Where Shall We Buy Bread?

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John 6:5-7 "When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, 'Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?' He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, 'It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!'"

Think

Somebody hands you an idea and your brain runs the math before they finish talking.

How much that would cost. How many people you would need. How much time you do not have. How badly it would go. By the time they stop speaking you have already priced out the whole thing and arrived at no, and you say something reasonable like that is a cool idea, and you both move on.

That is exactly what Philip does, and Jesus set him up for it on purpose.

Picture the scene. Thousands of people are walking up a hillside toward Jesus. John says later that there were about five thousand men there, which means with women and children the crowd was likely much larger than that. It is late in the day. Everyone is hungry. There is no store, no plan, and no food.

Jesus turns to Philip and asks, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"

And then John does something that shows you the whole point. Verse 6 pulls back the curtain: "He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do."

Jesus already knew. The question was never about information. He was not stuck. He was not scanning the crowd hoping somebody had a suggestion. He knew exactly what was about to happen and he asked anyway, because the question was for Philip, not for himself.

Which means the impossible situation was not an accident. It was an assignment.

So how does Philip do on the test? He answers with a number. More than half a year's wages would not buy enough for each person to get a bite.

Notice, that answer is completely correct. Philip is not being stupid. He did the math accurately and he arrived at a true number, and the true number is that this cannot be done. Every bit of his reasoning holds up.

He just left one thing out of the equation, and the thing he left out was standing directly in front of him asking the question.

This is the trap that catches good, responsible, thoughtful students constantly. It does not usually look like rebellion. It looks like realism. I am not the kind of person who could invite somebody. My friend would never come. I would not know what to say if they asked me something. My family is not like that. None of those statements have to be false to be missing something.

You can be completely accurate about your own resources and completely wrong about the outcome, because your resources were never the deciding factor.

And look at how kind this is. Jesus does not embarrass Philip. He does not correct him. He does not say, “Philip, where is your faith?” He simply keeps going, and within about ten minutes Philip is going to watch the answer to his own math problem get handed out on a hillside.

Jesus was not testing Philip to expose him. He was testing him so that Philip would remember this later, when the crowd was gone and something harder was in front of him.

So think about the thing in front of you right now that you have already priced out and decided is impossible.

What did you leave out of the equation?

Apply

Redo the math – One Night is Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 p.m. One friend each, invited by one student, hearing the Gospel for the first time. Look at that and your brain will do what Philip's did and price the whole thing out. My friends are busy. My friends are not interested. My friends would think it was weird. Write down the name of the one person you have already decided would never come, and the honest reason you decided that. Underneath it, write one sentence asking God to do the part you cannot. He already has in mind what he is going to do that night.

Pray

God, I am good at explaining why things will not work, and I usually call it being realistic. I have left you out of a lot of my math. Help me stop deciding the ending before you have said anything. Show me the thing you already had in mind. In Jesus' name. Amen.