“For this next shot the Disciples will be going into the crowd to distribute the bread and fish.”
Excitement stirs through the crowd! We’re going to get to see the Disciples up close! They’re coming into the crowd! How exciting!! I hope they come near me!
Over the loudspeakers come the cues:
“Umbrellas down! Glasses off!”
“Rolling Sound!”
Oh wait … there’s an airplane flying overhead. We all sit perfectly still, not moving a muscle … as the noise of the airplane passes overhead and slowly fades away.
Finally, at long last:
“Action!”
We can’t see a thing. We can’t hear a thing. After all, we’re at the back of the crowd. We focus intently on the blurry distance, pretending we can see.
Oh … wait a minute … there they are! Blurry figures are moving back and forth on the far side of the crowd!
Everyone’s excitement is palpable! … as we all sit perfectly still, paying close attention. It’s the Disciples!! We’ve never been this close to famous actors before! This is SO exciting!!
The blurry Disciples move through the crowd this way and that … how I wish I had my glasses on! I wonder which Disciples they are??
“Cut!” the loudspeaker calls!
I scramble to get my glasses on … trying to get a glimpse of the blurry Disciples who had been so close. Alas, they’ve disappeared back to the front, to re-set the shot for another take.
When Jesus fed the 5,000 all those many years ago, I highly doubt the crowd had the reaction we did. After all, Jesus’s 12 Disciples were not actors … they were crew volunteers.
I did not view any of our crew volunteers in their bright blue T-shirts as celebrities. Our crew volunteers in their bright blue T-shirts were totally down-to-earth and completely approachable. I would have been perfectly comfortable going to any one of them with any concern I had.
If I had been sitting near the back of the crowd, unable to hear what Jesus had said, I probably would have been perfectly comfortable asking Jesus’s crew volunteers what Jesus had said … and they would have helped me.
What if I didn’t understand Jesus’s teaching? Or what if I had difficult questions I was wrestling with? What if I needed spiritual counseling for a personal matter? Or what if I needed prayer? Jesus’s 12 Disciples were there to help.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus sending out the 12 Disciples in groups of two-by-two, to teach and to heal. It is interesting to note that this occurred prior to the Feeding of the 5,000.
Jesus’s 12 Disciples were specially trained by Jesus to minister and care for the people!
So once again the question arises: Why 12? Why did Jesus have 12 Disciples??
Because it takes a team to minister to people!
#thechosen
