Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
The Miracles of Jesus (continued; part xviii)
Can we even imagine how it was, sitting on a hillside listening to the Master speak and watching Him heal; and, though hungry, being so entranced by His words that we lose track of time and we lose sight of our hunger. Then the Master sees our situation, we are hungry and there is no where that we can go before dark to get food and He, KNOWING that He can, decides that He would give us something to eat. We are near His disciples and we see their amazement at what the Master is saying to them; as if joking, He tells them to feed the crowd. The disciples reply that we have nothing here in the wilderness except a few loaves of bread and a few small fishes and they then say to the Master how can we feed so many people? We watch as Jesus takes the loaves and the small fishes from His disciples and, giving thanks to the Father for the bountiful feast, He calmly tells His disciples to distribute what they have. We watch in awe as the disciples disperse into the crowd with the bread and the small fishes and begin handing some to each person and this continues up to our place; we take from a disciple some of the bread and a small fish and we watch as they continue on through the crowd giving some to all.
We are in a glorious state watching this Great Drama unfold before our eyes and we think that if there is ever to be a Messiah come from God this must be Him. All that we have seen the Master do passes before us in our minds, the teaching words of Love and Peace, the healing of the sick and the infirm, the curing of the many afflicted; we remember hearing His disciples talk of the day He walked on the water and that time when He raised the son of the widow on the road and now this. We look at the bread and the fish that we were given and we take a bite and in the glory of the moment, we are one with the Master and with our God. This is a moment that we can never forget.
From here we contemplate joining Him and following Him and keeping His words but then we think about some thing we should have done and make a plan to do it, we think about our children and our husbands or wives, our mothers and our friends; we think about the new coat that we finally have enough money to buy and in these thoughts the contemplation on the Master fades. Though we can never forget what we saw and heard and though we can never forget the sweet taste of that heavenly bread, we fall back into the ways of the world. We look around and we are not alone and in this we find solace. We see and we sense the uncertainty and the creeping doubt even among His disciples; uncertainty as to what is happening and the creeping doubt about what it is that they are doing, what they are leaving behind and while we hope that the Master will ask us to join Him too, we are relieved when He does not. Life goes on and we rely upon this, our experience, as a great thing and occasionally we remember it all and wonder what would have been if we had followed Him.
The Apostle Luke, as we said in the last post, only mentions one occurrence of the miracle of the loaves. He states it thus: “And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing. And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place. But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets” (Luke 9:11-17).
In all of the renditions of these stories that we have read in these posts there is one strong point that is missed by many and that the Master Himself reminds us of when He speaks of this miracle. We said yesterday that many find symbolism in the number of baskets of bread left over and others wonder where the baskets may have come from and that other’s even paint this as though there is no real miracle except the generosity brought upon the people by the Master and their sharing what they may have had. The point that is missed is that there were twelve baskets of fragments left over in this incidence and seven basket left over in the next. This point is not in the numbers but in the fact that there was left over food, food made by the Lord, by the Power of God, showing them all, of a certainty, the reality of what it is that happened. What they did with the twelve baskets and the seven baskets we do not know; perhaps they gave it to the people or perhaps that took it for their own but this does not matter; the message is that there was this leftover evidence of this miracle which should, at least in the disciples minds, have been enough to convince them that the presence of the Master is the presence of the Son of God. According to Luke, it is immediately after this first occurrence that the Master speaks to the disciples about this very subject. We read this from Luke as the chapter continues:
“And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing” (Luke 9:18-21). Understanding that the chronology of the gospels is a difficult matter we should see here that Luke is the only one that puts the story this way; in the other three gospels the first miracle of the loaves and fishes is followed by the disciples’ leaving on the boat and the Master walking on the water, an event that Luke does not write on at all. However, in Matthew’s Gospel, the same question regarding who the people say that Jesus is placed very soon after the second occurrence of the miracle of the loaves as so to tie these events together and, not only them, but also the comments of the Master regarding the disciples lack of understanding concerning the whole of the miracles. Matthew tells us the story of the second miracle of the loaves and continues on thus:
“Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala“. Here is a brief discourse with the scribes and the Pharisees regarding a sign by the Master and then “And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 15:32-39, 16:5-17).
We can see here the same thing, the twelve baskets and the seven baskets of left over fragments, having a direct relationship to the disciples understanding of the Master’s divinity. In Luke this follows upon the first miracle and Luke only records one miracle; here, in Matthew, this follows upon the second miracle and our thoughts are enhanced by the Master’s words to the disciples regarding the leaven of the Pharisees and His own reminder of the baskets that were taken up from each of the miracles. Mark reports this all similarly to Matthew except that there is the healing of a blind man mixed in between the Master’s thoughts on the leaven and then His question to His disciples. What is the point here? That we have here a miracle beyond imagination that is done not once but two times and in view of many thousands who not only witness them but partake in them and that in each occurrence there is left over ‘bread from heaven’ so that there should be no doubt whatsoever as to what has happened and, for the disciples, no doubt of who it is that has done these things. And so, Peter is able to say that, “Thou art the Christ” (Mark 8:29) with full confidence.
We should remember that in our view there are no idle words by the Master and that there is significance in all that He did. There is a lesson in every thing and a message in every word and, much like His teaching in words is done by parable, His teaching through His actions is likely done the same way. The Master tells us that “wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20) and so this is true of Him as well and in the fruit of His actions and His compassion and His Love, we KNOW that this is HIM.
We will continue this idea and begin our look at baptism in the next post.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Leaving again our Quote of the Day which is called the Great Commission as it is found in the Gospel of Matthew along with the text from yesterday in which we did find the misspelled altar. There are many thoughts on this and other like sayings in the bible and there is some debate among Christians as to whether these verses apply to any other than the original disciples9. It is interesting that many rely on the version of the Great Commission as found in the Gospel of Mark and for which there is also much debate as to whether the ending, verses 9 through 20, were written by Mark or added by others at a later time. These verses is not found in some of the oldest manuscripts and in others there is an alternate shorter ending after verse 8. While it is unclear, there are still many who rely on it as doctrine and we have used parts ourselves in these posts. However a critical look at these last twelve verses can show that they it is likely that they do not belong, at least from our perspective. First is the repetition in its presentation: up to verse eight there is the scene of the women at the tomb and the angels telling them that the Master is not there and that they should go and tell the disciples; then, beginning again in verse nine we find Mary back at the tomb and seeing the Master. So then we have Mary leaving once with the other women to tell the disciples and then doing so again alone.
The second point for us is in the word condemn. In all His time with them He had never condemned anyone; He did give instruction and He did give comments of woe to those who did not do right. He never did condemn especially regarding a point like believing. However, since the idea attached to this in these verses squares with the Christian’s idea of everyone must believe in Jesus, it has been adopted and mostly from this single verse “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16); much harm has been done through this by and to Christianity as a whole. Except in dogma and in doctrine, these are not the words of the Master and certainly not His message. There are other disputed pieces of the New Testament11 though none are as profoundly affecting Christianity as these verses from Mark.
We will continue this thought in the next post..
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)
We are leaving again our Quote of the Day. A large part of the church teachings regard evangelizing the world, this is the doctrine of most every denomination. We send missionaries abroad to teach belief in Christ and in His redeeming power and in our salvation through His blood. That He died for our sins and that by His grace are we saved if we confess Him as our Savior. We do the same at home in some of our own congregations, we have the altar call through which the minister calls on all who so desire to come to the altar and to accept the Lord Jesus as the Savior or to make a new commitment to Him. These things are well and good as is the churches idea of baptism and they are the doctrinal parts of the church statements that profess to perform this Great Commission as written below from Matthew’s Gospel. We saw in a past post that the word teach here is better translated as make disciples of 4 which should give more emphasis to the words of the Master than the churches interpretation of the whole saying does. A key thing here is in the words “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you“. This covers all of the Master’s commandments in the gospels and there are many but they are, as we know, all included in the Greatest Commandments; they all resolve themselves into the one thing which we call LOVE.
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 9 Wikipedia contributors. “Great commission.”; Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 Jan. 2012.
- 11 The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org
