Jesus Creates Anxiety
Christians often forget that one of the primary thing Jesus does in the lives of his disciples is to create anxiety. He seems to delight in it, really.
In the passage we’ve been looking at this week, focus in on how Jesus sets up Philip and Andrew to feel completely overwhelmed and even defeated.
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near. 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!” Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”- John 6:1-9
Jesus had a plan - because he knew that God’s economy does not run on scarcity. But how could he invite Philip and Andrew into that reality? In some ways, he needed to help them to see the limitations of their own approaches to crises. In his great kindness, Jesus introduces anxiety into the system to allow Philip and Andrew to show their true colors. And it worked like a charm!
Now stop and think about your week so far. How many times has a situation come up that tested your patience, that challenged your resolve, or that caused you anxiety? It might be easier to blame those situations on the devil… but what if it were Jesus instead? What if these were invitations to see people, including yourself, in a new light? What if these situations were guided by the hand of God as an opportunity for you to learn to live in God’s economy? Talk with Jesus about these things (even if that means yelling at him for making you anxious!)