DO WE REALLY RECOGNIZE HIM? — Vol. 3 Ch. 13

Dependency? What do we depend on? Dependency, is it a big deal? If we were walking down through life's journey do we recognize what makes us, us?


What does it mean, anyway?  Why do we need it? What’s the big deal?  Aren’t we educated capable competent individuals?  Do we have to keep going back to square one and talk about dependence? On what or whom we are dependent upon?What are we leaning on for our strength, our support, our identity?


I sometimes want to just learn this and get on with it…The disciples seem to have been on this same train of thought in Mark 6.  We find that they asked a few questions of Jesus themselves.  As we enter into the text of Mark 6:30 we notice that the disciples have come back from a journey and they are tired.  Jesus beckons them to “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.” And they proceeded to climb on a boat and head for a lonely place by themselves. Seeking Rest – how many of us can relate to that?


The multitude follows Jesus, running to meet Him.  Some recognize Him. Recognize.  What a powerful word.   Recognize – to be familiar with, to know, to identify. Do you think that the disciples recognize Jesus?  Truly recognizing requires relationship.  Our text makes it clear that Jesus recognized the multitudes.  He likens them to sheep without a shepherd.  He has compassion on them and began to teach them many things.


In verse 36 the disciples confront Jesus and request some relief. “send them away… so that they might get something to eat.”  Now, my first thought has always been that the disciples were a bit frustrated with the whole multitude situation; however, I wonder – could it be that the disciples were actually feeling some compassion for the multitudes as well?  Think about it.  They had come in from a journey, were excited about telling Jesus of the results of ministry, but they still hadn’t gotten anything to eat.  They knew how hungry they were.  Could it be that they were concerned about how hungry the multitude might be?  Could it be that they too were feeling a bit of compassion for the multitudes?  Could it be that they were frustrated with Jesus for not seeing the need and taking care of it?  


They make this request and Jesus challenges them, “You give them something to eat!”  Stop for a moment and step into those disciple’s shoes.  They are trying very hard to solve the situation.  They don’t want to spend money.  Wow!  I wonder if they were having difficulty raising support?  It could be that they don’t want to accumulate one more transportation story to share around the campfire later on during the evening… who knows.  The inadequacy overwhelms them and they break.  They retort with a short curt answer. Let me be very clear about this: They retort to the Master of the Universe with a short curt answer.  They obviously don’t recognize who He really is. But, they do have a relationship with Him.  They know Him well enough to feel comfortable to question.  They know Him well enough to feel free to question.  And as soon as they do, Jesus guides and directs.  How many loaves do you have? Go look!”  What are your resources?  This seems to be the question that He keeps asking me.  Robyn Rochelle Eubanks-Cox, what are your resources??????


And I like the disciples come up short.  They return with five loaves and two fishes.  Five loaves and two fishes to feed a multitude.  I think it is quite interesting here that in verse 38 the disciples gather together five loaves and two fishes and then Jesus commands them all to recline on the green grass – and after reclining they are in companies of hundreds and fifties.  Does Jesus want us to know in our present time how drastically low the available resources were for the need? 


Let’s read verse 41. And He took the five loaves and 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 the two fish among them all.


Jesus took the opportunity to model dependency on God.  He could have given the multitude a feast without asking for a blessing, my goodness! He could have given the multitude a feast without giving them food!!!!! He could have turned His hand and each one of those people could have had their bellies filled to overflowing.  He could have.  But He didn’t.  Instead, He began to break the bread up and the fish up and the disciples carried the baskets out amongst the multitudes and Jesus KEPT giving them to the disciples.  They kept coming back for more and more and more.  Feeding five men is a task.  Stop and think about feeding five thousand.  The resources were insufficient.  But were they really?  Or was this just that the disciples were depending on the wrong resource?


WHO is our resource?  Jesus reveals that He is the final and full resource available.  When we keep coming back to Him, He keeps giving us what we need to live.  But wait.  In verse 42 we read, “And they all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces and also of the fish.”


Jesus is such a gracious teacher.  He takes this opportunity to allow the disciples to enter into ministry with Him, to learn to depend on their true resource, to open one more door to understanding who He really is, and to feeding the five thousand with His words and food.  But He is more than just a gracious teacher.  He is the all sufficient God.  And He tucks this story in the pages of His book for us to understand that today as we are moving down our journey, we too will become frustrated with being tired, being money conscience, being hungry physically and spiritually, but the dependency issue will never be a past issue.  It is one that He will continue to use to reveal Himself to us.  He so wants us to depend on Him, to Really Recognize HIM!

Because He is the I AM,
i am robyn rochelle cox

Robyn & Biff Cox pray that He becomes your ALL.
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​Thank you El Roi.