Jesus Helps Us Grow By Putting Us In Groups
[35] And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. [36] Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” [37] But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” [38] And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” [39] Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. [40] So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. Mark 6:30–34 ESV Read More
Jesus involved the 12 disciples in the teaching and the spreading of the Kingdom message. He involved them in their break by teaching all of the people that they attracted to Him. Now He is going to involve them in the miracle of hospitality and care that He is going to work for all of these people. The way He takes care of all of these thousands of people is part of His teaching.
When Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and into the promised land, they were experiencing the results of a revolution. The revolution was from their slavery in Egypt to their new life with God in Israel. God had listened to their prayers, but now He was going to dwell among them in a temple. God had given them examples of how to live (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) but now He was going to give them a complete way of life (the Torah).
From what all of these people out with Jesus have heard, a kingdom change as great as the Exodus is now at hand. One with teaching that is greater than Moses, and with power (!) is teaching about the Kingdom of God and leading people there. Now the same man that said “Don’t worry about what you will eat…” is now listening to people worry about how all of these people are going to eat.
It’s easy to look and see what Jesus did with the bread and the fish and be amazed and move on. It is amazing. I mean, seriously, 200 denarii is 200 days’ wages, and He brought that much bread and fish out of nowhere. I want to stack on top of that amazing work the genius of how He did it.
He had people sit down in groups by hundreds and fifties.
People are likely near the people they came with. They came with people that came from the same places as them. When the disciples pass out the food, they might be going to the people they stayed with when they went out and preached the Gospel. Even if it doesn’t fit together that clean, these groups that are going to eat together are instantly going to become groups.
You can just hear a dad say “Remember the Joneses? They were that family we sat next to when the Messiah made all of that bread and fish come out of nowhere!” (It would be more like a mom to remember that, but you know what I mean.) These groups of fifties and hundreds were instantly turned into little small groups. They were the churches, if you will, that would start to be the bodies of people in each of the towns they went back to after dinner.
Everything Jesus said and did was a teaching example. He didn’t want anyone to complain that the crowds were too big, so He broke them up into smaller groups. They couldn’t all eat dinner with Jesus, but they could eat with each other, and for His Kingdom that was the next best thing.
You can get the Daily Bible Readings to your inbox via email every day by subscribing here. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.