Doing the Impossible, Luke 9:12-17
When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here." But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."
And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people." For there were about five thousand men.
Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty." And they did so, and made them all sit down.
Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
There will be times in our lives when Jesus asks us to do the impossible. He will ask us to do something that is completely beyond ourselves, something that we have no way of accomplishing in our own strength and effort. To His disciples he commanded they give a large multitude food and provisions, knowing full well that they had nothing to give. Why would Jesus do such a thing?
I don't believe that Jesus was upset at the disciples' lack of faith in this matter-- I believe that He fully expected them to say what they did, and even wanted them to respond how they did. Jesus wanted them to come to the realization that there was no way they could possibly do what He asked of them.
With this realization, the disciples stood before Jesus, perhaps confused and perplexed at why He would ask such a thing of them, perhaps a little frustrated that they could not carry out His command. They probably just stood there looking at each other for a moment, wondering if Jesus had gone crazy or if He was totally oblivious to the circumstances around them. But Jesus had not gone crazy, nor was He oblivious to their circumstance. He had something great in mind, something miraculous in store. He wanted to demonstrate the power of God and teach His disciples a lesson in faith.
The next thing Jesus did was give His disciples another command. This time it was something they could easily do: make the people sit down in groups of fifty. They had no problem with accomplishing this task. When they had fulfilled His second command, Jesus then began His great miracle: the feeding of the 5,000. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the small amount of food that was present among the multitude, then broke it and gave it to His disciples to distribute. The multitude ate, they were filled, and there was food left over.
When Jesus wants to do a miracle in our lives, He may start out by asking us to do the impossible. This is to get us to realize that we can't do anything in our own strength. We cannot accomplish the will of God in and of ourselves. Then He gives us something we can do.
What He asks may seem like something simple and insignificant, but obedience to what He has called us to do is more important than how significant we think the task may be. And when we are obedient to even the most simple of His commands, we see that He can work a great and wonderful miracle in our lives. Not only so, but it will be abundantly beyond all we could have asked or imagined. Perhaps in distributing the broken pieces of food the disciples thought to themselves, "Sure, there is a lot more bread and fish than before, but still the people will barely have enough to eat, and some will still probably go without".
God's blessings are not stingy or scarce, but abundant. Not only did Jesus make more fish and bread, not only did He make enough fish and bread, but He made so much bread and fish that there were twelve baskets left over!
Perhaps Jesus is asking you to do something impossible. Your first step is to realize that you cannot do it. Realize that you are powerless in and of yourself to fulfill the calling of God. Your next step is to be obedient to whatever He calls you to do that you can do, whether it be large or small. He may give us a vision of a great and grand future serving Him, but we look at it and say, "I can't do that! There's no way!" But then He asks you to pray. Do that. Then He asks you to take a step in this direction or that. Do that. If He asks you to go through this or that open door, do that. If He closes doors, leave them closed and go the direction He moves you to. Do whatever He asks of you. These things are those which will lead to that vision He gave you. He does not give you a vision for the future and then throw you into it immediately, but leads you step by step, each step by faith. We walk by faith, and not by sight. Be obedient to His commands.
When you have been obedient to each of His commands, you will find that not only are you heading toward something great, but that this something is better and greater than you could have ever imagined for yourself. It is not only a little bit of joy, or enough joy, but exceeding joy. It is not only a little bit of peace, or enough peace, but peace that surpasses all understanding. He is not a God of almost enough, or even of enough, but of exceeding and abundant grace and mercy. He did not pay for some of our sin and leave the rest up to us, nor did He pay for our all of our sin and allow us passage into heaven but leave us to ourselves on earth. He paid for all of our sins-- past, present, and future-- and watches over our lives, and guides our every step, and blesses us ever so wonderfully, and molds us and shapes us into His image, and gives us spiritual gifts, and so much more!
Jesus loves us so much that I think we would die of being completely overwhelmed if we actually knew how great His love was. Our minds, our hearts, our frail souls cannot comprehend or even absorb the full magnitude of His awesome love, grace, and mercy. All we can do is stand in awe of Him, worshiping Him. We, like the four living creatures in Revelation who do not cease to worship Him night and day, will fall on our faces crying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who is and was and is to come.