Reward of Commitment

Mark 6:30-44

This is the third of my three sermons on commitment, based on Mark 6:30-44. In this sermon, we will be dealing with the rewards of commitment.

In Part I of our sermon series on commitment, the passionate commitment of the people to be with Jesus Christ was highlighted. The people were so committed to being with Him that they ran 10-13 kilometers just to be with Him. They were not hindered by personal exhaustion and external obstacles. They kept running towards Him. We emphasized that the foundation of commitment is intense and active love for Jesus Christ.

In the second sermon, we realized that the people did not only follow Jesus Christ. They also remained. And they remained until it was already dark. If the foundation of commitment is passion for God, the evidence of commitment is remaining in Him. Christianity is not just about an initial encounter with God. In fact, it is the act of remaining in Him that constitutes the more difficult part of our Christian life.

The story picks up and continues:

By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

What I like about the last part of the story is summarized in verse 42: “they all ate and were satisfied.” Following after Jesus Christ, no matter the obstacles may be, and remaining in Him no matter what happens, results in being filled and satisfied. This is the reward of commitment: fulfilment and satisfaction.

I like this part of the story because fulfilment is hard to come by these days. As we progress through history, it seems that our needs have increased, and being satisfied seems like an illusory dream. The moment we attain what we think we want, something new and better comes out and our hearts are depressed again. Our lives today are characterized by painful ironies: (1) we own a lot (including non-essentials and possibly garbage), but we feel we are poor; (2) we are surrounded by food and food providers, but hunger persists; (3) subdivisions rise here and there, and yet we are surrounded by the homeless or people with less-than-home living condition; (4) we have access to a lot of information, but ignorance is still bliss; and (5) the rich become richer and the poor are still poor.

Self-fulfilment and satisfaction are words and realities that are almost too ideal to achieve. If Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is true, then achieving self-fulfilment is next to impossible for many. But also, even Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is now outdated. Revisions had to be done with it (like adding Wifi and Battery, as humorous editors like to add). 

So because the story ends with a note that all the people who remained with Jesus ate and were all satisfied, I feel excited! There is fulfilment and satisfaction when we remain in Christ! The Christian life is not only characterized by tiringly running after Him and painful waiting with bugs. To use a common metaphor, there is a rainbow at the end of the rain. The world will never satisfy us, no matter how much we remain in it, love it, dwell in it, embrace it, or even abuse it. But those who commit themselves to the Lord will be satisfied. We will be filled. As the writer of Hebrews wrote, “He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Heb 11:6).

The Art of Waiting

What’s interesting is that the people did not know that Jesus had planned to feed them. They stayed, knowing that there was no food around. They just stayed for the sake of listening. They stayed not because they knew Jesus would feed them. None of them knew that Jesus would perform a miracle. Even the disciples were anxious because they did not know the plans of Jesus Christ. We can learn from these people. The Christian life is a matter of remaining in Christ, even when we do not know His immediate plans about our future. It is a matter of having faith, and trusting that God knows our needs. We just keep on remaining in Him even when the details of how He would satisfy us are not so clear. Sometimes, all we have to do is to wait and be patient. The promise of waiting is spelled by the prophet Isaiah:

“Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary; 

they will walk and not be faint” (Isa 40:30-31).

We live in a fast-paced world, so waiting is not really our strength. We are an impatient generation. We want results, and we want them immediately. We even have some sort of a strict timeline about what will happen when. We all get tired, and quitting is always an alternative. There are better things to do. There is possibly a greener future waiting. We can take chances, pack our things, and leave. But this simple statement in verse 42 is extremely encouraging: those who remain will someday be filled. Remaining committed to God is important, because the reward of our faith is sometimes waiting at death: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward” (2 John 1:7-8).

Our comfort is that when we remain in Him, we know that we will be filled and satisfied. We do not know when or how, but we know that we will be satisfied.

What is Satisfaction?

But what does satisfaction mean? When we look back at the story, there was nothing special about bread and fish. The bread was probably stale and the fish was probably some sort of dried fish. They can get such things from somewhere else. They were nothing special. Yet they became filled and satisfied with what was given to them by Jesus Christ. No complaints. So the questions for us are: If God gives us something that can fill us, will we be satisfied? Will we be content?

According to an anonymous thinker, “Happiness isn’t getting all that you want. It’s enjoying all that you have.” This is certainly true. Sometimes we become unhappy because we are looking at what others have. Another person wrote: “Know that the people who are richest are not those who have the most, but those who need the least.” This hits the bulls eye. People are unhappy because they think they need a lot; when in fact, what depresses them are luxuries and pleasures they do not need in the first place. It is when we desire for more that we feel discontent and poor. This is why the Scriptures admonish us:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb 13:5).

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless” (Ecc 5:10).

Twelve Extra Baskets

The people were all filled and were satisfied. In fact, there were twelve basketfuls after everyone ate. For some of us, maybe we are still at that stage when we are remaining in Christ while enduring our hunger. We are still waiting for Jesus Christ to make a miracle in our lives.

But maybe for some of us we are already experiencing the fullness and satisfaction as rewards of our commitment to Christ. I can confess that I belong to this group. God has been so gracious to me and He has blessed me abundantly. I have had my share of hunger and suffering. When I decided to follow Christ and become a minister, I experienced not eating for several days while I was at the Bible College. In order for me to wash my clothes, I had to scrape the soap leftovers of others. But because I followed Jesus Christ, and continued to remain in Him, I am now able to eat three times a day, and I have money to buy soap for my laundry. I am not rich, but I know that I am blessed. I am very satisfied with what God has given me.

Did you ever wonder why there were still twelve basketfuls of leftovers? Among 15,000 people, 12 basketfuls is nothing. It will probably only take 500 people to eat 12 baskets of bread. Also, the people could have decided to just keep the leftovers to themselves. There were leftovers that the disciples were able to gather because the people experienced contentment and satisfaction. I think the only way that we are able to give back to the Lord and give to others is when we are truly satisfied. When we are not satisfied with our lives, we can tend to hold back our leftovers and keep them for ourselves.