Stone Stadiums ...

Popular speakers, singers, and performers have an uncanny ability to fill a stadium to sold-out capacity for people who want to see and hear them in person.  Logically this makes little sense, as for all but a few extraordinarily rich and privileged individuals, the seats typically preclude actually getting a good personal view of the celebrity.  To overcome this obvious dilemma, large stadiums install even larger monitors that hang from the ceiling in a central location and use television cameras to capture more close up images and display them so that everyone is at least able to see better what is actually happening on stage.  But this more close up, captured view, is generally the same one produced on DVD and BluRays that could have been consumed and enjoyed in the comfort of our own homes.  Logically, one would think live presentations should be going the way of the dinosaur, but somehow in spite of all these facts, they persist and thrive.  So what is it about seeing a “live” event that we still crave to be a part of?

But what if the conditions to attend an event made the participation even more difficult?  What if, instead of stadium surround sound, and projection TV, with padded seats, there were none of these things present.  Only the crowds remained, outdoors, in the blistering desert heat … would any celebrity be worth contending with those conditions?  What if there were no bathrooms, or even nearby access to water.  What if it was hard to hear, nearly impossible to see, and getting close just like in our events today, was precluded simply by the size of the crowd.  Under these conditions, would you attempt to attend such a live event, to catch a glimpse of the celebrity?  In a make-shift stadium made of jagged stones, rocks, and dirt, such an event was to take place nearly 2,000 years ago … to a sold out crowd that rivals the crowds of today.  Peter was there.  He recalled what took place to John Mark in his gospel in chapter six.

Beginning in verse 30 Mark transcribes … “And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.”  The disciples had recently reached a good breaking point in their respective outreach to the surrounding areas, regarding the revelation of the identity of Jesus Christ.  They had been publicizing the arrival of the Messiah, the arrival of the very Son of God.  Adding power to their words, were acts of miraculous love that Jesus had endowed them with.  In His name, they were casting out demons, and healing the sick, just like their Lord was doing.  The audience might have easily ignored the ravings of mad-men, or the ramblings of disaffected disciples of yet another wanna-be Messiah.  But when those men performed the same miraculous deeds as their Master, in the name of their Master … this was something that could not be ignored.  The audience responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and to the power of the words He inspired in the mouths of the servants of Christ.  Hearts were turned in Israel.

The disciples had returned to Jesus in order to bring Him up to speed on the success they were seeing in their partner-team ministries.  They likely did not realize, that the recounting of their experiences, had the side effect of boosting their own faith (as Jesus already knew each event in detail before they recalled it).  It is similar in our prayer life.  We ask God for things, that He already knows we need.  We thank Him for things, that He already knew we would express our gratitude for.  Our prayers are not meant to be a news service, or an information brokerage.  They are meant to be a method for us to bring to our own minds, how much our God loves us, and proactively interacts with us, meeting our needs, and comforting us through events we were not meant to experience, but were made so by the evil of sin in this world.  The reaction of Jesus to these recollections is worth a special note.

Mark continues in verse 31 saying … “And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. [verse 32] And they departed into a desert place by ship privately.”  As always, the FIRST concern of Jesus, is not for Himself, or in this case, even for the ministry and the harvest that was being reaped in Israel.  His First concern, was for those who He loved, and for the needs of His own disciples.  People respond to love.  The inherent need in people to be loved is great, and when it finds an outlet, it will latch on.  When the needy realize there is someone to love them, they cling tightly to this person, looking to share their needs, and unload the stories of their lives.  This emotional need of the seeker, can quickly translate to an emotional burden of the minister, and it can drain the limits of human patience, care, and empathy.  Our very humanity, our human nature, needs time to rest and recover between great acts of service and love.  We are weak vessels after all.  And our imperfection sometimes makes us less effective in sharing love with others, than the perfect patience of our Master would have otherwise given witness to.

Jesus sees the effects of stress on His disciples, and immediately offers a plan for their recovery and renewal.  Both then and now, Jesus is keenly aware of your physical and emotional condition.  He knows what you need.  Sometimes we ask to push on, and the answer given is to pause, take time away and refresh ourselves in order to be ready to push on when the time comes.  Rest, is not a sin.  Rest, is instead the cornerstone of the Sabbath, and time away with Christ.  The success of your personal ministry and personal testimony of what Jesus Christ has done in your own life, and the sins He has freed you from, is not measured in your activity level.  We do not need to run from site to site, or from witness to witness, in order that the greatest number of people can be reached.  Instead our success can be measured in how deeply we are led to love others.  It is not our words the world needs, it is our passion to really love someone who has never known the depths of what being loved means.  This may preclude us from loving millions and leave us only loving a few.  But to love those few so deeply as to make a tangible difference in their lives in the name of Christ, is to share true success in His ministry, and offer a true revelation of His identity.  Loving this deeply is draining.  Because in our world, our imperfections taint both our ability to selflessly love another, and their response to this love.  Rest then, becomes a key part of the ministry cycle.

To get away from the crowds, one must go where people do not typically want to go.  In this case, the desert offered solace from the crowds in Israel, because it is hot, dry, arid, and not conducive to social events or interactions.  It is an isolated place, because conditions for life are difficult there, so while you make choose to visit, few choose to attempt living there.  As such getting away from the crowds, by going to a place they do not typically ever want to go made sense.  So the disciples and Christ got into a boat and sailed over the Sea of Galilee looking for a good spot of desert isolation.  But what happened next, perhaps reveals to us, how great a need there is in the world around us, to simply be loved.  Peter recalls it to John Mark in verse 33 saying … “And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.”  The people saw Jesus setting sail with His disciples.  They guessed at their destination as a preference of isolation.  And they ran.

People ran home, to gather their families and friends.  They ignored the heat.  They ignored the pebbles that would invariably get in to their sandals.  They did not think about food or comfort.  The lame had spent too many days on the ground unable to move, they were made whole now, they were up, and longing to run.  The blind had spent too many days in darkness.  They were eager to see the light of the sun, and the Son of God.  The deaf had spent too many days in silence.  They now enjoyed the sound of waves along the shore, and craved the words of the Master who had broken through the darkness, the silence, and the chains that bound them to the ground.  In every town, every village, the word went out that Jesus was near.  And people gathered in numbers to rival an army.

Perhaps it was the lame who sprinted at full speed to outrun the boat Christ was on.  Perhaps it was the blind who pointed the way to those who could not move as fast.  Perhaps it was the deaf who shouted directions to those lagging behind, the mission was to meet Jesus where we He would land.  Those who had been bound to evil spirits, infecting them and insidiously controlling their actions, and corrupting their minds, were bound no longer.  They longed to sit again at the feet of the Son of God.  They were made free to love others.  They were restored and renewed.  No desert sun, no lack of water, no lack of food, even entered their minds … all that consumed their thoughts was to reach Jesus, even if it is only one last time to spend precious moments hearing the Word of the Lord, from the Lord Himself.  The voice of God had freed them.  That voice must be heard again.  So they ran, ignoring any human pain or limits.

Mark continues in verse 34 saying … “And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”  The intent of this trip was not to preach or teach, but to allow His disciples to rest.  But on landing on shore, the great needs of those who had run themselves ragged for just a glimpse of His love was so great, it could not be ignored.  Jesus would have to impart His strength miraculously into His disciples to renew them for this event.  Just like He does today.  When the limits of our humanity have far been exceeded, it is not up to us to find more strength to go on.  It is up to us to allow God to renew us, and give us strength we have long run out of.  And so it occurred.  The disciples were miraculously made ready for the work of love, the crowds were in such desperate need of.  And Jesus begins to teach and preach in the jagged stone stadium that was originally meant to be a place of isolation and escape.

His powerful voice begins to echo in canyons of stone.  With another miracle, the crowds can hear every word.  The sky is crystal clear, and the sun should be melting the crowds in heat normally hot enough to melt stone; but while no one can explain it, it does not.  Today is just like in the days of the exodus of the children of Israel, when for forty years not even a single sandal wore out in the desert heat.  Every day in their sojourn back then the weather was kept mild in the camp of Israel, both day and night.  Scorpions, snakes, spiders, and all manner of dangerous and indigenous desert creatures were made to stay in their homes, and not a single snake bite occurs.  On this day, with this many people clamoring to get a good seat, to get comfortable looking for shade and rocks to sit on, snakes would have surely been in abundance, normally that is.  Yet not a single bite occurs.  Nature bends its will to the voice of its Creator.  The curse of sin, is made moot, by the only feet that can transform dirt into Holy Ground.  It is not Sinai that is Holy today, it is the stone stadiums along the shore of Galilee that are, because the Creator of Heaven and Earth is teaching there.  It is His feet transforming the earth they walk across, and dirt is transformed into Holy Ground.

In what seems like the blink of an eye, the hours of the day have been spent.  Mark continues in verse 35 saying … “And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: [verse 36] Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.”  Notice the effects of being close to Christ.  The disciples now find themselves concerned not for their own welfare, but for the needs of the people.  Jesus made His first concern, for their well-being.  Now the disciples are making their own concern for the well-being of the people.  When we love others like Christ loves others, we begin to truly understand who He is.  When we love others like Christ loves others, we begin to see that the entirety of scripture and of our salvation has always been about that love.

The disciples are thinking about the needs of humanity, but limited in their scope of solutions to the limits of humanity.  This error in their thinking needs to be addressed.  We should not limit ourselves to the solutions only humanity is capable of, for we do not serve a man, but a God who has no limits.  Peter recalls the response of Jesus in His loving words in verse 37 saying … “He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?”  The story might have ended differently if the directions of Christ had been followed when they were given.  How like us.  Instead of doing what God commands, we pause to question Him, and His logic (or lack thereof) from our perspective.  Jesus had said to feed the people.  The disciples still looked at this idea in the context of human limitations.  They now made the more fatal mistake of introducing funding as a further limitation.  They point out to Christ, that 200 pennyworth does not buy what is required for this ministry.

How often have we looked our God square in the eye (metaphorically) and “informed” Him that we simply do not have enough money to perform the ministry He has asked of us?  If He wanted this ministry done, He should have provided more money to see it accomplished.  So after all, it is really His fault, that nothing gets done.  Or perhaps is it our total lack of faith the size of a grain of mustard seed that actually allows a financial discussion to even come up in the context of ministry.  How dare we introduce money as any kind of limiter to the love of God.  How dare we, like our disciple forefathers, explain that 200 pennyworth is simply not enough.  Jesus did not ask the disciples to buy bread, or for that matter to charge money for healing and the freedom from demons.  Money, was nowhere a part of the ministry of Christ.  Freely, they were given gifts, freely they were to impart them.  The request of Jesus never mentioned money, or purchasing, or financial transactions.  It was to feed the people.  Does He ask anything different from us today?  Why is our first response always couched in the financial terms that will invariably limit our responsive actions to His commands?

Instead Jesus has other ideas as Mark transcribes in verse 38 saying … “He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.”  You will note that Jesus asks them to examine their inventory of food, not money.  You will note that people do not eat money, they eat food; which if the disciples had truly wanted to discuss the limits of feeding this crowd, they would have assessed prior to their first response.  Jesus continues in verse 39 saying … “And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. [verse 40] And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.”  Hey wait a minute … why is this not game over?  The inventory had come back as 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, the picnic lunch of a caring mother for her son in all likelihood.  That was far too few resources to accomplish so great a ministry, yet Christ does not deter moving forward for even an instant.  He does not “explain” why too little resources have been provided, and He is “sorry” that everyone will just have to be disappointed.  In short, He does not do what we always do when confronted with the same set of facts.  Instead He organizes for what is about to occur.

Then Peter recalls what a lack of limits can accomplish beginning in verse 41 as John Mark transcribes … “And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. [verse 42] And they did all eat, and were filled. [verse 43] And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. [verse 44] And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.”  Dead fish do not breed.  Nor does wheat spring forth, get milled, baked, and reach perfection within the confines of a picnic basket.  What happened was not a gathering and preparation of food for the crowds.  It was not the impracticality of even assuming that local merchants would be capable or prepared to feed so many.  Instead food and scare resources were replicated in the hands of Christ to meet the needs of the people there.

This could have been done by the disciples directly, if they had responded differently to the original command of Christ.  How like us.  We delay, drag, and attempt to reason with God, as to why His demands are impractical and impossible, instead of just doing them.  We introduce money as the constraint from which there is no escape.  And we limit ourselves to the point of failing in ministry altogether.  But Jesus patiently does for us, what He asked us to do.  Still willing to have us participate in what was to be His mission and His ministry in the first place, despite our initial failures.  He blows away our limitations and through the blessing of our participation in ministry with Christ, we again find our faith re-affirmed and His goals accomplished.  Christ did not create money and disperse it to the crowds.  It was not money they needed, and perhaps would have been tempted to hoard, or steal from one another.  It was not temporal wealth Christ was looking to create.  For wealth is nothing more than a burden.  Instead He met the needs that they had in that moment alone.  The excess food would be carried back to the towns and villages and given to the poor who were unable or unwilling to make the desert journey. 

You will note that there were 12 baskets of excess gathered up in the stone stadium.  One for each tribe of Israel perhaps, or more likely, one for each disciple to remind them that their imposed limitations are not really limitations at all.  Perhaps this was Jesus subtly reminding the disciples they were going to need to think differently where it comes to participating in ministry with Christ.  Then to consider the magnitude of what took place here this fine evening.  Dinner was served to the entire crowd.  The number 5,000 was only the men in the crowd, in addition would have been their wives and children.  Figuring a mostly married crowd, and 2-3 children on average (without the benefit of birth control), this total crowd size could have easily been two to three times the 5,000 number.  Yet every child was filled, every adult has more than enough.  Not a single person with need goes hungry.  That is mission success.  To meet the need of every single person, not just most of them, or some of them, but all of them.  Every person there had tangible evidence of the love of Christ for them, of His tender concern for their hunger.  You will note there is no mention of Christ taking a break from His teaching, preaching and loving others throughout the day, in order for Him to eat.  Instead He works tirelessly depending on the strength of His Father, in order to meet the needs of ALL in attendance.

Stone stadiums in a desert venue have never been so transformed as they were that day and night.  Desert temperatures, and native inhabitants never so mild as on that day.  Perhaps 12 to 20 thousand people were reached and fed.  To be at this live event, was perhaps the envy of history.  No modern equivalent has ever been offered or sustained.  And no modern celebrity could ever come close to offering what Jesus offered.  This was not dinner and a show.  This was a spiritual feast, listening to the words of God, from the mouth of God.  This was a living interaction with a God who clearly loves you.  This was a meal offered out of nothing, with enough for everyone, and excess for the poor, as a tangible demonstration that every single person there was loved.  And so were those who were not even there.  Sharing the excess with the poor upon their return offered even more chance to participate with Christ in ministry that continued long after the original event was concluded.

If stadiums of stone could be transformed by the power of Christ, into a cathedral that has never had an equal, how then can we not find the blessing of ministry in far more comfortable conditions?  To offer the deep and passionate love of Christ through you to someone in need, can occur in any office, in any home, in any venue.  And the stone that once composed your own heart can be broken and become flesh.  And the stone that once greeted you in response can be melted in the blinding heat of His love reflected through you.  We need not fear a lack of food or water, or resources of any kind, for the only resource that ever mattered was love.  Love is what it is all about.  His love transforms.