Luke 9:12-13
And the day was being spent.
After the twelve came they said to Him, “Send the crowd away in order
that after going away into the surrounding towns and land they should stay for
the night and find provision. For we are
here in this wilderness space.” But He
said to them, “Give them something to eat yourselves!” And they said, “Five loaves and two fish are
not great enough for us, even if after leaving we should buy food into all of
these people.”
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
Let’s give the disciples a little bit of credit here. The disciples are just thinking of the crowd
in this passage. They know that the
crowd is hungry. They know that the
crowd will likely stay so long as Jesus is doing neat things like healing. They also know that the crowd will eventually
get angry as their hunger increases. They
people are going to get tired. It’s
getting dark and they are in a strange and desolate place. These human disciples understand the humanity
of the people around them. They are just
being compassionate.
When have you been able to be compassionate under
pressure? Does compassion come easily to
you? How ready are you to see the needs
of others?
Second Thought:
In their compassion, these disciples also experience doubt
and perhaps even fear. They tell Jesus
to send them away. While they are
compassionate, they don’t want to deal with the issues of the multitude. In fact, they probably don’t even believe
that they can deal with that many people.
I can’t say that I blame them. I’m
not sure that I could even conceive of dealing with the hunger of the people as
well as their lodging. In the midst of
their compassion, they experience fear and doubt because the needs of the
people around them are too great to be met by their own power.
When might you struggle being compassionate in the midst of
other people’s humanity? When might your
compassion lead you to experience fear and inability to be effective in meeting
the needs of the people around you?
Third Thought:
Jesus challenges His disciples. In the midst of their fear and doubt, Jesus
looks to them and challenges them hard.
Jesus tells them to give them food.
There is no earthly way that they could possibly feed all of these
people, even if they had the opportunity to prepare for it! Jesus knows that the disciples cannot do
it. Jesus knows that the only way that
they will be able to do it is through the power of God. But Jesus is not afraid to challenge them
with the impossible. Just because a
person is facing fear doesn’t mean that they cannot be challenged.
Have you even been challenged in the
midst of your fear? How did you respond in such a circumstance? Have you ever had to challenge others in the
midst of their fear?
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