"Don't you remember anything at all? What about the five thousand men I fed with five loaves of bread? How many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?"
"Twelve," they said.
"And when I fed the four thousand with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?"
"Seven," they said.
"Don't you understand even yet?"
The above conversation takes place in Mark 8:18-21. I have always wondered what Jesus meant when he asked them, "Don't you understand even yet?" I knew there was something there I was not getting along with the disciples. Something to do with the numbers.
For a long time, I pondered the number of people fed, five thousand and four thousand. But now I don't think the number of people fed is as important as the how.
There are two different Greek words that are used for the baskets of leftovers. The first one describing the twelve baskets of leftovers means a small basket, a basket that holds only enough for one or two. The second word describing the seven baskets of leftovers means a large basket or lunch hamper. Wonderfully, it comes from the word for sowing or scattering seed. The large basket holds enough for many.
Now I see that the twelve small baskets are the disciples. So, by extension, they are us – the followers of Christ. The seven large baskets represent the power of God. Several places in the Bible the number seven is used to describe the power and attributes of the Spirit.
"In Revelation 3:1 Jesus 'holds' the seven spirits of God ... Isaiah 11:2 also references the Holy Spirit using a seven-fold description: 'The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.' The prophecy is that the Messiah would be empowered not by seven individual spirits but by the One Spirit, described seven ways:
1) The Spirit of the LORD
2) The Spirit of wisdom
3) The Spirit of understanding
4) The Spirit of counsel
5) The Spirit of power
6) The Spirit of knowledge
7) The Spirit of the fear of the Lord
The 'seven spirits of God' in the book of Revelation are thus a reference to the Holy Spirit in the perfection of His manifold ministry." -- Got Questions https://www.gotquestions.org/seven-spirits-God.html
We are the little baskets holding the broken Bread of Life, the Bread given for the life of the world. But the amazing thing is that the fragments of bread in the disciple's baskets were the leftovers of a mighty miracle. The leftovers, think of that! And so we also carry "just" the overflow. His unending, uncontainable abundance. The broken pieces of the Bread, "good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over" poured into our little baskets (Luke 6:38).
Our baskets can hold the Bread of Life. But it is the power of the Spirit of God that feeds. It is the power of the Spirit of God that causes seed to multiply, be sown, take root, and grow.
So many times, I feel like my little basket is empty. Maybe just a couple of borrowed fish and a grubby, smooshed loaf that's been carried around in a kid-pocket all day. So many times, when I'm asked to pray for people, or to serve by caretaking in my perpetually wiped-out state, I feel like I've got nothing. And I don't! I don't have anything to give as long as it is just me and my empty little basket. I am like the exhausted, depleted Peter in the boat, having worked hard all night and not caught anything. "But because you say so, I will let down the nets" once more. I will open my heart and ask you to fill it. Because every time I say, "I've got nothing, Lord," you pour your magnificent, unfailing love and power into my little basket. And it runs over.
Photo by Michael Porter, Broken Bread https://flic.kr/p/9jvwZu
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