DAY 138

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN IT?

1 Chronicles 4, 5 & 6 and John 6:1-21

More genealogies: most of these characters you and I have read about – we know them.

For many of these days I have felt like I have focused more on the Old Testament then the New – today I get a chance to spend a little focused time on the John.

I hope you are not too surprised that chapter six of John has a lot to do with God in the Old Testament. Think Creation and Exodus. What do you make of Jesus feeding 5,000? How do you explain it? Is it some magic trick? Hardly: Jesus is creating food – just as God created the world! Ponder that for a moment. Here is Jesus standing on the earth, and He does what He did “in the beginning”; He creates.

In the text we hear the echoes of Exodus. John points out that it is the Passover. John’s Gospel is not like a mystery novel (I just finished reading one Death by Holy Orders – P.D. James). Mystery novels love to give all sorts of details; most of them send us down blind alleys. John’s Gospel has all sorts of details; none of them send us down blind alleys. All John’s details serve a purpose.

So what does the Passover commemorate? It celebrates God delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt – through the water. It celebrates this with a communal meal. Here is Jesus, God walking the earth; walking on water and feeding 5,000. John will spend his Gospel pointing us to Jesus – Messiah and King – delivering us from the slavery of sin – don’t miss the signs.

While what you just read is a very short commentary on John’s Gospel, I have a much more pertinent question: Do you believe it? Do you believe Jesus fed 5,000 and walked on water? People seem to be able to believe He healed others, but they have trouble with these miracles – how about you?

How would you explain it? Most would say, “You cannot explain it, it is a miracle.” True enough. Many people want explanations and don’t like “it’s a miracle.” I often describe miracles as things that are beyond nature. It is beyond our explanation because we explain things with natural laws, and God is acting beyond nature. But recently I have been thinking about and toying with another idea. If God created this world, then God so understands the world He created, that He could easily manipulate it. It is kind of like someone who just got their automobile learning permit as compared to Jeff Gordan – Jeff really knows how to manipulate a car.

Regardless, the point of these signs and others is to bring us to realize that Jesus is someone very special, and then to look and listen…and decide. Is Jesus who He claims to be…because this will make all the difference, and that is worth more than any single explanation.