{"id":6210,"date":"2015-01-07T00:05:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T08:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6210"},"modified":"2015-01-06T17:40:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T01:40:11","slug":"feeding-5000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/01\/07\/feeding-5000\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeding 5000"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. <\/p>\n

\tWhen it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, \u201cThis place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.\u201d But Jesus said to them, \u201cThey do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!\u201d <\/p>\n

\tThey said to Him, \u201cWe have here only five loaves and two fish.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tAnd He said, \u201cBring them here to Me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tOrdering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:13-21)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tWere the five thousand that Jesus fed late one afternoon, as the sun set and twilight came, better people than those whom he hadn\u2019t provided such a meal for? Those who received a miracle from him, were simply those who had come to him. When someone came, Jesus never drove them off without providing for their needs. He healed the sick, he cast out demons, he raised the dead.<\/p>\n

\tFive thousand were fed that evening. It was a miracle, a \u201cfree lunch.\u201d But when those people woke up from their slumber the next day, what did they have? Their bellies were empty once again. Those that Jesus healed, sooner or later got ill from something else. Eventually, they all died. Those he raised from the dead eventually ended up in a cemetery. We can\u2019t travel to Israel and have tea with Lazarus.<\/p>\n

\tWhy did Jesus perform miracles that lasted such a short time\u2014satisfying hunger for a few hours, or relieving pain and death for a few years? What was the point since none of that lasted. <\/p>\n

\tRelieving someone\u2019s suffering, easing a burden, wiping a tear, binding a wound, offering a drink, giving a gift\u2014certainly none of those things last for long. But yet, each momentary blessing is still a blessing. Even a momentary improvement is still an improvement. If you\u2019ve helped today, you\u2019ve helped.<\/p>\n

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When Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. When He went ashore, He saw a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6212,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210\/revisions\/6212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}