Imagine the scene, 15-20,000 hungry men, women, and children in need of something to eat. Many of us struggle with the idea of hosting and feeding 15-20 people with plenty of advance notice and an almost limitless number of places to get food from. In this story Jesus tasks his disciples to figure out how to feed all these people with next to no resources. No grocery stores, no restaurants, and no money, nothing but five loaves and two fishes they get from a small boy who had packed a lunch. But when you have Jesus, it isn’t about the resources you bring to the table. All Jesus needs is for us to be obedient. When we give him whatever we have, he’s able to shatter our pint-sized expectations, overcome our seemingly insurmountable challenges and make the little we have to offer more than enough to accomplish all he wants to do.
Most of us have no problem taking notice of the things that are broken, that don’t work, the times that life doesn’t go according to our wants, wishes or plans. It takes work however to notice the multitude of blessing God pours out on each one of us daily. As followers of Jesus, we are commanded to put in this work, to discipline ourselves to notice the goodness of God all around us and to develop the heart and habit of gratitude and thankfulness. As we learn to do this not only do we bless the heart of God, but we in turn are also blessed.
In our busy, always on world, forcing ourselves to stop and rest takes effort and work, it takes discipline. Yet, when we discipline ourselves to take time to Sabbath, we quickly find that God’s command to us to stop, is an incredible gift. Yes, the command to Sabbath can be difficult, but the restrictions God puts on us to rest aren’t ultimately meant to shackle us, but to free us by reminding us of our own limitations and our dependence on our limitless God and Saviour.
“Do this in remembrance of me.” This was the command given to the disciples in the Upper Room as they took the bread and the cup together on the night Jesus was betrayed. This command to regularly partake of the bread and the cup through the practice of communion is then repeated and given to the whole church by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11. The taking of these elements functions as a tangible and constant reminder to all followers of Jesus not only of the price that was paid for our forgiveness but also of the reality of the forgiveness we have received, of the extent of the grace that has been poured out us, and of the fact that Jesus will return to finish what he started and complete the work of making all things new. Communion is a time for us to celebrate the incredibly good news of Jesus.
As the Teacher takes stock of all he has observed he reminds all of us, but particularly the young, to hold two realities in tension. First, we should enjoy the good things in life that God gives us, but as we do so we need to remember that All of life is to be lived in light of the fact that we will each die and stand before God to give an account.
Living in a world filled with uncertainty can end up making us tentative and cautious. It makes us wonder whether the wisest way to live is to play it safe, but the Teacher tells us that in light of the uncertainty of this world, the wise way forward is to live lives of measured risk because ultimately the risks and investments we make in this life not only bear returns in the here and now but for eternity.
How do you navigate a world where the only two certainties are uncertainty and death? The answer, the Teacher tell us, is with wisdom. In this section The Teacher seeks to show us why wisdom is so valuable and offers us some ways to live with wisdom in the areas of leadership, speech and decision making.
How should we respond to authorities? What should our posture be towards those who are in authority? Is there ever a time to rebel against the authorities that God has placed over us? These are some of the questions The Teacher seeks to answer in this section. One thing we can know for certain, no matter who appears to be in charge in this world, God alone rules over all things and even though we may not always be able to see of understand what He is doing, we can trust Him.
It might appear that the teacher in this section is calling people to pursue a life of moderation. One where we try to walk a balance of being perceived as either a “sinner” or a “saint.” Instead, the warning here is that there are two dangers we can fall into in life, living a life of destructive licentiousness or a life of self-righteous legalism. In truth no amount of sin will satisfy us and no amount of “saintly” behaviour is able to save us from death only the righteousness of Jesus is able to save us.
As finite beings we are constantly aware of the passage of time. As the teacher ponders the seasons of life and the rhythms of time he comes to several conclusions. First there is a purpose to all that takes place. God is overseeing and working through all the circumstances of life and everything that God is doing lasts and has purpose. Unfortunately, what God is doing may not always make sense to us, and although we desire and long for answers and understanding we may not always get it. How then should we live? We should enjoy the good gifts God gives to us and give Him thanks for them and we should trust Him in the difficult and hard times, the times where we struggle to understand what is going on, because He makes all things beautiful in His time.