Jesus: An Act of Humility
When John shares in scripture about Jesus’ miracle of gift and supply (John 6:1 – 16) we are given a fresh revelation of Jesus being our provider and ‘host’1. As the host Jesus gives thanks over five small barley loaves and two fish, He prays ‘Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.’; a Jewish prayer of thanksgiving. As important as it is for Jesus to model to us that it’s important to give thanks to our Provider, it’s also foreshadowing the last supper (Matthew 26:26-27); a symbol for what’s to come in the future:
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
Once all had been fed plus abundantly more Jesus knew that they were going to make him king by force, so he fled to the mountains alone to seek solitude.”
On reflection of this story… What’s your motive? Are you trying to work for the kingdom and seek something in return? Colossians 3:23 shares, ‘whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters’. Though Jesus receives affirmation from the crowd he doesn’t make himself equal to God for his power and authority comes from the heavenly Father. In the culture of today we need to take this story and model Jesus’ humility… Serve the kingdom for His glory rather than seeking affirmation from the people around us.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank you for the way in which you showed your Father as our provider in this story, would you set our hearts on fire for the ministry of your Church and may we be filled with the Holy Spirit and serve with humility as you exemplified to us.
In your name we pray,
AMEN.
- Marianne Meye Thompson, Commentary on John, pg.140) ↩︎