“That Look in His Eyes…”


BIBLE READING: John 6

            It had all the makings of nice quiet time in the mountains.  Jesus sits down with His disciples with the back drop of the beautiful cascading mountains on one side of them, and the peaceful scenery of the Sea of Galilee on the other.  One might have thought this would be a great opportunity to sit down and enjoy a nice quiet afternoon with Jesus, however “quiet” was not something on God’s agenda.  You see it isn’t just Jesus and His disciples, but a multitude of people that had begun following Him after seeing the miracles He was preforming.  Our text reveals that there were about five thousand men in number.  Some scholars add that if the word “men” refers only to males, that it is possible that there could have been close to twenty thousand people.  Having that many people in attendance, all looking to see and hear Jesus makes me think that it was anything but quiet.  Adding insult to injury it seems to be close to dinner time as well.  Jesus turns to Phillip and says, “Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?” (John 6.5).  It is important to note that Jesus was not implying that they needed to go buy everyone food, but that He was asking this to test them.   Phillip replies “… 200 denarii, would not be enough for each of them to get a little” (John 6.7).  A denarius was equal to a day’s wage, so Phillip is implying it would take 200 days’ worth of salary to give everyone just a little bit.  Then here comes Andrew with a young boy’s lunch of five barley loaves and two fish, implying what good what that do for so many.  That’s when it happened, if there ever was a gleam in the eye or a giddy grin on the face of Jesus, I am convinced it was here when He said, “Have the people sit down”.  Jesus knew what He was about to do!  He knew what kind of power He had and was ready and eager to reveal it using this little boy’s lunch.  Jesus had set His disciples up to help them to be able to wrap their minds around what He was about to do.  Jesus took the bread and the fish…blessed it… them BAM!  Just like that everyone ate till they were full, and they gathered up twelve baskets of leftovers.  Need I remind you that they finished with exponentially more left over than they had when they started.  I wish I could have seen they face of Jesus as He looked on and watched the looks on His disciples faces.  I don’t believe this is the only time Jesus had that look on His face.  As a matter of fact, I look forward to seeing that same smile and gleam in His eyes when He says to me, “Welcome home Matt, enter in to the rest of your labors!”  It gives me chills just to think about it!!




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