do it alone – He did it with His disciples. Observe:
- In the face of such a great need, He threw the stunning challenge back to His disciples and told them to feed the people.
- He asked Philip where they should buy food even though He already knew beforehand exactly what to do.
- As a result of Jesus’ involving the disciples in the problem solving process, Andrew was the one who found the boy with the bread and fish.
- After He had received the loaves and fishes, He instructed the disciples to have the people sit down in groups of about fifty each.
- After he had given thanks to the Father in prayer for the loaves and fishes, He broke them into pieces and gave these to the disciples so that they would go out among the people and distribute the miraculously multiplying rations.
- After the people had eaten their fill, he again instructed His disciples to gather up the scraps, of which there were an incredible twelve basketsful! The lesson for this, lest it go unnoticed, was plainly stated by Jesus – “Let nothing go to waste.”
What was happening here?
Jesus was intentionally exposing His disciples to the realm of the impossible to prepare them for the time when they, no longer He, would do the same.
He was raising up His successors, His Replacements.
The human body is designed to keep replenishing and renewing itself with fresh cells and tissue to replace the millions we lose everyday as we go about our daily lives. The Body of Christ is the same. We lose hundreds of thousands of “cells” to time and death. But the Lord raises up new ones in every generation.
What are we to do then? We are to be about the business of seeing to it that these “new cells” are properly cared for, trained and equipped to be about the Father’s miraculous business. There is a word for this enterprise: “Discipleship.”
ICS, let us be about discipling our brethren for their greater use unto our Master’s plans and purposes, and for the glory of His Name.
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