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John 6:5 NLT
Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, ‘Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?’
Business, I’m told, involves matching resources to opportunity. In the people business, this can prove a lot more difficult than when dealing with products. People are contrary, inconsistent and mood-dependent, while products are inanimate objects awaiting shipping. Sadly, in our society there appears an increasing tendency to treat people as products.
Caring for Katey showed me that much as we want to define an individual by their condition, placing them on a well-worn pathway to deal with that condition, it dehumanises the person in the process. In fact, it is the condition that becomes the dominant refrain within the treatment plan, while the person is removed to some minor refrain that only the trained ear might hear.
As Jesus observed a crowd approaching him and his disciples, inspired by his miracles and hoping for a miracle of their own, he teased his disciples by enquiring what resources they had to meet the appetite of this fast-approaching crowd. His disciples only saw the need to feed the crowd’s natural hunger, and realised they had neither the resources to hand, five loaves and two fish, nor in reserve, 200 denarii, to meet this opportunity.
Just as the health system, in which Katey found herself, responded to her condition with the only resource they had to hand, medical intervention, so the disciples were concerned to meet the assumed and no doubt very real need the people had for a meal. However, for Katey there was no medical intervention that was able to address her autoimmune disease. In fact, while obviously she desired physical healing, there were many other needs she wanted met; needs the medical model could not even identify, let alone address. So with this crowd. Jesus wanted the disciples to see beyond the immediate and consider what their true desire might be – and to recognise that a crowd is a group of individuals, so needs would most certainly be many and varied.
QUESTION: The most obvious may not be the most essential, but as you approach Jesus, what is your need?
PRAYER: Lord, you provide in more ways than I can fathom. Help me to trust you in all things and find the peace that goes beyond all understanding.
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