Making Much Of Little

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 12

John 6: 1-21

Making Much of Little

6:1 ¶ After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

2 And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased.

3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there sat down with his disciples.

4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, "How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?"

6 This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

7 Philip answered him, "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little."

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,

9 "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?"

10 Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost."

13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten.

14 When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!"

15 ¶ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,

17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

18 The sea rose because a strong wind was blowing.

19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat. They were frightened,

20 but he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid."

21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.RSV

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

This morning we are going to look at the first story in our gospel lesson, the story of feeding the 5000 as found in John’s gospel.

Andrew said to Jesus, "There is a lad here who had five barley loaves an] two fish; but what are they among so many?" But what are they among so many, isn’t that the age old question. We look at what we have then we see the many who need more than we can possibility give so we ask, but what are they among so many. This lad didn’t realize how much he had until he gave it over to the Lord. Sure he saw he had only 5 loaves and 2 fish, but the Lord saw it as a gift to be used to feed the hungry people. The Lord made much of the little the boy was willing to give.

Notice, who did the action in this lesson, Jesus and the boy. This is an interesting lesson because it shows the faith of the boy and the power of Jesus to use our gifts to a great purpose.

Notice how this all begins. The crowds had gathered and it was time to eat. The crowds numbered about 5,000 men not counting the women and children. And Jesus says to Philip,"How are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?" Then notice the respond that Philip makes, he looks in the money bag to see they have only two hundred denarii and says there is little that can be done because they don’t have enough money. Philip never once asks Jesus what he can do about the situation . Philip never turns to Jesus and asks him to do something, he relies on his own resources and because of that he fails. Philip is like many of us, we rely on our own resources we rely on me, myself and I so when the tough situations t. life life come along we have a difficult time coping with them. Philip viewed the situation hopeless even though Jesus was right there, he didn’t turn to him