Jesus the Provider

The Quest for Independence

One of the mainstays of life, I think, is the quest for independence. Those of you with little ones and toddlers — or those who remember back when your children were at that age — you know how they find their newfound freedom in being able to walk, and they suddenly retract their hand because they want to walk just fine on their own, thank you very much. They want to go where they want. And toddlers grow into teenagers quickly. Teenagers tend not to care as much what mom and dad think, because they're coming into their own identity. They're reaching for independence still.

And as I've pastored this church over the past two decades, watching and observing older saints get older, I realize that there's a deep struggle oftentimes with losing that independence that you sought for and fought for all your life as you begin to need more help. Especially for us guys, I think sometimes it's a real struggle to recognize that we need help. Maybe I can't drive anymore — I need to be driven around. Maybe I can't walk normally anymore — I need help walking, I need help seeing, I need help doing things.

And so I think for most of our lives we want independence and we resist the idea of being dependent, but Jesus calls us in an opposite direction in terms of discipleship. One of the main lessons that Jesus teaches his disciples over and over again is dependence upon himself rather than upon themselves. And that's an important lesson for us to learn, not just for the sake of ourselves, but for the sake of our church, the kind of church we're supposed to be. We are not to be independent or self-sufficient. We have to learn dependency in the right way.

And I think this passage in Luke 9 brings that home. So we're moving through the gospel of Luke one section at a time, one piece at a time. Today we're in Luke 9, verses one through 17. And I think you'll see with me that Jesus is teaching against self-sufficiency and helping the disciples learn to be dependent upon him.

I think that's the theme that unites these three episodes — three paragraphs — that we'll see today.

Sent Out With Nothing

The first paragraph is verses one through six, and here Jesus teaches his disciples dependency upon himself by sending them out on the first sort of evangelistic commission — to go out and proclaim the kingdom, to preach the word — but don't take stuff. Don't pack a bunch of things. Just live day by day. Live on the graces of the people who receive you. He wants the disciples to go out with very little so that they would depend on him very much.

So you have a mission, you have a mandate, you have the thing they're supposed to go do, and then how they're supposed to go do it. He doesn't give them an outline — a word-for-word message to say. He tells them to proclaim the kingdom. And yet more time is spent not on what they're supposed to say, but on what they're supposed to bring — or really, what not to bring. That's weird, right? If I went to seminary and most of the classes weren't on what to preach, but on what to wear when you preach, that'd be weird. If you send one of your kids to the store to pick up groceries and you spend less time on what to grab and more time on what to bring on the way there, that'd be odd.

And I think as we read this for the first time, we're going, how do they cast out demons? What are they supposed to say to cure the disease? Jesus doesn't do it the same way twice, it seems. And I'm not saying he didn't say anything about that, but what Luke is recording for us is this curious tidbit: don't bring stuff. Well, who cares? I don't care how many tunics they had. It's kind of a weird thing to unpack at length when there are all these other details. Authority over all demons? What if it's Legion again?

No, don't bring an extra bag, man. Don't bring extra staffs. Don't bring extra tunics. Don't even bring bread. Okay, I'll bring money to buy bread. Don't even bring money. We're trained not to leave the house without our wallet. No one wants to be caught joining someone for dinner and having to say, "I left my wallet. " And Jesus is telling them, don't bring money or bread.

Well, how are we supposed to eat? It's implied in the hospitality and receptivity of people opening their homes. He wants them to go out without all this stuff, and then in verse four, whatever house lets you in and offers you something to drink and offers you a piece of bread — that's what you're gonna eat. And some houses are not going to do that. Some houses are gonna say, "Get out of here, I hate your message. "

And for those, you shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. That's the image from the Old Testament where they would travel outside of the Holy Land and, before walking back in, shake off the dust of the unholy dirt so they wouldn't track it back in. And he's saying, just testify to them that they're unholy. If you don't receive this message, you're unholy. If you don't receive us as God's messengers, you're unrighteous. And they might think, "But we're in the Holy Land. " And the answer is, "Actually, you're not — because you reject the Messiah. He's here. That's the message. " Some people will receive it. Some people will reject it. But the ones who receive it will support you — and I want you to trust that.

I want you to trust, and not regret, that you left bread at home or that you left your wallet. I want you to go out there and proclaim the word and just trust that there's going to be enough reception and hospitality to supply you with what you need. Now, I think it's interesting that Jesus could say, "When you're hungry, just open your pocket and I'll sneak a little bread in there. When you're hungry, just put a plate in front of you, close your eyes, and when you open them, I'll have some fish on the plate for you. " Can he do that? Yeah. But he doesn't.

He just says, "You'll be provided for through the normal means of people hooking you up. " And that's scary — but that's how I'm going to operate. That's how this mission is going to go. He does it through the hospitality of people who welcome their message. What if no one welcomes our message? Jesus is basically promising there will be some. There will be enough people to welcome your message that you won't go hungry. So he's promising the success of the mission, isn't he? If everyone rejects it, they're going to starve. But he's basically saying, "Everyone is not going to reject it. It's going to be successful. "

And I think when we see passages like this, it challenges us to trust Jesus with the things that he wants us to do, that he prompts us to do, rather than waiting on circumstances to align.

The way we tend to operate is to not go out until we have enough calculated bread for every situation — three meals a day, I'm gonna be gone for a week, seven times three, that's how much bread I need to bring. What if the bread rots? What if I lose it? What if the person next to me forgot bread and I have to share? Well, then I need enough money — seven times three, plus tax. How much is a loaf of bread where I'm going? Bring everything, calculate everything.

Now, planning — there's nothing wrong with planning. What I'm saying is that oftentimes we'll only step out and do things for the Lord when it's the safest to do it. And Jesus is saying, "I intentionally want you to feel unsafe from the beginning and just do it. Trust that I'm going to supply what you need. " Not waiting for circumstances to align, not waiting for everything to feel perfect before you do it — because where's the faith in that?

So if we're called to communicate the gospel, we don't wait until we're in the perfect situation. We don't wait until your friend comes to you and says, "I was praying, God send me someone. I heard you're a Christian, will you explain the gospel to me? I'll do whatever you want. I'll take you out to lunch. " That would be awesome, wouldn't it? But it's not always gonna come that way. If we're called to give to the church, we don't wait until we have enough savings to make it safe. We don't wait till I get the next job with more pay so that now I can give. If we're called to get involved at church, we don't wait for the perfect opening, the perfect role on the perfect ministry team led by the perfect ministry leader to do the perfect thing I wanna do. You'll never serve, right? In other words, the desire for safety nets sometimes keeps us from doing the ministry he's calling us to do.

And I think that's what he's keeping his disciples from. There are other times where he sends them and gives them plenty to take — just not in this instance. It's a lesson. He's teaching them a lesson. He's not saying evangelism should only happen when you're starving. He's trying to teach them dependency upon himself instead of self-sufficiency.

The Man Who Had Everything

Now, I know those closest to me — my family, my wife especially — this next piece threw me for a loop. What in the world does this have to do with what we just read? We have a couple of lines here, verses seven, eight, and nine, about Herod wrestling with who Jesus is. What's that doing here?

Over the years, I've grown in my conviction that Luke, Mark, John, and Matthew are not haphazardly throwing things together — "Oh yeah, I remember this story, I have space on the parchment, I'll fit it in here. " The things that Luke records are put in a particular order for a particular reason. And he's putting this here for a reason, and I think it's contrast. I'm gonna read it and then I'll explain why I think it appropriately comes right on the heels of what we just read.

It says, now Herod the Tetrarch — the ruler in the region, a kind of king figure — heard about all that was happening. And he was perplexed, because he's hearing about the healings and the curing and the demons being cast out and all these things. It was said by some that John had been raised from the dead. Uh-oh — he killed John. And people are saying, "John's back, man. He's haunting you, bro. " That's an interesting interpretation. Verse eight, some said that Elijah had appeared — Elijah's back — and by others, that one of the prophets of old had risen. Not Elijah, but some other prophet who's come back.

Well, this is very perplexing for Herod. Disobedient kings and prophets don't get along. In verse nine, Herod said, "John I beheaded. I don't think it's John — I killed him. But who is this about whom I hear such things? " You get the sense that Herod's going, "I don't think it's John, I just beheaded him and he's done. I don't think it's one of those other prophets either. This guy seems different. This guy's very perplexing to me. " And so he wants to see him. That's it. And then, just like that, the feeding of the 5, 000 is next. What's that have to do with anything? That threw me for a loop too.

I'm sitting here going, I understand the first paragraph. I think I get what's going on with Herod. And I understand the feeding of the 5, 000. But what is going on with why they're placed here together? And I think it's this.

You have these disciples who are beginning to understand who Jesus is — at least enough to go proclaim his message. They're prepared enough, even if they don't understand everything yet, to go out and say, "The king has arrived. The king is on the scene, and I have a message about the kingdom for you. " And Jesus says, "When you go do that, go do it with nothing. "

Then the very next thing we have is someone who is completely perplexed about who Jesus is — couldn't give a description of who he actually is, let alone proclaim the message — and he is the opposite of the disciples in every other way too. He has plenty. The disciples are supposed to go out with no bag; Herod can't fit all his stuff in bags. The disciples go out with no bread; Herod has bread all day long. He doesn't even have to think about food. He's Herod — he's a tetrarch. The disciples go out with no staff, no supplies. He has all the supplies you can think of.

So you have a group of people — poverty required of them, at least for the mission — who understand who Jesus is and are therefore able to proclaim it. And then you have a guy who needs someone to come proclaim it to him because he's totally perplexed, and he comes from a place of plenty. It's a contrast. Luke is showing you: here are guys being taught to depend completely on the Lord, and they're able to proclaim who he is. Here's a guy who's unable to say who he is, and he's a guy who has everything.

And so do you see a connection between having stuff that makes you feel pretty good about yourself and an inability to see Christ for who he is?

And Herod is struggling — and it's not by accident that he's used as the mirror image of the disciples. Because his power, his prestige, his position, all of his supplies can't give him the answer that he needs. He needs to see through all of that stuff and recognize that he too is starving, completely poor, and desperate. That's why he's perplexed and can't see Jesus for who he is.

So I think one lesson we can take from that contrast is this: even if we waited for enough earthly provision to do what the Lord wants of us — waited for it to be comfortable enough to give, comfortable enough to pour into a role at church, comfortable enough to have that awkward conversation with a friend or coworker — even if we waited for all the things to align, it wouldn't do the trick anyway. Here's a guy who has plenty of stuff, and he's completely lost. So having stuff doesn't help you. Waiting for things to align doesn't help you. What is needed is one ingredient, and that's faith.

If Jesus says, "Go here, " we go there. If Jesus says, "Get in the boat, we're going to cross to the other side, " don't freak out when a storm hits. He said we're going to the other side. So when a storm hits, the appropriate response is not, "Hey man, wake up, we're about to die! " The appropriate response is, "Hey Jesus, this storm is in the way — can you calm it? " That would have been the way of faith, as we saw earlier.

Self-sufficiency impedes the progress of discipleship. When we are too enthralled with our savings and our positions and our safety nets — waiting for things to be comfortable before we do the things God calls us to do — we've already impeded our progress in discipleship, which is by nature an uncomfortable endeavor. It requires us not to retract our hand from Jesus, but to reach out for his guidance and hold on to him every step of the way for everything.

And sometimes the things in our lives that cause us enough pain to remind us that we need him — that's why James can say we should count those trials as joy. Not because the trial is joyful, but because of what it does. It teaches us the wisdom of dependence upon God.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

So now you have the disciples going out with nothing, proclaiming this message. You have Herod with everything, who can't see who Jesus is, and he asks the question, "Who is this guy? " And then Luke puts the feeding of the five thousand here to answer that question. Is he Elijah? He's better than Elijah. Is he John? He's better than John. Is he one of the other prophets? He's greater than all of them. And Luke doesn't have Jesus announce it outright — he doesn't go, "Hey guys, Jesus is better than all the prophets. " He just shows it, through this miracle in verses 10 through 17.

Let me just note quickly: Luke sees all of this as connected. It's not a potpourri. If you deleted verses seven through nine, the text wouldn't skip a beat — the apostles go out in verse one, and in verse ten they come back and report how it went. So you know Luke put the Herod passage there on purpose. He's saying, "It's this, it's not this. Why? Because Jesus is this. "

So you have all these crowds, it's getting dark, and the apostles come to Jesus and say, "Hey man, there's no food — the best thing to do here is probably send the crowds away. " I always find it a little humorous to come up to Jesus and tell him what the plan should be. Jesus, I know you can calm storms and everything, but there's something called logistics, all right? But they're getting nervous, and you can give them credit for being aware of the needs of the people.

They say, "It's getting really dark. If it gets too dark when they go into the towns, the innkeeper's gonna be asleep, the bakery sign is gonna say 'Sorry, we're closed, ' and they won't have anything to eat until the next day. So let's just call it a night. Cut your sermon short, Jesus. " It's kind of absurd when you think about it. But that's why they're doing it — these people need to eat.

And Jesus doesn't disagree that the people need to eat. He says in verse 13, "You give them something to eat. " There are twelve of them and five thousand just in men. You give them something to eat. He knows they can't do it. He just wants them to admit they can't do it. And they say, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish — unless we're supposed to go buy food for all these people. " They're not going to buy food for 5, 000 people.

And so he says, "All right. You can't do it. Good — I'm glad you admit it. Here's what we're going to do: have them sit down in groups of about fifty each. " And they did so. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing, then broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

I love that Jesus doesn't say, "Okay, okay, here's what I'm gonna do. You like the last miracle I worked? Check this one out. " He just says, "Go sit them down in groups of fifty. " And they're like, "Okay — what is he gonna do, man? " He wants them hanging on the moment. He doesn't give them the whole plan. He's just, again, asking them to trust him.

And they're trying to figure it out. Back there on the road it was amazing — every house that accepted the gospel had enough for us, gave us places to sleep, gave us food to eat. When we needed money, they gave us some. That was amazing. But those people aren't out here in this desolate place. What is he going to do? And why are we breaking them up into groups of fifty?

And they don't realize it until somewhere along the way, as they're breaking the bread and sharing it, then breaking more and sharing it — all fifty are fed and there's still some left. They go to the next group of fifty, and they keep breaking and sharing. I wonder where along the line — somewhere between man number one and man number five thousand — they go, "I don't think we're going to run out of this bread and these fish. "

It just dawns on them somewhere along the way, that if they could rewind time, they would've never questioned Jesus. They would've gone, "Oh my goodness, I can't wait till people come up to us and say their stomachs are grumbling. Because the answer isn't in the towns — the answer is right here. The creator of bread and the bread of life himself. " But they had to learn it along the way. They had to, by faith, begin breaking the crowd into groups of fifty. By faith begin breaking the bread and separating the fish. And then learn along the way that Jesus was trustworthy the entire time.

Now here's what I want you to notice in this story. I want you to notice the pattern. Jesus intentionally leads them to a particular place — I think he's setting this whole thing up. Let's not be near the towns and the food sources. Let's go where there's no food. He doesn't say that, but that's effectively what he does.

Then in that place, such a great crowd comes to see him, and he ministers so long that the people become hungry. The apostles suggest sending them away to nearby towns for lodging and food. Jesus tells the apostles to feed them. They say they can't — they only have five loaves for five thousand plus people. Then Jesus provides. There's a movement from need, to trying to meet the need, to realizing we can't meet the need, to Jesus coming through in a way that only he can.

And what's being communicated in that movement is the lesson: I can't meet the need — we need Jesus to come through. Not self-sufficiency. You can't feed the crowds. Only I can do it. You have to trust that I can.

Greater Than Elisha

But it's a familiar pattern. I want to read you a short paragraph from the Old Testament — 2 Kings 4, verses 42 to 44. This is the ministry of Elisha.

Coincidental? If somebody asked the average Christian where in the Bible God miraculously feeds many with just a few loaves of bread, you might go to manna in the wilderness — but that doesn't quite count, because they weren't starting with loaves of bread. I'm talking about a basket with a few loaves, a hungry crowd that cannot be fed with so little, and then through miraculous multiplication, the loaves feed the crowd. We'd go, "Well, Jesus — a couple of times. " But I don't know how many of us would go, "Elisha. " It's just such a fast paragraph. In your devotions, it'd be easy to blow right past it. But are the parallels striking?

A hungry crowd. Not enough food. Only a few loaves of bread. And then the command: "Feed them. " Elisha knows the math — twenty loaves for a hundred men. He knows it doesn't add up. But he wants the servant to admit it. And so the servant admits it, and Elisha says, "All right, give it to them anyway, because I have a word from the Lord that it will be sufficient. " Everyone is going to be loosening their tunics, they're so full — and there's still bread left.

Now we come to this scene in the gospel of Luke, and it is really, weirdly similar. The pattern is exactly the same. Even down to the detail of Jesus saying, "You feed them. " "We can't. " "Feed them anyway. " And then there are leftovers. Is it just a neat trick? Is it just Luke going, "Look how similar Jesus is to the Old Testament"? No, it's Luke answering Herod's question. Herod is asking, "Is this Elijah, or another prophet? " If it's not John the Baptist — who was the greatest — or Elijah, who else is there? Maybe Moses, or the one who succeeded Elijah, which is Elisha. Those are your top candidates. And Luke is going, "Man, he's none of those. "

He one-ups all of them. Elisha takes 20 loaves to feed 100 men. Jesus takes five loaves to feed 5, 000 men. It's superior. It's designed to be superior — not to say, "I'm also just a really, really good prophet, " but to blow away the greatest miracles of the prophets of the Old Testament in a way that makes you join Herod in going, "Nah, nah — John the Baptist, I beheaded him. I've heard of these other prophets. But nah, man. He's different. "

And Luke is going, "He is different. You want to know the answer? He's the Messiah. He's the one we've been waiting for. He's the one we're supposed to count on and depend upon. " And while we're noticing that, Jesus is teaching the disciples to be completely dependent upon him.

Your supplies are limited. In the first paragraph, they're sent to go proclaim the word. In the third paragraph, they're sent to go feed the crowds. It's the same thing — this miracle is an image of the other. They're not called to be bakers, they're called to be preachers. But in the feeding of the 5, 000, Jesus is showing them: "You see, you don't have the bread to give people. You don't have what it takes to fulfill the Great Commission. You don't have what it takes to build the kingdom, to plant churches, to grow churches, or to make a church worth anyone's time. But I do. What about when it looks impossible? That's precisely when I really shine, man. "

The Provider We Truly Need

Now, I want to be clear about something. Jesus is not communicating merely that whenever you experience financial hardship and you're not sure if you'll be able to feed your kids tomorrow, trust the Lord to put food in the pantry. That is a truth Jesus communicates — that worry is a sin, that just as the sparrows are taken care of, people who are in Christ are going to be taken care of. That truth is there. But I don't think this passage is primarily about what's in your pantry.

I think this communicates on a deeper level. And here's one of the reasons I know. Elisha's miracle had some leftovers too. But one difference from Elisha's miracle is that we're told exactly how much leftover the apostles had. And what does it tell us? Not how many loaves, not how many pieces, not the ratio of loaves to fish left over. It tells us how many baskets. And how many baskets were there?

Twelve.

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm stretching things. Not every number in the Bible means something specific — I'm not going, "There's a 12 on page 12 of the newspaper, that must be the Antichrist. " That's not how we're supposed to handle scripture. But when scripture goes 12, 12, 12, 12, 12 all over the place, I think it makes sense to stop and ask, "Hmm — twelve. What do you think of when you think twelve? "

You have a couple of options in terms of what floods your mind most quickly. One would be the twelve tribes of Israel — repeated throughout the Old Testament, repeated throughout the New Testament. And then the gospel writers, especially Luke, making it really clear that there are twelve apostles. In fact, if you notice in this passage, they're now called apostles to separate them from all the other disciples — these are the Twelve. And then when Luke starts his second volume, the book of Acts, they're down to eleven. They were twelve, they're down to eleven. And before they go proclaiming the kingdom, Peter says, "We need to fix this. It has to be twelve. " Why? Because God is communicating something in this miracle about a kingdom constituted by the twelve tribes, the twelve thrones that rule alongside the Messiah — which we see even in the book of Revelation. We went through Revelation some time ago and saw the importance of the number twelve. So I don't think it's a random twelve.

I think it's a nod toward this kingdom theme. They're proclaiming the kingdom, they're advancing the kingdom, they're messengers of the kingdom — that's why they're apostles. And that kingdom is constituted with the twelve-tribe motif. When they were in the land, the land was divided among the twelve. That's the kingdom when it's united and whole. And Jesus is not just reconstituting Israel, but explaining the expansion of this entire kingdom. And the twelve bread baskets represent that Jesus is enough to supply what's needed for this kingdom mission to work, for this kingdom expansion to actually be successful.

So the point is not just that Jesus can produce miracles. Same with Jesus calming the storm — we're not supposed to just go, "Wow, he's even in control of weather. " Yeah, that's true, but we need to see beyond that. There's a storm of judgment due everyone, and the only one who can calm that storm is Jesus. That's the point — not that you don't need a weatherman if you're a Christian.

So on a deeper level, Jesus is communicating why we need a Savior, why we need someone to provide, why we need someone to be dependent upon. Not just because we experience needs like food or clothing from day to day — though that's true — but because we all share a deep, ultimate need that we can't meet ourselves: rescue from death, refuge from judgment. Jesus doesn't just supply the things we eat. He supplies the provisions we need to follow through on obeying him.

When Jesus is not at the center of everything we're doing as a church — everything you do in leading your family, everything you do when you're proclaiming the gospel to whomever — then we've lost our way. We need to be dependent on him wholly and completely. And if we were, we'd do more of it. We'd be risk-takers. We'd put ourselves out there more.

Jesus repeatedly puts his disciples in a position of need so that they'll learn to rely on him for provision. Maybe when things happen in our lives that scare us and make us think we might lose some of our safety nets, rather than being upset with God, maybe we're supposed to say, "Maybe those safety nets were making me too safe. Maybe some of these safety nets breaking in my life right now is the Lord creating an opportunity for me to live boldly. " I mean, at the end of your life, will someone say at your funeral, "He or she lived boldly" — if you just had safety nets everywhere?

That's not very heroic. "This person was the best. Everything they did was so safe. They never stuck their neck out. They always looked three times before crossing any street in life. " That almost sounds lame — maybe responsible, but not very glorious. Jesus is calling for some heroic stuff. And it's not the heroic stuff made of your own self-sufficiency. It's faith that trusts Jesus to give us what we need to go do the hard things.

Go Feed Them

So quickly, I think there are a few ways we can understand the relevance of this passage for us today. I've hinted at them along the way.

So maybe your takeaway this morning is to be bold and share the gospel with that person you've been wanting to share it with, but you just haven't felt sufficient to do it. Maybe you're on the fence about sticking with our church. Maybe you still prefer something flashier — someplace with more programs, a slicker presentation up front. Maybe you can consider what church is supposed to be and see if we match that. Or maybe you need to take a look at your giving and see if the Lord might be stirring in your heart a way to help us support the mission of this church and of the missionaries that we serve.

If your hesitation is something like, "Man, I want to talk to this person about the gospel, but it might make our friendship awkward" — I just hear Jesus saying, "Go feed him, and watch me supply. " If you're thinking, "Man, I should come and choose a solid church, but I might miss out on some more fun experience somewhere else, something with a lot more things to offer" — maybe Jesus is saying, "Go be a part of a people that will feed you, and watch me supply. " If you're thinking, "If I start giving, it might really hurt if my bonus doesn't kick in this quarter" — I hear Jesus saying, "Go feed my church, man. Go feed my missionaries. And watch me supply. Watch me do it. "

The kingdom expanded by relying on the power that only the king can provide.