Jesus Throws a Curve Ball

Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. John 6:5-6 (NASB) 

Jesus had a plan. He intended to feed this crowd by the powers of heaven, not by the powers of earth. In heaven there is always enough. On earth, your resources are limited to what you have in hand or can get through effort. In heaven, there are no limitations. In heaven, there is always abundance. Is Philip thinking this way? Jesus poses a question to find out. And in that question Jesus invites Philip to bring heaven’s abundance to earth, to do what is impossible.

But Jesus throws Philip a curve ball. He doesn’t ask “how are we going to feed these people?” He phrases the question to fit Philip’s earthly perception of how things work. On earth, large quantities of food are purchased in the marketplace. So he asks Philip, “where are we to buy enough food for this crowd?” 

It’s as if Jesus asks the question with a twinkle in his eye. Jesus plays the question to Philip’s preconceptions. Philip isn’t expecting the curve ball. 

You can almost see the thoughts run through Philip’s mind. We’d need a boatload of cash. We’d have to go into town to the main market, which may be mostly sold out for the day and wouldn’t have enough food for this size crowd anyway! Then what? And we’d need to rent some donkeys along with several carts to transport it all. That would take a half-day at the least, and cost even more money. We’d get back here after the sun goes down, then have to distribute the food in the dark. Philip’s mind is racing with all the problems surrounding Jesus’ question. Overwhelmed, Philip responds with the major problem in his mind: they simply don’t have the cash. 

Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” John 6:7 (NASB) 

Philip swung at Jesus’ curve ball and missed. He was thinking of what is humanly possible. Jesus was asking for the impossible. Philip didn’t get the point. He was not connecting the dots. 

What are the dots? Let’s put the question into a different context. What if a blind man were approaching and Jesus asked Philip, “How are we going to pay for a doctor to heal this blind man’s eyes?” Philip might have caught on. He might have seen that curve ball. We can imagine Philip responding: “Wait a minute Jesus. That’s a trick question. We don’t need to pay a doctor because I’ve seen you heal the blind with just a word.”

But Philip didn’t make the connection between Jesus power over the human body and his power over the earth’s physical elements. It’s one thing to grow eyes in a man’s head, but quite another to create bread out of thin air—right? The disciples had this same disconnect when the winds and waves responded to Jesus’ command. They were astounded, responding with an exclamation—Who is this guy? (Luke 8:25)

In our minds we smile at the disciples for their unbelief. And yet we think just like them, do we not? How many times have we seen a prayer request asking us to pray that God would direct a doctor’s hand in surgery? But where is the request that God would heal? The one seems feasible to us, the other impossible. Or we might ask God to help us get the down payment money for a house, but we won’t ask him for the house. We can believe for one, but not the other. One seems conceivable, the other not so much. 

Every day we constrain our thinking and our prayers to what we know, based upon our history with God. We are afraid of stepping beyond what makes us comfortable. So we ask God only for what we believe is possible.

We are like Philip. We are not connecting the dots. We are thinking like orphans living on the streets, asking God for a little help with the next meal. Jesus is inviting us to “come up here” and see things from his perspective, where he sits beside his Father. There we discover that we are sons and daughters of the King who has unlimited resources. There is nothing impossible for him—not in heaven nor on earth. 

Will we accept his invitation?