Go and See

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

GO AND SEE

Mark 6:35-38

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. 36 Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." 37 But he answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" 38 "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see."

NIV

The beginning of the story of five loaves and two fish starts out with a little bit of a discussion between Jesus and his disciples about how all these people are going to eat dinner. We know for sure there was no fast food places anywhere around, in fact, there wasn’t anything around, as they were in a remote place. Jesus had been teaching all these people, as we saw before, they were like sheep without a shepherd so he was being a shepherd to them, feeding them the very words that proceed from the mouth of God. But now another teaching moment comes for his disciples. They are actually thinking about these people and their material needs, such as eating. That seems to be a good thing to care about the needs of others. We might think as long as Jesus was teaching everyone, including his disciples, would simply sit and listen, soaking up as much as possible, but his disciples thought about eating. Maybe they were a  bit jealous and wanted Jesus for themselves since that was supposed to be the plan, for Jesus to take them to a remote place to eat and rest from their excellent adventure of preaching, driving out demons and healing people. In either case they wanted Jesus to release all the people so they could go away and but food. Jesus took the opportunity to press the issue, to teach his disciples more. He simply told them to feed them. The one thing we don’t spend much time thinking about is the idea that the group had that much money in their possession to buy enough to feed all the people. Did Jesus and his disciples have eight months wages in their possession? Maybe Jesus had chased in all that Gold, incense and myrrh from those wise men. We simply do not know about the treasury, other than Judas at some point is in charge of it. Nevertheless, having Jesus tell them to feed them surely set them back a bit. After their response he simply asks, well, how many loaves do you have with you now? Jesus had a plan, he always has a plan, all we have to do is get on aboard with his plan. He was going to reveal it, of course we already know it, but his disciples did not know the plan yet. But as he requested for them to go and see how much they had on hand, they did, even knowing full well it was not going to be enough. The teaching moment has arrived. Even though in the material it seems useless to follow the plan of Jesus, they went and looked to see how much they had. We might learn that same lesson. We might think in the natural that we do not have enough for whatever is needed, but if Jesus says go see how much you have, and I will make it more than enough, if you will only be willing to give it to me. We are getting ahead of the teaching here, as for now we only need to know we need to go and see. We need to follow through on what Jesus asks, or tells us to do, no matter if we thinking according to the natural and cannot see what Jesus is going to do. That is what faith is all about. Maybe it is going to cost us something, but we have to go and see what we have, Jesus is going to bring a miracle into being. So let’s go and see.