The Fruit of Obedience
What is success to you?
I always thought success was doing everything on my own. Having a plan, not needing anyone, having everything neatly set and figured out. But, I’ve started to realize that in getting caught up in my own plans, in the vision I think is best and in the pressure of doing things on my own, I miss out on the miracles God wants to perform in my life. If this sounds like something you struggle with as well, I say this to you, and to myself: Success is not doing things on our own, rather true success is following the will of Jesus, doing things with and for Christ. Success is obedience and obedience is freedom. A life with Christ is not restrictive or limiting rather a life with Christ is freeing. Adam Dodd’s writes,
”True human freedom is not found by consciously not sinning, for in Jesus we do not see someone who is fixated on not sinning. Rather he gave himself fully to the will of his Father and always sought to please his Father. The secret of true freedom as seen in Jesus is complete obedience to God the Father as led by the Spirit...True freedom consists in living a life of loving obedience to God…
Success is achieved when we obey Christ, and when we obey Christ we experience the freedom He intended for us—the freedom we were created for. In Genesis it is evident He didn’t create us for a life separated from Him. We read that God created man and woman for full communion with Him. This is one of the most fundamental and beautiful truths about us: we were made for Him and we need Him. So don’t be ashamed or scared when you don’t have it all neatly figured out because He always intervenes where we fall short.
All these thoughts were stirring in my mind as I read the Gospel passage about Jesus multiplying the loaves and the fishes. It’s a Gospel passage that I’ve heard and read countless times, but as I meditated on it this time, my attention was shifted to the reaction of the disciples.
In the New Testament we see that the disciples often miss the mark, they misunderstand who Jesus is and the power He has. It can be easy to look at them and think that they are seemingly clueless or lack faith. But make no mistake, more times than not we are just like them. Jesus can be right next to us yet we still think we know better.
As I read this Gospel passage, I realized: the disciples would have missed one of the most poignant miracles of Jesus if they hadn’t obeyed Him. Before I go any further I ask that you read Mark 6:34-39.
The passage begins by telling us that Jesus was moved by the large crowds that followed Him and began to teach them many things. But the disciples, seeing that it was already late and the people were hungry, tried to stall Jesus from teaching to the crowds. They say, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” This seems like a pretty reasonable response, no? It’s almost as if the disciples are hinting to Jesus that they’re hungry themselves. One could probably swap the sentence for “Hey, Jesus are you really going to start teaching now? It’s dinner time and we’re hungry! ” Anyway, it's a line that you probably never paid much attention to. It seems like it lacks any significance, but when I meditated on the passage I couldn’t help but realize that the disciples' response to Jesus' teaching reminds me of myself and the fickleness of the human heart.
How many times do we think we know better than Christ? How many times do we question His timing? In the passage, the disciples think they know better. They try to stop Jesus from preaching as if Jesus wasn't already aware of the crowd's hunger. Even more, how many times does God start to speak to us, like He started to speak to the crowd, yet, like the disciples, our earthly lens causes us to doubt His providence, causes us to forget that Jesus sees through a heavenly lens.
Different layers began to be unveiled to me. Not only is the passage speaking of earthly hunger, but spiritual hunger. The disciples tell Jesus to send the crowds away to eat, but Jesus knows that He is the only one that can satisfy their hunger. Notice how Jesus doesn’t send the crowds away to get their fill elsewhere because He knows they will not be satisfied. Instead, not only does Jesus reject the disciples’ request, He does something even more shocking. The evangelist records that, in reply, after the disciples tell Jesus to send the crowds away to eat, Jesus tells them to feed the crowds themselves. Jesus says, “Give them some food yourselves” (Mk 6:37).
I can only imagine the tone of their reaction when, in disbelief, the disciples responded, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” (Mk 6:37) The disciples had their mind set on earthly things. All they saw was their own insufficiency to fulfill Jesus’ command, the measly five loaves and two fish—they didn’t recognize the fullness of who Jesus was and is. As Fulton Sheen once said, “In the reckoning of men there is always a deficit, in the arithmetic of God there is always a surplus.” I don’t blame them for their shocked reaction. Imagine yourself in this situation. You’re in a hungry crowd of five thousand and Jesus asks you to fulfill the duty of feeding them all. That’s a huge undertaking, especially if you barely have enough for yourself. I'd probably question Jesus too.
But I began to think: why were the disciples so rattled by Jesus’ request to feed the crowds? Because they equated success with doing it on their own. They thought Jesus expected them to do it alone, without His help. They didn’t realize that Jesus never asks us to do something that He isn’t willing to help us do. When Jesus asks something of us He doesn’t expect us to do it on our own, rather He calls us to cooperate with His power and grace.
This was shocking to me. How often do I hear God asking me to do something and I instantly grow anxious, just like the disciples? How often do I question and doubt my ability to fulfill God’s command? How often do I forget that Jesus is with me and doesn’t leave me? How often do I forget that Jesus does not ask and then leave, rather He asks and stays, He asks and walks us through.
In the beginning of the passage the disciples tell Jesus to send the crowds away (Mk 6:36), but Jesus “ordered them to get all the people to sit down” (Mk 6:39). Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes and “gave them to [his] disciples to set before the people” (Mk 6:41). In this I’m reminded that He calls us to do great things in obedience so that we can see His greatness through them. Christ doesn't need us, but He wills us to be co heirs to His work. He wants us involved in spreading his glory and majesty. He wants us to be active participants, not passive listeners. Aside from the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, this is the other miracle revealed: that God would will sinners to cooperate with His grace. The disciples lacked faith yet He still called them to be part of His miracle.
Notice how the disciples were only able to fulfill Jesus’ command of feeding the crowds with Jesus’ intervention. The disciples didn’t fail because they couldn't do it on their own, they succeeded because they followed Christ’s command. So, do not be anxious about the big things God asks you to do. Remember true success is obeying Jesus and doing things with Him. Don’t miss out on the miracles God wants to perform in your life. Invite Jesus into everything you do. He will intervene where you fall short and His glory will shine in your life.