40 DAYS in the GOSPEL Sample

TO BE CONTINUED...

“...And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” (Mark 8:18b-19)

The God of the Bible is a creating God. Genesis chapter one lets us know that He created from nothing, and the letter to the Hebrews says explicitly that everything there is was created from nothing by the word of our God. Jesus' work with His disciples was an echo of what His Father had done in all creation. When He came to the twelve, He began creating in their hearts with His words and deeds a brand-new way of being that was so different from what they knew that it makes sense to say that Jesus was creating it from nothing.

The story in our text makes me (Josiah) smile a little bit—not because I enjoy the disciple's confusion and the remedial lesson they get from Jesus, but because I see myself in it so much and feel less alone. All that Jesus was telling and showing them was so new. He turned five loaves and two fish into a banquet for 5,000, as well as an encore some days later for another 4,000 people. He pointed out the backward ways and hypocritical teaching of the religious leaders who the disciples would have considered to be God’s top men of their time. No wonder that when Jesus gives them a picturesque reminder to watch out for the self-reliant pride that guided Herod and the Pharisees, all they could make of it was that Jesus was let down that they had not brought enough lunch for their boat trip!

Jesus does not relent from His new creation work in their hearts though. He strikes at the roots again by asking them if they do not yet see with real eyes and hear with real ears what the Son of God has come to do. He does this because He loves them. To our ears, it can sound harsh. But what we are hearing is Jesus' zeal to give His disciples the sight and sound of eternal life, instead of me-centered death that was exemplified all around them.

This work is still going on in our lives. The word of God, His Holy Spirit, and the people who God has placed in our lives continue to point to the new creation ways that Jesus is faithfully bringing into the lives of those who call Him Lord. Let's not get defeated by our frequent relapses into small thinking. The gospel is the good news of a new creation breaking into our old ways. When we turn to Jesus, we cry out for salvation, not a small adjustment here or there. Take heart from the disciple's similar lapses as well as Jesus' unbending willingness to stay at it until the work is done.

PRAY ABOUT IT: Have you suffered some defeats in your spiritual life recently? Lost your temper? Wandered for days in the distractions of money, worry, and self? Spent a week or so without praying to the Father? Now is the time to just begin the conversation again and ask the Lord to keep creating something new in your heart, mind, and life.