THE PRACTICE OF
SERVICE
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave to them and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body'" (Mark 14:22).
In the last chapter we thought of the principle of service — not doing, but being made. Now we will see that God wants not only talented men and women, and those with special gifts, but the ordinary men and women — those who are only "five barley loaves and two small fishes."
One morning in London I witnessed an unusual sight. It was rush hour at a busy junction of several roads. The traffic lights had failed, and in a very short time every highway was snarled up as every driver tried his best to do his own will. Tension grew.
Suddenly a London policeman appeared. Quickly he surveyed the scene, and then, walking into the chaos, took charge. Gradually the blockage eased and soon the lights began functioning again. The crossing returned to its usual order.
Because the policeman knew what he was going to do, he could take charge. This knowledge was the answer to the problem. This sense of someone in control is a comfort — tempers ease, bitterness disappears, and cooperation appears.
The "Feeding of the Five Thousand" was something like that, a build-up of tension and then the sure solution, because Christ knew what to do.
The story as told in John 6:1-15 would make a wonderful crowd scene for a film. The place was up in the mountains, where it was cool. There was lovely green grass there. Crowds were gathering and building up. John estimates 5,000 men, not counting women and children. There was healing and teaching, and the tension was mounting moment by moment. Then it was time to eat. There were no stores; no catering firm had been consulted. Something needed to be done urgently. We can almost see the Lord looking over the great company when He says to Philip: "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" (John 6:5).
Philip doesn't bother with the where. He simply dismisses the whole thing: "Two hundred pennyworth of bread wouldn't be enough to give them a bite each!" (Remember one penny was day's wages for a man, so Philip was estimating that it would require nearly a year's wages to give them each a bite.)
Andrew looks around and sees a boy with his lunch — five barley loaves and two small fishes — he looks and laughs. He tells the Lord what he can see, and how useless that was.
Philip thought of the financial situation, Andrew of the food situation, and the result was utterly hopeless. But all the time the Lord had worn His calm, confident smile for we read in verse 6: "He himself knew what he would do."
He was master of the situation on the mountain. He asked His question "Where" to test Philip, for all the time the "where" was sitting alongside them in the presence of a small boy. The Lord was not waiting for the money; He was waiting for the boy!
The key to the whole situation is in the words of Andrew in verse 9: "There is a lad here. . . ." He was just a very ordinary boy who had tramped the mountains all day, and who was about to devour his tiny lunch. A few hungry bites and it would have vanished. But this lad had something to give, and he was willing to give it to Jesus. Not only had the Lord seen the boy, but the boy had had his eyes fixed on the wonderful teacher. He must have been greatly attracted to the Lord, because he was willing to hand over his lunch in spite of his hunger.
But the most important point is that he really did hand over his precious food to Andrew, who in turn passed it to the Lord.
Many people can feel willing to commit their lives to Jesus, their emotions can be aroused, especially in a missionary meeting, tears can flow, and willingness is very evident — but when it comes to the actual handing over then it is quite another story.
What followed next was the wonderful miracle with which we are so familiar. We see, first, that it produced complete satisfaction. All those thousands were filled, and not with just a bite as Philip had thought, but a real "all-day-long-mountain-air" hunger was satisfied.
The disciples were satisfied, and so was the Lord — that is a lovely thought — the boy's willingness to give satisfied the hunger of the Son of God. And, of course, the boy was filled. If he had eaten the original meal it would have left him longing for more, but now he, too, was filled.
Another result of this miracle was an immediate united action on the part of the crowds. They were determined to make Jesus a king, by force if necessary.
This was one of the high points of our Lord's popularity. The glory, the honor, the united enthusiasm were touched off by a boy's willingness to hand over his little "all."
An examination of the other accounts reveals this sequence of events: The boy handed over his lunch. The Lord took it, He blessed it, He broke it. Then he gave it out to his disciples to distribute among the people. Before the sequence begins there is one boy with his tiny lunch and when it is complete there are thousands of people — fed, and rejoicing. What a wonderful teaching this is!
Let us apply this lesson to our own lives. Around us is a world weary, broken and hungry. Even thousands of people today in this prosperous land are hungry — hungry for some means of satisfying the inner longings in their hearts.
The human heart needs more than cars, T.V. sets, and new houses to meet its inner hunger. The rich and prosperous are just as hungry as the down-and-outs; so are the famous and the religious.
For today's crowd also, Jesus says: "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" The Lord is not looking for money; He is waiting for the boy, for us, to give all that we possess.
Humanly speaking, all the honor the Lord received that day came because there was a boy who had something to give, and he gave it willingly. Are you willing to do the same?
"Oh," you reply, "I can't preach or sing or play anything — I'm no use!" In other words you are just "five barley loaves and two small fishes" — the most ordinary things you could find. But realize that it was with the ordinary that the Lord did the extra-ordinary. Your life, however drab and ordinary it seems to you, is still barley loaves and fishes!
The lad was willing to give what he had because of love to Christ. Do you love Him enough to give him your barley loaves and fishes as a love gift?
Being willing, emotionally, is not enough. There must be the one act of decision when we hand over into the hands of the Lord we love, all that we have and are. Commitment to Christ is the spark that can fire a great sequence of miracles. For we commit to Him our all, and He takes it.
Christ blessed the food. Just as surely, if we yield to Him ourselves, He will hold us in His hands and bless us. After He took, He blessed, then — after He blessed it, He broke it. The gift was broken up into small pieces.
Sometimes this is what the Lord does with us, too; He breaks us. At times we find ourselves in sorrow or loss. Things go wrong for no apparent reason. We are tempted to cry, "Why should God do this to me?"
He may be breaking the bread with which to feed others.
. . . and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (2 Corinthians 1:3, 4).
Notice two things.
First, the breaking was done in His own hands. Our troubles and distresses are not suffered out of the hands of Christ but safely in His hands.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one (John 10:27-30).
Surely as Jesus said: "neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand" — He would hold one cupped hand, and as He said — "no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand"; He would hold up the other cupped hand. But how can we be in two hands at once?
"I and My Father are one" is the answer. Jesus would bring His two hands together to make one place of shelter, and right in the center of the two hands is where we can rest.
Second, the thing to realize in connection with this idea of "breaking," is that the Lord always fed people with broken bread. Mark 14:22 says: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave to them and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body.' "
Notice the same order again: He took — blessed — broke — gave.
Luke 24:30 says: "Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them." The same order again. Notice, especially, the beginning of verse 31: "Then their eyes were opened and they knew him." They recognized the broken bread — in the broken hands.
The most precious thing ever to be broken was the precious body of Christ.
This thought of Christ feeding people on broken bread is so vital in our service. In the last chapter we had the simple thought that first — He made himself and then He was made — this being the driving principle of all service, ours included.
If we then, having made ourselves of nothing, hand over our whole being to Him, we shall "be made." That was the principle, now here is the practice of the principle. We are to be in His hands with no reserve of any kind, and in the hands the breaking is done.
Notice that many of us need breaking because we are too big or too hard — Christ's standard size is "a grain of wheat!"
The need for "breaking" may be very real. There may be friendships that will need breaking, if Christ is to have all of me to "make me" as He desires. Sometimes it is our friendships with other people that drag us down, or pull us away.
If the rocket is to rise, it must sever all connection with the world around it so that it can soar unhindered.
Habits, too, may need breaking. Habits that are suitable for a worldling but which dishonor Christ. Here, again, learn the lesson that we do not have to break the friendship or break the habit. If we stay in His hands, He will do the breaking.
I remember one young man who had just been gloriously saved asking how he could break with all his old friends and acquaintances. He knew he would have to finish with them, but he wondered how to break with them. The answer was simple. He was told simply to let the Lord Jesus take his life to do with as He chose, and the problem would solve itself. His friends would go of their own accord. As they saw his habits being broken by Christ, so the friendship would either be broken or united in Christ.
Christ, too, can give us a break with past failure. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." The chains that bind us with the past, with others and with ourselves, can all be broken — in His hands.
The whole situation in this story is so human — the build up of a difficult situation so common in life today — the emphasis on the financial and the material side — when, all the time the answer is there in the midst. How very often a church, or a group, can be searching for a way out of a difficulty, trying the usual financial ways, or the obvious material ways, wondering what on earth to do, when all the time the answer is in their midst.
The boy had no idea what the Lord would do with his loaves and fishes. Undoubtedly he was offering to Christ in love — for Christ to eat — not the crowd.
When the call comes to give, let us do it unto the Lord. What He does with the gift is His business, not ours.
Christ said in I Corinthians 11:24:
This is My body which is broken for you.
Psalm 51:17 says:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart — These O God, You will not despise.
God does not ask for our money or our talents, He asks: "My son, give me your heart" (Proverbs 23:26). Romans 12:1 calls us to present our bodies unto God — to hand over ourselves, all that we are. We are the five barley loaves and the two small fishes.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1).
