5-6When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?" He said this to stretch Philip's faith. He already knew what he was going to do.
7Philip answered, "Two hundred silver pieces wouldn't be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece."
8-9One of the disciples—it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter—said, "There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this." (The Message)
Why can't a miracle just be a miracle? Shouldn't it be enough that Jesus saw the people who were hungry and had compassion and decided to feed them? Why did Jesus find it necessary to test or stretch Philip's faith, wasn't what Jesus teaching and saying about God challenge enough?
It would seem that the miracles reported in John are there for a reason and this is another one worth looking at from some different perspectives as if we were Philip. So for the sake of growing our own faith can we consider:
- Where do we think the problems in this world are to big for Jesus?
- What are we afraid to ask for because it might not happen?
- What are we afraid to ask for because it might happen?
- What have we grown comfortable in knowing about Jesus but don't exactly expect to see happen for ourselves?
- What would we rather not have Jesus ask us to do to help someone else?
- How might our view of the world look if Jesus showed us that what he did then can still be done today?
Some thoughts to ponder and share with others:
- Who is this miracle for; the disciples, the people who are hungry, the small boy, all of them?
- Who do you think was changed the most because of this miracle? Why?
- Have you ever witnessed a miracle? If you have never talked about it before why not?
- How has Jesus stretched your faith recently?
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