I have Leftovers!

I am not a sandwich girl.  I love leftovers.  This weekend I enjoyed filling my pretty storage containers with the coming week's luncheons.

Jesus used leftovers to attempt to teach His disciples about Life.  There's life, the way the world and the Pharisees viewed it.  And there's Life that Jesus made available to us if we so choose.

Mark 8:1-21 opens with Jesus feeding 4000 men with 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish because He had compassion on the crowd that had stayed through His 3 days of teaching.  The skeptical disciples had forgotten the feeding of the five thousand.  When Jesus told them He was concerned about the people collapsing from hunger if He sent them away, the disciples reminded Jesus that there was no food in the remote setting.

So Jesus showed them again how God provides.  He asked how many loaves of bread they had? He told the crowd the sit down.  He  broke the loaves, gave thanks and had the disciples pass out the bread.  He repeated the process with the fish.  There were 7 baskets full of leftovers.

After Jesus fed the crowd He sent  them home and He and the disciples went by boat to Dalmantha.  The Pharisees showed up and asked Him for a sign from heaven.  He sighed deeply and said "Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign?  I tell you the truth no sign will be given."  Then He left to go back to the other side by boat.

Amazingly, the disciples forgot to bring bread for the trip.   Someone brought one loaf. (Wonder where all those leftovers went?)

Jesus warned them to be careful and watch for the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. The disciples thought He said this because they forgot the bread. (Even though they did have one loaf and Jesus in the boat!)

Jesus asked

"Why are you talking about having no bread?"

"Don't you still not see or understand?"

"Are your hearts hardened?"

"Do you have eyes and ears and fail to hear?"

"Don't you remember?"

Then He refreshed their memories.  5 loaves for 5000 with 12 baskets of leftovers. 7 loaves for 4000 with 7 baskets of leftovers.  Don't you guys get it?

The Pharisees and our world tempts us to focus on what we do not have and to believe we can earn the abundance of life. 

Jesus came to give us a better life.

Jesus will provide for our daily needs because He loves us, not because we earned it.

Jesus will more than  provide for us.  He offers us Life with Leftovers.

How do I get such a Life?  

Sit down with the Lord. (Pay attention to His teaching and leadership, not the world.)

Remember and offer what I have, (even if a few measly loaves),

Give thanks (for what I have and that He loves me) and

Enjoy the abundance of the leftovers!  (It's my choice to focus on what I don't have or to offer what I do have and realize I have leftovers!)