Divine life is only in Christ and that life performs.August 30, 2022Courage is the ability to, by faith, keep on thinking and doing God’s will despite fatigue and disappointment.
This is not all of what courage is, but a part of it. Courage manifests itself in many ways. It is a broader term than this, and included with this aspect of it are other virtues like perseverance, diligence, and forbearance.
With such virtues, as courage, to try and take in every aspect of it in one sitting will often lead to overload and then nothing is retained. In the course of events that took place over two or three days, recorded in Joh 6, this disciples first learned this aspect of courage in persevering, but that was only the beginning of the lesson. As with all true and important things, the lesson in multilayered and has a depth that demands time and patience and contemplation and prayer, if it is to be understood.
The important lesson is that a person needs to be in Christ in order to truly live. Being in Christ, we are new creatures. New creatures are transformed from within. The life that Christ has given us, the eternal life of the Trinity, in lived in the heart and also manifested in the body. The life is not watching the Lord do miracles. The life is resting in His ability to do all things while also actively doing His will with joy from the position of being in Him and Him in us.
Our understanding of our position and our faith in the ability of Christ in us and the Holy Spirit in us to do what we cannot gives us the momentum and the joy to do God’s will in all circumstances. And when it is time to rest, Christ our Lord will calm the storm.
The scene is set as follows. The disciples had been sent out by Christ as witnesses of the kingdom of heaven. They performed many miracles and taught many things and they had been so busy with this ministry that they didn’t even have time to eat. When they returned to Jesus and told them all that they had done, Jesus told them that they were all going to get into the boats and go to a quiet place to rest.
Word got out that they were going to another place and where that place was, and due to His many miracles, especially healings, a large crowd went ahead of them to this spot. When the exhausted disciples approached the shore, instead of the quiet, empty spot they had hoped for, the place was filled with thousands of people in need. Jesus felt compassion for them, seeing them as sheep in need of a shepherd. Throughout the day, Jesus and the disciples ministered to them, and as it grew late, being a desolate place with nothing to eat, the disciples suggested to the Lord that they should sent the people away so they could go to neighboring villages and get something to eat. No doubt the even more tired disciples were looking forward to quiet rest as soon as possible. Jesus’ reply was, “You give them something to eat.” After the multitude is fed, the disciples think their very long day of toil is over, but then Jesus tells them to get into the boat and go over to the other side. It’s dark when they get in the boat. It’s 3-4 a.m. when they are about half-way across, rowing against the wind in a storm, and then Jesus appears walking on the water, calms the storm, and finally gives them rest. With the storm calmed, the water still, still dark out, the chilled air, and the work finally done, I imagine all of them falling asleep in seconds and Jesus, alone awake in the boat, looking over His own who are going to learn and going to change the world.
Let’s pick up the scene at the feeding.
The command, “You feed them,” seemed impossible, but the disciples would actually feed them all. In the Greek, Jesus uses the pronoun “you” when He commands them – practically saying, “You yourselves give them something to eat.”
Perhaps we misname the miracle as “Jesus feeds the five-thousand,” when in fact Jesus makes bread and fish in abundance out of a tiny stock. The disciples would be the ones to serve the crowd.
Mar 6:37-38 But He answered and said to them, "You give them something to eat!" And they said to Him," Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?" [sounds sarcastic – “shall we do the impossible?”] 38 And He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go look!" [“go” and “see” are both imperatives] And when they found out, they said, "Five and two fish."
They would have known that thousands of pounds of food were not available to them. Finding the five loafs and two fish would have been vindication for them – they have to send the people away. No thought of miracle enters their minds. Things are as they seem, so therefore, this confirms to Jesus that we cannot feed them and they have to leave and go find food. Jesus disappoints them again.
Mar 6:39-44 And He commanded them all to recline by groups on the green grass. 40 And they reclined in companies of hundreds and of fifties. 41 And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. 44 And there were five thousand men who ate the loaves.
Their solution is to send the needy, hungry away, while Jesus’ will is to serve them and shepherd them.
Divine life is only in Christ and that life performs.
The disciples will feed the crowd and pick up the extra after the Lord performs the miracle that enables them. He is the vine and we are the branches. If we abide in Him we will produce much fruit, because apart from Him we can do nothing. Through the vine flows all the nutrients and energy for the branches.
Joh 15:4-6 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
The whole of revelation tells us that salvation is not by works. An unbeliever does not abide in Him. Aq who doesn’t produce fruit does not abide in Him and becomes like a dried-up vine branch. His thinking, lifestyle, and conduct is very much like an unbeliever. What Jesus tells us is that life without Him is equivalent to a dried-up vine branch and they have no use. You can’t build with them. They don’t even make good pegs for hanging stuff. They are only fit to be burned.
If branches lack fruit, they are only fit to be burned, which is Jesus’ way of stating our worth apart from Him.
This will be the point of the message that Jesus will give to them all on the next day. They could all be the beneficiaries of His power to make bread, walk on water, calm storms, and even teach knowledge, but if they are not literally a part of Him, they can do nothing.
Life is not watching or dreaming, but doing.
The branches produce the fruit. The disciples, and ourselves, are not to do nothing, but work and serve knowing that the supply of energy and things will come from the one who can do miracles.
We have to be in Christ to live this way, in the fellowship of the Trinity. It’s not that we don’t watch or don’t dream – we do and we must, but if we’re not doing, actually walking the walk, then we’re nothing, dried up vine branches (Joh 15:6; 1Co 13:2).
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