Super size me

by | Mar 9, 2023 | 2012 | 0 comments

McDonalds is one of the biggest fast food companies in the world. With 31 000 restaurants serving around 58 million people every day in 119 countries, no wonder they are doing so well.

One of the secrets of the McDonalds success is the fact that you can Super Size your meal. For only a couple of Rand extra you can almost double the size of your meal. Wow, what value!

But the “Super Size” concept is not something that is unique to McDonalds. You might be surprised to find that a carpenter less than 2000 years ago performed the ultimate Super Sized Meal.

In John 6:5-14 Jesus performs a spectacular miracle. After preaching the whole day to a crowd of people, Jesus asks his disciples how they are going to feed them all. Philip one of the twelve Apostles does a quick headcount and realizes that it would take at least 8 months wages to feed everyone. Another disciple, Andrew then pipes up and mentions that they found a boy with five small barley loves and two small fish. Clearly there was no way that all the people would be fed with such a small amount of food – let’s face it – even if there was a McDonalds close by and everyone had money. It would still be an impossible task, because just the men alone numbered 5000. So if we included women and children there would quite likely have been a total of around 10,000.

In true Jesus style and the spirit of the ultimate Super Sized Meal, Jesus prays over the bread and the fishes, breaks them into pieces and starts handing it out. Pretty soon everyone has eaten and there is so much food left that they manage to fill 12 baskets with the leftovers.

This miracle is relevant to our lives in many ways. Firstly, society makes us believe that not being wealthy, or smart or important means that we are worthless. That is of course a lie. You don’t have to have much to be of value to God. In fact the less you have the better it is. Jesus did not come to die for perfect people, but came for people like you and me. Secondly even if you have little faith, God can work with it and do something spectacular with it. The five loaves and two fishes that the boy had, were not impressive. What was impressive was what Jesus did with those 5 loves and 2 small fishes.

God performs the ultimate Super Size

When the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out a demon, he answered: “…Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20)

I don’t know how many of you live close to a mountain. In Cape Town where I live we have Table Mountain. Could you imagine what an incredible amount of power would be necessary to move a mountain like that? What about the Drakensberg? What would it take to move that mountain range? Well for God, not that much power. After all he did create the universe.

So when Jesus explains that with a little faith great things can be accomplished, it is not because we are so powerful or mighty, but because God is. That is why we can have faith as small as a mustard seed and accomplish great things, because God makes it happen on our behalf.

We tend to look at people at church and think to ourselves, “If only I was as good as that guy,” or “If only I had as much faith as that lady…well then I would be someone that God was interested in.”

I have some good news and some bad news for you. The bad news is that you will never be good enough. There is no human on this planet who can live up to God’s standard. The good news is, you don’t have to be. That’s right, because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and paid the ultimate ransom for our sins. You are justified (made right with God) through Jesus. You are therefore good enough, because Jesus makes you so and not by your own actions.

If you read the historical events that took place in the Bible, you will meet many people through whom God did amazing things. Often times, these people were not impressive at all.

Take Gideon for example, who was used by God to free his people from the Midianites and Amalakites who were oppressing them.

You would expect God to pick someone like Conan the Barbarian with years of combat training, bristling muscles and an army of ninjas to take on the enemy. You would… but you would be wrong.

Even though the Bible describes the armies of the Amalakites and the Midianites as swarms of locusts, God did not choose the bravest and strongest guy to go and fight the battle. Nope, he chose the guy who was the least in his family, from the weakest clan in Manasseh.

Gideon was that guy. Gideon was so scared to go up against the Amalakites and the Midianites that he asked God to assure him of victory by performing two miracles . Then when he finally got enough courage together to go to battle, God informed him that he had too many warriors.

Can you imagine that? You are scared beyond belief. You have 32 000 reluctant soldiers that are about to face a vastly overpowering army and then God tells you to let those soldiers go who are afraid.

Gideon’s heart must have dropped like stone when he saw 22 000 of his men up and leave. But wait, there’s more! God was not done with Gideon. With only 10 000 men left, God tells Gideon that he still has too many soldiers. If I were in his shoes I would have freaked out completely. With only 10 000 men left God tells Gideon to take the men to the river and have them drink water. The ones that lap the water get to stay and the ones that go on their knees to drink must go. In one fell swoop Gideon looses another 9700 soldiers.

Imagine that! You start with 32000 men and end up with 300. I would not have blamed Gideon if he ran for the hills at that point, but Gideon stuck it out. In the end, 300 men were more than enough. God used them to confuse the enemy to the point where they ended up fighting each other.

The Apostle Paul sums it up so nicely in 2 Corinthians 12:9: But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. “

Conclusion

You don’t need to be perfect, or rich or smart for God to love you. He already does. You don’t need to be strong or brave for him to use you; he will take you as you are. God is famous for taking something small and doing something spectacular with it. He has done it with countless people since the dawn of humanity and he can do it with you, because in Christ, you are SUPER SIZED!

 

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