"Walking Away"

In John 6:1-15, Jesus is followed by a mass of five thousand people and He wants to feed all of them. We've all heard the story. Jesus asks Philip what he should do, and Andrew presents a small boy with "five SMALL barley loaves and two small fish." And with that Jesus feeds five thousand people.

What struck me upon reading the story again wasn't the miracle that is in the story, but rather Jesus' response.

After the people saw the mircaulous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, 'Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.' Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

-- John 6:14-15 (NIV)

So Jesus is completely aware of what's going to happen, but he knows that it isn't his time. And he knows that the mob is going to make him do something that he just isn't ready for... that God isn't ready for him to do.

If only it were that easy to walk away from the crowd when they're about to push us into something we don't want to do. That's been one of the biggest struggles with college and just growing up in general. It seems like everyone is out partying, drinking, having sex, having babies, getting married, doing drugs, whatever. While that isn't really the context of what Jesus was dealing with, his approach is something to think about. He has a mob of five thousand people about to make him king, and he just walks away. Why? It's just not time yet. Yes, it will happen, but not today. Just give it some time.