What did Jesus do?

Mark 6:37a  “But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

Thank God for blessing us with a great spring bible conference over the past couple of days. Throughout our program, we have learned a lot, but one common theme I want to keep and share with everyone today is discipleship. Of course, we all know it’s important that we should be disciples of Jesus. In fact, as we learned from Isaac’s message, we saw Jesus calling out to us, saying “come follow me,” and we become fishers of men. Jesus gives us a mission to be disciple makers. But let me give you some news…we cannot be disciple makers if we are not even disciples ourselves. But Jesus today shows us what it takes to become one through his power of feeding more than five thousand people with five loaves and two small fish. Throughout my message today, I want you to keep one question in mind: “What did Jesus do?” Let’s go over today’s words.

Look at verses 30-31 (Messenger Read)

For context, the disciples were just out showing the authority of God from village to village. In Mark 6:6-13, we’re told about how the disciples were undergoing a successful ministry, co-working together and driving out impure spirits. But they also heard some terrible news of John the Baptist, as Mark mentions his execution before this passage. As they came back to report all they had done and taught, Jesus knew that they needed some rest here. So he suggests they go to a secluded place to rest and grieve for John the Baptist. However, because of the popularity and fame that Jesus and the disciples had, it was hard for them to even take one small break.

Look at verses 32-33 (Messenger Read)

Before arriving, the disciples were most likely leaving from Capernaum, crossing the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida, and stopping at the area of rest. Jesus and the apostles took a small boat to get away from the crowd, but the fame caught up with them, and even ahead of them, like those crazy kpop fans who like to stalk their favorite singer. They even try to catch them coming out of airports and try to find their home. These people following Jesus are the older versions of those super fans. The followers of Jesus saw them, recognized them, predicted where they were going, and found the exact spot they were landing. When we read this, it seems very burdensome. Maybe mothers can feel like this when kids are ALWAYS asking for food or help or something. Waking up at 6, cooking breakfast and cleaning the kitchen, walking around everywhere, and as soon as you sit down, your child walks up…” Umma, I’m hungry!!” So tiring and exhausting!!! The same feeling must have been felt by the disciples after seeing the whole crowd before arriving at their rest area. But… remember the question…What did Jesus do?

Let’s read verse 34 

When Jesus saw them, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. Many things to unpack here. One thing I want everyone to keep in mind here is Jesus’ response to the crowd. Instead of complaining or shooing them away, he had compassion on them. Compassion is the sympathetic feeling we have when we try to comfort someone who goes through difficult times. It is the feeling of suffering together with one who has any sort of trouble. If someone who’s starving asks for food, one who understands the pain will give food. If someone lost a family member, one who had lost their loved one would have compassion for them and comfort their hard situation from their heart, maybe crying together and giving company. So seeing this crowd, what could Jesus possibly have compassion for? 

The books say many different things. Mark says, “They were like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew chapter 14 says “healed their sick”. John just goes straight to jesus asking the disciples where to buy food. Luke says that Jesus welcomed them and healed the sick. Clearly, this crowd may have had many problems, whether it be spiritual, physical or mental. But Mark gives a good overall statement for their status. “They were like sheep without a shepherd.” This sentence describes their relationship with God as broken. As we all know, sheep are pretty dumb creatures. They need a leader, aka a shepherd, to guide them, otherwise they would be easily snatched up by their predators. Sheep do really well in responding to care by forming strong bonds and following their shepherd, so their existence depends on them, otherwise, they are vulnerable and helpless. Currently, these people were in desperate need of someone to follow, and right now, Jesus met that criteria. Because of the amazing powers that he and the disciples displayed through healing and driving out demons, they felt that Jesus was a great man. They wanted to see more. So he decided to offer comfort, encouragement, and strengthen them. With a welcoming heart, he took care of their needs, trying to teach them, heal them, and overall bring the crowd closer to experiencing the love of God. 

When being a disciple of Jesus, one very important aspect to have is compassion.  But not just for your friends or family. But have compassion on EVERYONE. To be honest, when reading this passage, our first thought about these crowds is “my goodness, leave the man alone. Stop bothering him!!” I want to ask you…Do you have compassion for EVERYONE? Of course, if our friend said their dad died, we would help them as if our own dad died. If one of our beloved missionaries lost a family member, we offer comfort like we also lost a family member. But can we do the same to strangers? With people you haven’t  even interacted with? To be honest…I have some not-so-compassionate thoughts when it comes to people I do not know one bit. Sometimes I judge the shoes or clothes they wear, “Yo what is that dude wearing?” If I see someone who’s trans, my immediate thought is “yo is that a guy?” and I give that person a glaring look. Sometimes, I think to myself with huge pride, “Man, that person can’t guard me in the hoops.” Not once does compassion come to my mind. I become hateful, judgmental, and prideful. If you’re the same and struggle to have compassion, let’s think about our main question again…”What did Jesus do?” 

When seeing the crowd, did Jesus think, “Man, that guy has the worst fit of the century!”? Did Jesus say to his disciples, “Yo, check that person…why is his hair so long?” Did Jesus feel bothered and annoyed, trying to avoid the crowd because they looked like crazy kpop fans who won’t leave him alone? What did Jesus do? Jesus had compassion. And because of this compassion, he taught and showed them the love of God. We must be the same. To be a disciple of Jesus we have to be like Jesus, and to be like him is to have compassion for EVERYONE. We may feel safe because we believe in jesus and see him as our shepherd, but the people we see around us are like sheep without a shepherd, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore them. We have to help other lost sheep come to Jesus, and that way we all roam in the same pen under our holy father and loving shepherd. But we cannot do this without compassion for others. I personally struggle a lot with this. But through this passage, I see that my lack of compassion is not only selfish, but ruins the opportunity for others to hear about the love of God. But because of God’s mercy, I thank God that he opened my eyes to show me that compassion is very important in being a disciple of Jesus. Pray for me that I can have a caring and sympathetic heart for those who are like lost sheep. I pray that we may work together with a compassionate heart to serve God and his ministry. 

Look at verses 35-36 (Messenger Read) 

We saw Jesus’ perspective on the crowd, but now we briefly look at the disciples’ perspective. It was late in the day and the disciples had already done plenty of work around the villages, and Jesus already taught a lot of things. The disciples came to Jesus and told him to send the people away so they could go get something to eat. The books among the gospels say around the same thing. They said, “Send the crowds away so we can go get some food.” If we think about it, this is very logical. Just worked hard all day doing ministry, and there are just simply too many people. They’re hungry and tired. They need some energy at least, right? If I were here, I would say the same exact thing. “Jesus, I need some food, man. I’m too tired for this, let’s take a break…” Back to our question…what did jesus do?

Let’s read verses 37-38 

Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” What a crazy statement. Let’s just put ourselves in the disciples’ shoes here for a second. Imagine you’re in front of Jesus, and to your left, you just see more than five thousand people, which is 100 times the number of people in this room right now, and he tells you, “You give them something to eat.” You’re gonna look at him like he’s the craziest man in the world. I mean, it’s just so hard to even think about doing that. Food right now is a minimum of 5 bucks… so even if food were like 1 dollar… you’re still spending 5,000 dollars!!! Just to feed people whom you know absolutely nothing about. I don’t even give money to people who are homeless, and you’re expecting me to feed five thousand plus? 

As the disciples said, this is just too much. Who can even think about spending that much to help these people? This kind of thinking is the same today. We have compassion for people… which is great. But usually, compassion is given through material things simply because it shows that we’re willing to spend money on another.  But how can we constantly afford compassion? How can we give love to people when we are just simply under too much stress, difficulty, frustration, or financial problems? Maybe what we have is not enough, right? 

Let’s read verse 38 again

A difficult task was given to the disciples. “You give them something to eat.” Jesus knew this was going to be easier said than done. But he was cookin’ up something. Jesus instructed the disciples to find what they had and they ended up finding five barley loaves and two small fish. Mind you, although not specifically said, this was probably ALL they had. With this, they were to go ahead and feed more than five thousand people. If I was there, I’d be looking at Jesus like he’s some crazy guy right now. What’s he about to do with five little loaves and two fish for more than five thousand? I mean that probably can’t even feed half the people in this room. So five thousand people are going to be very interesting. Maybe one speck of bread and a strain of fish will do the job.

As people of this world, it’s very hard to believe that five loaves and two fish would do the trick to feed five thousand. In the same way, whenever we face a hard problem or a personal struggle, it’s easy to question ourselves about how we can overcome this problem. We look at our own current situations, just like these disciples, and think that what we have right now isn’t going to solve anything. I mentioned that to be a disciple of Jesus, we must have compassion for Everyone. But what if we cannot afford this compassion? Is what we have enough to give to our mission work? Is all the money in your bank account enough to give to the students on Rutgers campus? Well…What did Jesus do?

Look at verses 39-44 (Messenger Read)

Jesus instructs the crowd to sit down in groups, each one probably the same size as this whole worship attendance, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looks up to heaven, gives thanks, divides the food, and with the help of the disciples, distributes the food among the 100-some groups. It was enough to feed EVERYONE in the crowd. In fact, there was so much food that the disciples gathered twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread and fish leftovers. The number of people who ate the loaves was more than five thousand.

Can we just all agree that this is some amazing work of God that we read here? What seemed impossible was made possible through the power of God. With five small loaves and two fish, Jesus was able to feed more than five thousand people. This is truly amazing work, but what can we personally learn from here? Maybe we can all feed five thousand people without paying a single dime with amazing, delicious Korean BBQ? 

Here, we see the steps Jesus took to share his compassion for the crowd, besides through his teachings. Once the crowd was divided, he first gathered all that they had and blessed the food by giving thanks to God. This is very important. The disciples showed jesus what they had, and Jesus took it up before God to thank him for being blessed with what they had. This is where faith steps in for the disciples. Although Jesus may have seemed crazy to try to divide this little amount of food, they still believed in him to do something. See, discipleship is not only about compassion, but it’s built around faith in jesus. With our compassion for everyone, we have faith in God to do his work, even if we don’t have a lot of things to offer. It’s ok if you don’t have enough money. It’s ok if you don’t have a banquet of food to give. Nothing is small in Jesus Christ. Just give what you have to God and let him do his work. Let him cook up something amazing. It’s only by his power that miracles can happen. So give what you have to God and let him work. 

But think about intention here. Jesus came to God with five loaves and two fish, not because he wanted to selfishly take all the food for himself. But rather to use the food as a means of spreading love. Give what you have to God, but not because you want more of it, but because you want to use it to spread the love of God. Have faith in God and give what you have to the lord with the heart of compassion to serve the sheep without a shepherd, and he will make it grow numerously. Notice how it was the disciples who distributed the food around. Once God’s work is done, we, as disciples of Jesus, distribute the love of Jesus to those around us. We distribute what God blesses us with as we give our five loaves and two fish to God. From our worldly perspective, we may not have much. Some people have more money than others. Some have more time than others. But what are we offering to God as a way to share compassion for other people?

Can I tell you an amazing story similar to this passage we read today? Recently, our ministry had a difficult time with the Hamilton building. I’m not too informed on details, but all I know is we were struggling, possibly with rent or management or whatever. It was a hard time for many of our members. But many offered their five loaves and two fish. So much so that through the work of God, one big family moved from Hamilton to a new home in Piscataway. The process may have been difficult. But I really believe that this family gave their five loaves and two fish to God. And through the work of God, they were blessed with a nice house with a beautiful yard, a quiet neighborhood, and close to a lot of things. But not only that, they are distributing the love of God to their ministry and offering it as a place of worship, fellowship, and much more. We all have a lot more than we think; it’s just a matter of whether we’re giving it to God for the sake of compassion or selfishness. 

I tried to think of my own 5 loaves and 2 fish while writing this message. I thank God that he gives me so many opportunities in our ministry to present my five loaves and two fish to him. Sometimes it’s through violin playing, although I’m not good at it. Most of the time it’s through my praise and worship. Other times it’s simply just trying to be an older brother for the younger ones through message writing and group leading. I can’t be too sure if something miraculous came from what I give, but I think to myself that maybe I should be giving more. Not just my time at church but also my time at home, in work, in the gym, or wherever I am. For the past few months, I’ve been becoming more of a weekend believer rather than a person who lives for God. I spent a lot of time doing things only on weekends and thought that was enough.Overall, one thing this conference has helped me think about a lot more is spending personal time with Jesus. I see that I have A LOT more to give when it comes to compassion for lost sheep. My time that was meant for God ended being time for myself to participate in worldly cultures and desires. I repent that I’ve been reluctant to use my time to glorify God and instead lived to satisfy the world. I want to follow Jesus and have compassion for the lost sheep. I want to give my 5L2F to God so he can use it to do miracle work in people’s lives. Pray for me that I may give my 5L2F to God by giving my personal time, my energy, my money, my work, all for the glory of God and to have compassion to share the gospel with those who are lost sheep waiting to be united with their shepherd. 

Throughout this message, I’ve been constantly asking one question…” What did Jesus do?” and we saw what he did. He had compassion for a crowd of more than five thousand people that seemed like lost sheep. With this compassion, he was able to teach them and feed them enough to the point where there were leftovers. Now that we know what he did, I want to ask a new question, and I want everyone to ask themselves this question: I know what Jesus DID, but now, today, what CAN I DO that Jesus WOULD do? Maybe I can try and give more time for God. Maybe I can be more serving in my ministry. Maybe I can give more compassion to many strangers in my surrounding environment by sharing the gospel. What CAN I DO that Jesus WOULD DO? Keep this in mind as we close the retreat today and move on through our daily lives. Lets pray