In a town called Bethsaida the Disciples gathered around Jesus to tell Him about some of the deeds that they had accomplished. As they were speaking, slowly in the distance, they could see a crowd gathering & approaching them. Jesus had compassion on the crowd as they appeared as ‘like sheep without a shepherd.’ Once the crowd had formed around them Jesus got into a boat & began teaching them. As the daylight hours began to thin & the crowd had not dispersed, the Disciples asked Jesus to send them away into the nearby countryside in order to find food & drink. Jesus asked, “You give them something to eat.” The Disciples were stunned speechless by such a command as they had no idea how to feed such a multitude of people with only five (5) loaves & two (2) small fish. Thus, Jesus held the the loaves & fish in His Hands “He looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them.”
This story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand is what comes to my mind when I think about the word, bless, which is found in this following passage :
Genesis 12:2
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing
What’s absolutely startling about the Feeding miracle is that it overturns our conception of ‘I will Bless you.’ Why? The Disciples had brought to Jesus ONLY five loaves & two fish. Is this really a blessing? Can only these two food items be seriously considered for feeding a multitude? And the short answer is that it is only because the real power lay beneath the surface of the these two morsels. Jesus.
By the way, WHY did Jesus send the Disciples off two-by-two on a quasi-missionary journey at the beginning of chapter of 9 in Luke’s Gospel? Was it merely a time for Jesus to spend some quality alone-time with God the Father? Or was it deeper than that? Deeper, how? Jesus sent the Disciples on this missionary journey in order that they would experience the power of God in all that they did. In other words, the experience of being a blessing to other people.
What the Disciples forgot during the feeding miracle is the same reason we also forget — to be a blessing for others, we must be blessed in the first place. What does this mean? Consider, what Jesus was asking the Disciples to do — You give them something to eat — what was the expectation? Clearly, Jesus expected that the Disciples would be the main actors here, not Jesus. He was expecting that the Disciples learned the true value of their missionary journey — that the power of God is what enabled them to accomplish some miraculous feats. And yet, what was their reply — five loaves & two fish.
Stunned by the size of the crowd & the enormous task before them they failed to recognize the power in their midst — to be a blessing for others, one must be blessed in the first place. The power was not in the five loaves & two fish; the power was the person holding the five loaves & two fish, for Christ said a blessing over them, such that the blessings flowed from Christ to the multitude.
Many times, when we pray, we ask the Lord for what we need — to be blessed by Him. Many times what we ask for are not spiritual in nature nor are they spiritually related. And the reason is that the physical necessities of life outweigh what is spiritual, thinking that the two are unrelated. Just like the Disciples’ thought process — What does feeding the multitude have anything to do with what they experienced in their missionary journey? Yet, the physical burdens & necessities of life are related spiritually — they are interconnected. Because the joy or the strain of life will effect our outlook spiritually; they can even countermand what we may understand concerning the spiritual life.
Thus, it should motivate us to pray even more for ourselves concerning spiritual matters — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control — because they can effect our well-being on a physical level. The insights into the spiritual domain also allows connection with the Divine in a most intimate manner. And that level of intimacy goes beyond the simple life concerns as humans: do we not also care about the spiritual necessities? This question & how we answer it will effect our prayer life. And it will effect the blessings that flow from that.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends.
If we are endowed by our Maker with all the blessings of Christ; if we are enabled by the Spirit of Christ unto transformation in this new self, as a new creation; if we are emboldened by His Christ to be filled with all manner of Christ — His character & personality, then & only then can we expected to be a blessing unto our neighbors — Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, & spirit and Love your neighbor as yourself.
Christ has committed Himself unto our transformation as a new creation not to hoard our blessings from Him nor to keep the blessings from Him to ourselves nor to cling unto Christ as our life at the expense of others around us. Rather, His life-altering death & resurrection for the salvation of our souls was so that His Blessings of eternal, everlasting life would be manifested upon His people in order that, they, so filled with the Holy Spirit, they too could manifest such Divine blessings from Christ unto the people they meet everyday.
In this way, the life of the spiritual impacts the daily living of the everyday — the blessings that flow from Christ unto the Believers’ hearts by way of the Holy Spirit that changes us; that change & transformation manifests unto our daily lives of action & speech & all manners of blessings that flow from us unto the people we meet — friend & foe alike.
Therefore, let us not merely, pray for ourselves unto ourselves, for our sake alone; let us not merely be blessed so that we can hoard it for ourselves & gain benefit to ourselves, for our sake alone. But let the Holy Spirit so transform us that we would have a burden outside ourselves, to benefit those ouside ourselves, in such a way that those outside ourselves, may stand to benefit; even if it means, they benefit in a far greater way than we do.
