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What Jesus Gave
Today’s story, it is a very interesting story. It gives us a lot of hope, especially in every field that I don’t have much to give to the world. I don’t have much to really help out with anyone, uh, where we feel like that this passage gives us a lot of hope. A big crowd followed Jesus even from God. Then it was dinner time if they knew, uh, that it was a, I mean, there were so fascinated with Jesus for God to bring their own food. They didn’t prepare for the food in following Jesus, they just wanted to follow. You just said that they were so mesmerized by the, a message at the power authority and they forgot to eat. Jesus saw them and had compassion for them because they were physically hungry. He just saw another hunger in them that hungrier was disputable. Great. Jesus said, Jesus saw that they almost their souls or they were like sheep without a shepherd.
That’s why they followed Jesus all alone because Jesus really gave them what they needed there so entwined Jesus gave them or what they needed. They had never experienced what they experienced with Jesus. It heard about joy, but they never knew that that kind of joy was possible in their own lives, but they were with Jesus. They really felt that deep joy and deep satisfaction and fulfillment, that kind of fulfillment that fulfills or fills up your soul, not just your emotion, not just your that but the kind of fulfillment that fills up your soul and they experienced that with Jesus. Now they were hungry not only physically but spiritually, and Jesus is wanting to help them with their hunger, but instead of really helping them, Jesus was doing something strange. Jesus told the disciples, you don’t need to send them away. You give them something to eat and you just knew very well.
It was no food, but Jesus knowing that, told the disciples you give them, you give or told them to that was very strange, Jesus, in a way, put them in a mode of challenge. He just wanted to challenge them. Challenge their traditional thinking. You give them what they need to eat, but that was not only challenge, but Jesus was giving them the opportunity to extend themselves or stretch themselves, teachers wanting to take them and elevate them to another level of existence. You know, our existence can have many different metals such as level people think they are all equity, our lives the same life, but there are different layers of existence and you just wanted to take these people, the disciples from one level to another level of existence where the reality of the power of God becomes real. But their response was, that’s very simple. We have nothing.
We Have Nothing
We have nothing. You tell me to give them what to eat, but we have nothing. We only have five loaves of bread and two fish and they are 5,000 people counting men to feed and five loaves of bread and two fish. There might as well be nothing. You know, in a high school math. You know one over infinity is nothing. Zero. So five loaves of bread and two fish. Considering that you have to feed 5,000 people. Men and women and children, probably more than 10,000 people. They are nothing. You know? That’s exactly how most of the time in modern world they’re living in a nuclear age. The problem is today we ask ourselves, what can I do? There’s nothing much for me to do to help out this word. We see our nothingness all the time. We feel small. When we confront our reality with our naked eye, we often feel that we have to feed 5,000 people, but we only have five loaves of bread and two fish.
The problems that we faced are much, much bigger and the power, ability and resources that we have, and so he simply said, Lord, we have nothing. That is our answer to our problems. You don’t see any possibility in those five news and to fish. We don’t see that they are any good. Only when we recognize in these five groups of bread and two fish are where the quote again, only if we can see that we can see the power of God. Jesus showed them what it could do with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus actually showed them what they could do with this living human resources. He took five loaves of bread and two fish. He looked up to heaven and then he blessed them and then broke them and gave it out. In other words, Jesus, through his prayer. He delivered his five loaves of bread and two fish into the hands of God.
What We Bring to God
That’s what Jesus did. Small things that you have you deliver that in the hands of God. That’s the miracle Jesus introduced to us and that is a miracle of life. Actually. My friend’s that is a secret of life. If you understand the secret of life, you will do tremendous things in your lives in small things which we don’t find a value. We called them nothing, but when they are delivered in God’s hands through our prayer they come very important and can be used to benefit many people around us, nothing becomes something when that nothing is delivered in God’s hands. Christian understanding of creation in Latin is “creatio ex nihilo” and they put that up against. Yeah, so what is creation out of nothing when it is delivered into gossip that nobody becomes somebody that is creation. Many people live with urgent sense of your scarcity and focus on their nothingness. It fix their eyes on their debit. Tennis, they always see what they don’t have this tendency so storng that it blinds their eyes and their eyes cannot see the abundance of life. Life is so abundant, but they never experienced that life can be abundant because they are always seeing the limited, limitedness of their lives. On Wednesday evening, we are doing spiritual reading on Ephesians, and then as we read Ephesians, one thing that we discovered was that to Saint Paul, life is a mystery,
that’s basically it summarizes St Paul’s perspective and his theology. To him, life is a mystery and God’s revelation is mystery. Until that time, he didn’t realize that life was a mystery.
He thought that Michael was very much a fixed in a certain way, but after meeting Christ, he realized that life is mystery in all over the place. In his writing. He says that life is mystery and it even the fact that he was doing God’s work was a mystery to him. He never expected that to be for him. Even now was mystery, now this is the confessional of St Paul. Let me read it, “although I am the very basis of all the saints. This grace was given to me to bring the gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ.” Here the important word is, “although.” “Although” is the most important word, he recognized, that he is the least of all of the apostles, but that was not the end of his confession. He said, although I’m this small, God through the grace of God gave you the opportunity to share the good news, of sharing the richness, the boundless, the abundant riches of Christ. Recognizing that your small is not, should not be the end of your confession, recognizing your limitedness should not be the end of your confession. Recognize that you cannot do many things or you don’t have much should not be the end of your confession. You always look at your limitedness, your smallness with this word “although.” “Although” I’m not talented, “although” I don’t know much, “although” I’m not that smart, that “although” will make all the difference, that’s how Saint Paul saw his smallness. Acceptance of your smallness is not, should not be the end of your life. You’ll also have to accept the mystery of how these small things can bring about the abundance when the, when your smallness is delivered in God’s hands and they were in God’s grace, works in your lives, that they will multiply and make many people abundant.
Reflection
Sometimes we feel we have nothing. I feel like times compared to the challenges that I face, I feel like I’m very small. I don’t have much ability and strength and resources, but when the grace of God works in us, we can bring the riches and abundance of Christ. Let’s find something in our nothingness. Only through the grace of God we can do that. Then you’ll be able to see how your nothingness can bring about abundance in life. God used 12 small people, they were small people, fishermen, laborers, tax collectors. There was small in their society. God chose them and using these small people, he changed the world. It started with the small people and he shared and spread the Gospel to all of the world. And 2000 years later we are enjoying the gospel. But you all get from these small people. 12 small people, sometimes, I mean five loaves of bread. Today we prepared 5 loaves. Peter, thank you. We don’t have fish though. We have five loaves of bread and two fish. It is just enough for me. But when that small thing was to delivered in God’s sense, not only it fed me, feeds me, but also it feeds 10 thousand and 12 baskets of leftovers. Not only was I, am I full, but making other people full.
Sometimes when challenge is so big. I’ll take this portion. That’s just good enough for me.
I am not fishing either. I’ll just keep it for myself. We made that kind of life, but when you put that small things that you had in God’s hands. God will multiply them. Not only God will feed you, God will feed many other people, not only God will make your life abundant, he will make many people’s lives abundant. Yes, we recognize we’re small, but we also see the miracle and the mystery of life where this small things can contribute to the abundance of the world. I think that we have that big the heart, bigger person, you can do so much for the people around you there are many people who need the Lord. There are many people who are hurting. There are many people who are lonely. There are many people who are hungry. There are many people who have so many, so much problems. Now you can. You may be small, but you can be used as a vehicle to reach out to them.
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