Title: “A Basket Case”
After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus told his disciples to pick up the fragments and place them into a basket. Why? Here are three simple, but profound, thoughts that God laid upon my heart to share with you today.
1. To remind them of the Miracle.
In Mark 8, beginning at verse 15, we learn that sometime later Jesus would remind his disciples how that he had provided for them time and time again.
God always provides. I am sure that the disciples must have been wondering as they were distributing the food, "Will there be any food left for me?" Yes, each one of the them would recieve a full basket load!
Picking up the fragments and placing them into a basket is likened unto counting your many blessings and naming them one by one!
Whenever you find yourself troubled, you need to remember how many times that the Lord has provided for you in the past, and, like the song says, "And it will surprise you what the Lord has done, count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done."
2. To remind them of their Mission.
What is the mission of the Church? The answer is both the gathering of and the giving of fragments!
I always see a note of human when I read the scriptures. I can see the disciples doing the clean up operation following this Church potluck. Instead of throwing away any discarded food, they were told to gather up the fragments and place them into a basket. Fragments are nothing more than bits and pieces and leftovers.
And herein is the first aspect of our mission as a Church. We need to go into our community and gather up the fragments. Satan has done the work of braking lives into bits and pieces. As a Church, we need to gather these pieces and place them into the basket of the local Church! It is the purpose of the Church to bring broken lives to Christ. Only He can make them whole again!
It is also the purpose of the Church to feed the spiritually hungry. Within a couple of chapters of today’s text, a gentile woman comes and begs for crumbs from the Jewish table. Before the event of Matthew 14, the disciples had nothing to give, following this event, they had a full basket to share with others.
God didn’t give you a full basket to hoard to yourself! God wants you to give some crumbs to those who are in great desperation!
In gathering of the fragments, as a Church body, we learn the true mission of the Church!
3. To remind them of the Manna from Heaven.
Where did this food come from? Just as in the day of Moses, it came from Heaven. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. If we are to receive anything, it will be from the Lord.
Are you living in such a way that God can bless your life?
My favorite part of this text is when Jesus lifted his eyes to the heavens and said, "Father, I know that you hear me always..."
Can you do that? Is there anything that has come between you and your heavenly Father? Are you in the place of blessing?
There is a hungry world at your feet. They need to be fed with manna from Heaven. Are you prepared to give it to them?
The Bible says the prayer of the righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16) I want to my life to be a blessing to others. May God use my life to provide spiritual manna to those who are so desperately in need.
May the Syrophenician woman feed from the fragments from my full basket! (Mark 7:26)
Are you a "Basket case?" May God put your life back together so that you can be a blessing to others!
