Thayer Thursday (on Friday) – Gravity and God Bread
Chris Thayer is the Director of Discipleship at Good Shepherd Church in Charlotte, NC where he oversees adult life groups and Biblical education. On Thursdays I share his weekly “Thayer’s Thoughts” for small group leaders, which are based on the previous Sunday’s sermon. Click HERE to watch or listen to the accompanying sermon.
My son, being 3 years old, likes to ask many questions. Actually, he likes to ask the same questions many times. One of those questions is: “Why is it bedtime?” So one of the first times he asked this question I replied: “Because it’s dark outside.”
Of course, as these question & answer sessions often do, my answer led to another of his questions: “Why is it dark outside?”
“Because the sun went down,” I responded.
“Why did the sun go down?”
“Because the earth rotated.”
“Why did the earth rotate?”
“Because of gravity.”
At this point in our exchange – half because I didn’t know how to explain gravity and half because I want my son to know the Creator of creation: I preempted his next question by stating “And God made gravity.” He then said: “Okay,” and went to bed.
This exchange has turned into a nightly habit. I’ve since added one final question for him: “And who’s God’s son?” to which he replies delightedly: “The Little Lord Jesus,” (which he got from learning Away in a Manger for his preschool Christmas play).
Right now, this conversation is used primarily for him as a bedtime ritual – an explanation for why he has to go to bed. He doesn’t quite understand the significance behind it. He doesn’t know that I am slowly teaching him, in ways he can understand, that we are not here by accident – that there is a Creator of the universe; and that Jesus came, died, and rose again for him. Eventually, when it’s time, I’ll deepen and broaden this exchange and use it to share that with him.
In John 6, Jesus feeds the five thousand. It’s a fairly well-known story from Jesus’ life in the gospels. What is easily missed, however, is that Jesus uses this as an opportunity to deepen and broaden a story that has been passed down from generation to generation for one and a half millennia: The Exodus.
During The Exodus, while Israel was wandering in the desert for 40 years, God fed them with manna from heaven. Using the vivid parallels between the feeding of the five thousand and The Exodus – Jesus reminds the people that it was God who was the giver of bread, and it can only be Him who gives the bread of life.
Jesus uses this 1500 year old event to point to a reality that was hard His followers to accept. In order to receive eternal life, they had to believe in Him; and his method of redemption was going to be far from what they anticipated. Jesus was going to rise to the throne of King through His death – the antithesis of their expectations.
The Exodus was a shadow of who was to come and how He would deliver His people. Jesus teaches them through this that in order to participate in life you must partake of Jesus.
Chris Thayer
Categories: Blog, New Testament, Thayer Thursday