When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. (John 6:12,13)
Jesus often tests us to see what we shall say and do in the presence of overwhelming difficulty, but He always knows the way out. We at once begin to calculate our paltry resources, and to confess their inadequacy. We come back to explain that when we have done our utmost, we can provide very little.
Then He steps in, determined that everyone shall be filled, with an ample supply left over. He makes His guests sit down in comfort on the grass, because there is plenty of time, as well as an abundance of food, for a happy and comfortable meal. We must bring Him what we have, however slender; must enter into His great plan and arrange the people for the banquet; must distribute the food and gather up the broken pieces. The world is to be fed by the cooperation of Christ and His Church.
The disciples finally came to Jesus, urging that for their own sake the people should be sent away. Many had come from far, and had eaten nothing since morning. In the surrounding towns and villages they might be able to buy food. But Jesus said, “Give ye them to eat,” and then, turning to Philip, questioned, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” This He said to test the faith of the disciple. Philip looked over the sea of heads, and thought how impossible it would be to provide food to satisfy the wants of such a crowd. He answered that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not be nearly enough to divide among them, so that each might have a little.
Jesus inquired how much food could be found among the company. “There is a lad here,” said Andrew, “which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?” Jesus directed that these be brought to Him. Then He bade the disciples seat the people on the grass in parties of fifty or a hundred, to preserve order, and that all might witness what He was about to do.
When this was accomplished, Jesus took the food, “and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.” “And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.” {DA 365.3}
He who taught the people the way to secure peace and happiness was just as thoughtful of their temporal necessities as of their spiritual need. The people were weary and faint. There were mothers with babes in their arms, and little children clinging to their skirts. Many had been standing for hours. They had been so intensely interested in Christ’s words that they had not once thought of sitting down, and the crowd was so great that there was danger of their trampling on one another. Jesus would give them a chance to rest, and He bade them sit down. There was much grass in the place, and all could rest in comfort. {DA 365.4}
Christ never worked a miracle except to supply a genuine necessity, and every miracle was of a character to lead the person to the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Jesus said there would be miracles manifested for the express purpose of deceiving of “the very elect,” and so we must examine closely Gods Word to see what Jesus, the Judge of all would say about miracles we may witness.
According to the everlasting gospel, there is hope amongst the fragments. John 6:12. If your heart has been broken by grief, by worry, by fear, by pain, or by suffering, or by someone doing you dirt, or by loved ones dying, or by anything else, God’s desire is that we just make art with all those pieces. Make something beautiful out of all those little pieces of your darkest times. We are born of the anguish we bear, and we are to turn all of our grief, our tears, our clouds, into the love that we want to give. Only then, when we give what we want to receive, are we truly “the children of God.” (Mat 5:9).
“To them that received Him, gave He power to become the sons and daughters of God.” (John 1:12)
And Jesus said “gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” (John 6:12)
Many of us have made ship-wreck of our faith, all of us have done wrong and been wronged. (Rom 3:23) But all of us have some fragments of faith that still live in us. (Rom 12:3). And it is our job as Christians to identify with people, in the same ways that Jesus did, for the purpose of gathering up those little shreds and fragments of people’s faith that remain and to come alongside them in the love of Christ, so that NOTHING be lost.”
Scripture tells us that “…they gathered them up, and they filled twelve large baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten…” (John 6:13). Jesus fed huge crowds of people with those tiny fragments He was talking about!
As Christians, we need to find those fragments of faith in others, and use them to build upon Christ, our Solid Rock.