Welcome to Trinity Sermons. Here at Trinity Church, Streetsville, we want to share with
you messages that inspire and encourage you in your faith journey as we learn together
to love Jesus, to live like Jesus, and to lead other people to Jesus. This is our final
episode of our sermon series, Jesus is the Question, and today we have Rob with us, where
we will be exploring a very interesting question that Jesus asks, one about bread. Thanks for
listening today. God bless.
A reading from Mark chapter 6 verses 30 through 44. The apostles gathered around Jesus and
reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and
going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, come with me by yourselves
to a quiet place and get some rest. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary
place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and
got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on
them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many
things. By this time, it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. This is a remote
place, they said, and it's already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to
the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered,
you give them something to eat. They said to him, that would take more than a half year's
wages. Are we going to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat? How much
bread do you have? He asked. Go and see. When they found out, they said five and two fish.
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So
they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and two fishes and looking
up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples
to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate
and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread
and fish. The number of men who had eaten was five thousand. This is the word of the
Lord.
Well, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to each and every one of you this morning as
well, especially on this long weekend. We're glad to have you with us on long weekends.
Sometimes people visit, other times people go away. So to one and all, we're so glad
to have you here. My name's Rob, and I have the good, the great privilege of being the
pastor here at Trinity Streetsville. And today what's going on is we are bringing to a conclusion
a seven week teaching series, which we have entitled Jesus is the question. And the thing
that we have been learning as we've gone through this series is essentially this, that when
you come to Jesus with a problem, Jesus is not going to give you an easy solution and
he's not going to give you a pat answer. In fact, it's far more likely that Jesus is going
to ask you a question in return. And in fact, if you read through the four gospels, the
four biographies of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you will see that Jesus asked
people over three hundred questions in those four books. But in those same four books,
Jesus only really gave answers, direct answers, like four or five times. Now, I am not really
sure how you feel about that idea, because a lot of us, I think we come to church because
we want answers. And a lot of us come to Jesus because we want answers. And so when we're
told that Jesus is more of a question asker than he is an answer man, you might be confused
by that. You might be upset by that. You might be annoyed or you might find that even offensive.
In fact, I was looking this past week at some of the comments that people have been making
on our YouTube channel as we've gone through this teaching series. And if you look at those
comments, you can see the full range of emotion that people are feeling about this whole topic.
So for example, one user by the name of Mr. Ahuapai, when we got started on this teaching
series, his comment was that all this talk about Jesus and questions was, quote, such
a silly concept. And he's not alone. I think a lot of people here, a lot of people watching
online again might be saying, yes, it's so completely silly. You guys are just being
cute. You're just trying to find a cutesy way to talk about something different by doing
this thing with Jesus, who's always asking questions and never giving answers. So you
might agree with Mr. Ahuapai. Somebody else asked this. This user was called Harry Hutchinson4410.
He said, why would he, Jesus, have questions for me? Isn't he omniscient and know everything
that has and will happen? That is a really good question too. That is the question of
God's omniscience, of God knowing everything. In fact, another person said the same kind
of thing. This one's a little hard to read, but Ali Jade said, I thought God was omnipotent.
And I think he meant probably omniscient and has an unchanging word because he knows all,
question mark. And I get it. If Jesus is God and if God knows everything, then Jesus should
know everything. So then why is Jesus walking around asking all these questions? Now, other
people online commented that they felt like they had every right to ask Jesus some questions
and that they frankly deserved some answers from Jesus. Jesus, why do you condone slavery?
They're talking about some, in the Bible, the Old Testament, some stories around slavery.
Or Jesus, why are people sick? Or Jesus, why is the earth such a mess? Or Jesus, what about
cancer? Jesus, what about this? What about that? They really do feel like Jesus owes
them an answer for some of these things. Some of them even had like kind of strange, you
know, Jesus, why in the Old Testament was there a command against eating shellfish and
shrimp and stuff like that? Right? So a lot of questions. Some of the questions, because
it's the internet, some of the questions that we got asked were a little bit silly. This
question, this question might not have been silly. It might've been a serious question,
but we had a user by the name of Iron Raiden who asked, I heard Jesus really liked smoking
weed. Is this true? Now, thankfully, Elizabeth, who is our online engagement director, she
responded to all these questions very sensitively and very quickly. She even responded to this
one, very adeptly. Elizabeth said, hey, bud, hope you don't have high expectations because
to be blunt, we don't have a dope answer for you. That is why we pay her the big bucks,
people. By the way, if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel, you really should
do that because there's a lot going on there. These are really good questions. They're really
good comments. And I'm hoping that today as we wrap all this up, the last question that
you're going to like it will maybe kind of help bring all this together because we're
going to look at one more question Jesus asked. And the question is found in what I would
say is probably the most popular story in all the gospels. You see, there is one story,
the story of the feeding of the 5,000 that appears in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And it's the only miracle that appears in all four gospels with the exception, of course,
of the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, Matthew and Mark actually tell an additional second
story where Jesus fed a crowd of about 4,000 people. So you've got four plus two, so there's
about six tellings of this miraculous feeding story that take place throughout the four
gospels. And at the heart of these stories is a question. We're going to get to that
question in just a second. But first, let's get a little background and set the story
up. The story starts with Jesus and his disciples, and they're exhausted. They're tired and they're
worn out because it's the early days of Jesus's ministry and they are busy. People are coming
to Jesus to hear his teaching. More and more people are coming to Jesus to experience his
healing and the crowds are growing. The crowds are growing to the thousands and they're following
him everywhere he goes. And so Jesus says eventually, hey, because there's so many people
coming and going that they didn't even have a chance to eat. Jesus says to his disciples,
listen, come away. Let's get away for a little R and R. Let's go to a quiet place and get
some rest. And so they get into a boat and they sail off to find a quiet retreat. By
the way, I hope this summer you've had a chance to get away and get a little R and R yourself.
If you haven't been able to get away or if you haven't been able to get a break, well,
then you're in good company and Jesus knows how you feel because Jesus couldn't get away
either because what seemed to happen is that Jesus got on the boat and went across the
lake and somebody in the crowd then said, hey, I think I know where he's going. Follow
me everybody. And so they ran and they walked and they hobbled and they were on their crutches
or whatever and they walked around the shoreline to the place where Jesus was going. So that
when Jesus and his disciples pulled into their little retreat, there they were. The welcoming
committee was there. Hey, Jesus, remember us? And I got to tell you, like if I were
Jesus and thankfully I'm not, that's a scary thought. But if I were him, I would be like,
oh gosh, let's get back in the boat and let's try again. Let's go find another destination.
But because Jesus is way more compassionate than I am, he decided to say, no, guys, let's
park here for a while longer. And he began to teach them many things, even though the
disciples were really tired and really hungry and really, really needed a rest. When I think
of the disciples, I think of my own kids when they were younger, especially we would go
to church on Sunday and we'd have two or three services at some of the churches we were at.
And then there'd be coffee hour and they just wanted to go home. They just wanted it to
be over at some point. And Sally and I would usually stick around and we'd be chatting
with people and drinking coffee and refilling our coffee and, hey, catching up with you.
And we were usually like the last people to leave. And our kids would be like tugging
on us or like getting in our line of sight and saying, when are we going home? I want
to leave. And I think the disciples felt a little bit like this. We just need them to
leave. But the problem is Jesus and his disciples can't just leave because they're out there
in the wilderness now, right? On a remote location, there's nothing to eat. Now the
disciples say here, we've got an idea. Send the people away to some town, help them, let
them go and find a town somewhere so they can buy something to eat. And in response
to that idea, this is where Jesus asks the question. It's a bit of a confusing question.
It's a irksome question. It's a kind of bizarre in some ways. But in that moment, Jesus says,
well, how much bread do you have? How much bread do you have? Now, I don't know about
you, but this question throws me for a bit of a loop. You're out there in the wilderness
surrounded by thousands of people who are hungry. And you turn to your disciples and
say, well, how much, how much bread do you have? I spent a lot of time this week thinking
about this question. And I feel there's probably only three possible ways we can understand
what this question means. How much bread do you have? And I think you guys have all got
to kind of decide for yourself what this question means. In my way of thinking, it's either
a question for information, it's a question for participation, or it's a question for
transformation, right? So how much bread do you have? Is that an information question?
Is that a participation question? Or is that a transformation question? Let me explain
what I mean by each one of those. The first possible meaning of the question, how much
bread do you have? Could just be the face value. Just, you know, he's simply asking
the question, how much bread do we have? Because Jesus legitimately did not know how much bread
they had. It's just a question. Like this morning, for example, I got a text message
from someone and they said, Rob, could you go check and see how much cream and milk we
have in the fridge for coffee hour? Now I didn't say, what are you really getting at?
You know, what's the real question behind your question? They would have been like,
no, we just want to know is there cream and is there milk? And so I went and I checked
and I said, there's not very much. You better go buy some more. They just wanted information.
And maybe that's all that was going on here. Maybe Jesus just legitimately did not know
if they had enough bread. And I guess one thing this interpretation has going for is
it definitely emphasizes the human side of Jesus. Maybe there are legitimately some things
that Jesus just as a human being did not know. I mean, was part of Jesus giving up his divine
privilege? Did that also mean giving up his divine knowledge? You heard the users on YouTube,
they were like, isn't Jesus omniscient? Doesn't he know everything? Or was Jesus just like
you and me? And there were actually lots of things that he didn't know. How much, how
much bread do you have? Right? Maybe Jesus just asked this question for information and
when he got his answer, he said, oh, we don't have very much. We're going to have to do
something about that. Now that there's still something about that that doesn't sit well
with me. It seems a little silly. I know there's no such thing as a stupid question, but in
some ways that is kind of a stupid question because you're, you're surrounded by 5,000
hungry people. Some say it's 5,000 hungry families, right? And, and you know, as if
Jesus would, would think that there's a possibility that there's actually enough bread. I mean,
did one of you guys, uh, guys, I'm just going to ask you a question just out of curiosity.
Did anybody happen to bring like 750 loaves of bread with him? I did. I didn't know. Did
anyone have a couple of wagon loads of bread that I didn't see? No, no, you didn't. You
didn't. Okay. I just thought I'd check. I was just trying to get some information. I
just wasn't sure. But now that I know the answer, see, I didn't want to do a miracle
if we had the bread, but now that we don't have the bread, I'll look after it. Stand
back everybody. Ta-da, boom. And then the bread comes up. So yeah, there is something
that doesn't seem right about this answer that Jesus was just asking for information.
It doesn't make sense. At least it doesn't make a hundred percent sense to me, but thankfully
that's not the only possible way to understand the question. How much bread do you have?
It might not have been a question about information. It might've actually been more of a question
about participation, participation. Could it be that Jesus's great miracle of feeding
the 5,000 depended on the disciples participation? Could it be that before Jesus would do his
part multiplying the bread and the fish, they had to do their part, which was bringing whatever
they had. Is that why he asked, how much bread do you have? Now on the one hand, I don't
think I can't think that Jesus absolutely needed them to have some bread in order for
this miracle to happen. Because I think that if, if Jesus has said, how much bread do you
have? And they had said, we don't have anything. I don't think Jesus would have shrugged his
shoulders and said, there's nothing we can do then let's get out of here and walked away
disgruntled. No, I think Jesus still would have found a way to feed this multitude. But,
but even though Jesus doesn't need us to accomplish his mission, maybe he still invites us to
be part of that mission. God always has the victory. Yes. But he wants us to join him
in that victory. Could it be that Jesus just couldn't or wouldn't have done this miracle
without them? That he wouldn't have done the miracle if they hadn't brought the bread and
the fish and put it in his hands so he could bless it, break it and share it. It's kind
of like math. It's like multiplication. Zero times anything is always zero, but even a
very small number can be multiplied to exponential size if need be. If the disciples had hoarded
all they have, yes, sure. They may have had enough for themselves, but nobody else would
have had a thing. So I don't know. I'm a little bit torn by this explanation. I want to believe
that Jesus could have fed these people without their help. But, but I also believe that God
can't work with what we're not willing to give. So what about you? If I ask that question
to you now, how much bread do you have? Are you willing to trust God with your possessions?
Are you willing to participate in God's kingdom through generous giving? Do you believe that
God can take what you give, even if it's not very much, and he can multiply into more than
you can imagine in your life, in our world, even in our community here? Do you want to
participate in a miracle? Then how much bread do you have? Can you put it into God's hands?
Our job is to give it. His job is to multiply it. So that would be a second way of understanding
Jesus question. How much bread do you have? Not about information, but an invitation to
participation. Still, I want to throw out a third possibility of what that question was
all about. Not information, not even participation, but it was a question meant to affect radical
transformation in people's hearts and minds. Here's what I mean. Some interpreters of this
story suggest that perhaps all those people on the hillside that day with Jesus, they
actually had some food with them. But because they were only thinking of themselves or fearing
that they wouldn't have enough, they hid their food from others. But only when Jesus asked
the question, how much bread do you have? And only when the disciples brought their
meager amount of loaves and fishes, did the others start to do the same. And then when
people saw the generosity of Jesus and disciples, they opened up their own knapsacks and they
started sharing whatever they had brought. And all of a sudden it turned out that what
they shared was enough. It was more than enough. They even had leftovers after it. So now if
you believe this question, if you believe that this is what the question meant, then
Jesus isn't asking for information. How much bread? No, we've got two loaves, five fish,
five loaves, two fish. And he's not even asking for participation. Jesus, I'll do my part
if you do your part. It's actually a question of transformation. He wants to radically transform
people's hearts and minds. You see, like the disciples, even today, many people live and
operate out of what you might call a theology of scarcity. Just like the people in the story
who were on the hillside that day, they were sure they did not have enough. And we are
quite sure that we do not have enough either. Right. And we need to therefore protect whatever
we have. But Jesus wants to transform our thinking. What answer did Jesus really want
to hear when he asked how much bread do you have? What did he really want to hear? Did
he really want to hear? Oh, we've got five loaves and two fish. No, I think what he really
wanted to hear was this. We've got enough. We've got more than enough. By asking this
question, Jesus is transforming their thinking from a theology of scarcity to a theology
of abundance. And a theology of abundance is an approach to life that says, you know
what? God is generous. There is enough. There's enough for our needs. And there's enough for
the needs of others, too. Just about everybody in this room could go home and look at their
life in one of two ways. You could look at your home. You could look at your apartment.
You could look at your car. You could look at your paycheck. You could look at your dinner
table and you could either say there is not enough or you could say there's enough and
there's more than enough. But that requires a transformation in your heart and in your
mind. So the third way of understanding Jesus's question, how much bread do you have is, is
he's trying to transform us full disclosure. I actually gravitate toward this third interpretation.
And it's not because I'm a person of science and I don't have faith to believe in miracles.
I'm not skeptical of the supernatural. I believe Jesus could have multiplied fish and bread
and done a miracle that way. But is it any less of a miracle when people are feared or
when people are freed from the grip of fear and scarcity and transformed into generous
people that trust in God's abundance? I think that's a pretty big miracle too. If that happens,
you know what it means? It means that it's not that Jesus does a miracle. It's not just
that we participate in a miracle. It's that we become the miracle. And you know what?
Isn't that what the world needs? Not just for us to believe in miracles, not just for
us to pray for miracles, but the world needs us to be the miracle. The poor and hungry
need us to be the miracle. The lonely and lost, they need us to be the miracle. The
kids in Honduras need us to be the miracle. The people of our city need us to be the miracle.
With all the problems in our world and in our community, Trinity, let's not just watch
for a miracle. Let's not just wait for a miracle, but let's be the miracle. Let's be transformed
in our thinking, be transformed in our hearts and in our actions. So why did Jesus ask the
question, how much bread do you have? Was it for information? Was it for participation?
Was it for transformation? You can decide for yourself, but you still need to answer
the question as well. Because Jesus asks you and me, how much bread do you have? You could
say not enough Jesus, sorry. I don't have enough Jesus. I don't have enough time. I
don't have enough money. I don't have enough ability. I don't have enough faith. Or you
could answer, God, I don't have much, but what I do have, I give it to you. Or even
better, I hope we can get to the place where we can say, God, you know, I've got plenty.
I've got enough. I've got more than enough to share. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Thanks so much for joining us today and we hope that you enjoyed our sermon. If you enjoyed
the show today, please take some time to rate and review our podcast so that we can better
share our good news with others. Come back again next week where we will be beginning
a brand new sermon series. Thanks for listening. Today's sermon was taken from the September
3rd, 2023 service at Trinity Church, Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario.