Twelve Heads Aren't Better Than The One

Sometimes I read the Bible and think to myself, "If I was the one who got to walk hand in hand with Jesus, like the twelve disciples, it would have been amazing and I would have hung on every word Jesus said."  Time and time again, we read the stories of Jesus and the disciples and shake our heads at how the Twelve missed the big picture.  They walked in tandem with the Savior.  The twelve disciples got a front row seat to the many miracles you and I are left to read about.  When faced with a problem or trial, the Twelve were plugged into the ultimate power source.  They could have asked Him any question, learned any lesson, gleaned from His wisdom at any time.  Yet more times than not, we read and see that the disciples were scared, they were dense and selfish. 

It's easy to read their stories and think I would have been the one to get it, if I were a disciple.  But, if I was honest, I would admit that I see Jesus work in my life every day, but I miss it.  I do have access to the same power as the disciples had, but at times I don't believe it.  I have, not only Jesus' words of wisdom, but an entire book that has compiled the wisdom and lessons of the ages, yet I don't know enough of it.  Yes, if I was honest, I would have been the thirteenth, dense disciple.

Never do we see the disciples miss the big picture than when we read about Jesus feeding the 5,000. You can read this story in Luke 9, but let me recap it for you.  Jesus had been speaking in a remote area to a large crowd and it had gotten late in the day.  The disciples recognized how late it was and that the crowd would need to eat.  They inform Jesus of this predicament.  The story goes on to tell of Jesus' miraculous feeding of 5,000 men with just five loaves of bread and two fish....more on that part of the story later.  Today, I want to look at the disciples.

Jesus had accumulated quite a following.  People knew who He was and recognized His followers, the disciples.  In situations like this, when Jesus was encountering a big crowd, I can imagine that the disciples acted as Jesus' personal managers.  They saw that the crowd didn't, well, crowd Him and saw that the speaking and healing went off without a hitch.  So it must have really concerned them when they all realized that the day had gotten away from them and now the people were going to need to be fed.  What were the disciples to do?  I am sure that the Twelve were worried about how the crowd might perceive them and Jesus, if the crowd got hungry and there was no food for them. 

I can confidently say that I would fall right in line with the disciples, because when things don't go right in my life, or I miss an important detail or I mess things up, my human reaction is to freak out about what people might think or how they might look at me.  Just like the disciples!

The disciples frantically informed Jesus of the problem.  Luke 9 verse 12 says, "that the twelve came to Him and said, 'Send the crowds away so that they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place'." 

I chuckle when I read this.  There are a lot of lessons to learn from the disciples here.  First, they inform Jesus of the situation....as if Jesus didn't know.  He was present when the Sun was created, surely He would know that it was setting.  But the disciples lost sight of who they were talking to, and missed it.  Jesus already knew of the problem.  He didn't need the disciples to tell Him. The situation at hand certainly didn't catch Jesus by surprise.

How many times have I been guilty of coming to the Lord in prayer, not to surrender a certain issue in my life, not to offer up my weakness, but to throw a holy temper tantrum on the the throne room floor in order to get God's attention so that I might make Him aware of what I am going through here in my world?  As if He didn't know.  The disciples and I would've gotten along just fine. 

When praying over certain problems or circumstances in our lives, we would better serve our faith if we would come to the throne room in confidence that 1) God knows exactly what is going on in our lives and 2) our heart felt cry for help isn't so much to make God aware of how we need Him, but a cry of humility confirming that we recognize our inability to save ourselves and fix our situation.  The prayer becomes a prayer of surrender instead of a prideful fit we might be tempted to throw. 

In this same verse we find that not only do the disciples feel the need to make Jesus aware of the hungry crowd, they have also done the work for Jesus and come up with a solution.  "send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages...."  The Twelve must have been so proud of themselves that they were one step ahead of Jesus.  They saw the problem and had a solution already in place. 

I am "Mrs. Fix-it". I can fix any problem that comes across my path.  Now this usually leads to bigger problems down the road because my solutions are never as good as God's.  So maybe my name should be, "Mrs. Mess it up worse if I try to do it instead of God", but that is rather lengthy!  Joking aside, my solutions usually complicate things.  I run to fix problems because I don't want anyone to see that I might not have it together or that I made a mistake......pride, it's a killer!  Just like the disciples, we come to the King with our problems.  We cry out for a Savior, a Rescuer, a Shelter.  We beg for God to step down and intervene in our problems.  Then we get off our knees and go about solving our problems on our own.  So many times we don't see God work in miraculous ways simply because we never give Him the chance.  We are too busy solving all our own problems, in our own strength.  Yes, we pray without ceasing, but we fix without ceasing, too!

To top it off, the disciples offer a plan that is simply to dismiss the problem.  "Send the crowd away..."  That is a favorite request of mine...,"God, remove this probem.  Send this challenge away.  Take these circumstances out of my life."  However, had Jesus simply dismissed the crowd, they would have all missed the miracle about to happen.  The same stakes are true in our lives.  We are so quick to assume that the solution to the problem is to have God take out His holy eraser and wipe it away.  Doing so might rob us, and others, of witnessing a miracle. 

Jesus didn't dismiss the crowd.  In fact, Jesus told the disciples to feed them.  The Twelve graciously pointed out to Jesus their shortcomings. "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish..."  Like so many men and women in the Bible, we are quick to remind God of what we have and don't have.  But let us remember that little is much when God is in the middle of it!

And in typical disciple fashion, they offer another solution.  "....unless we go and buy food for all this crowd."  I love that the disciples didn't have just one plan...they had a plan A and a plan B.  How bright those Twelve were!  What really gets me shaking my head is that the disciples' solution was money.  Man, oh man.  We all think that money is the answer to all our problems.  "If I had more money, I wouldn't be so stressed out.  If I had a better paying job, my kids could get a better education.  If I had more money, I could do more for God."  Yep, money is always our go to problem solver.  If we all sat back and evaluated the times God has worked in our lives, I think we would agree that most times, money isn't the fix all.  We miss the power of God.  We think that we have only five loaves and two fish to give to God.  We fail to see that God doesn't want our humble provisions....He wants our whole heart, surrendered in faith.  His solution is the best one. 

Tomorrow....more on the miracle....