Why Philip?
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
John 6:5-7 (NIV)
Any of us who have been in church for any length of time have heard the story of the feeding of the five thousand. It is purposely angled to reveal the power of God, to reveal the compassion of God, to reveal the goodness of God and the abundance of His blessing. It is also intended to reveal the human temptation to think too small.
In reading this account again recently, something else caught my attention. I wondered, Why Philip?
Why did Jesus specifically ask Philip about where to get bread for the people?
He engaged Philip in particular because of something rather incidental. Philip, of all the disciples, knew the area best. He was from a little fishing village, Bethsaida, on the northeast shore of lake Galilee—near to where they were. Philip knew the survey of the land, the access to provisions, and the places where bread might be available.
Philip knew that this size crowd would be unable to find sufficient bread in the few local bakeries of the small neighboring villages. This incidental knowledge that Philip possessed of the area where is why Jesus asked him and not any of the others.
Philip’s knowledgeable response removes all doubt, for both the disciples who were listening and for the readers today, that there was no possible way, humanly speaking, that they could feed a crowd so large.
Jesus knew that Philip would offer the response, “We don't have enough money to purchase bread for all of these people.” And Jesus knew that from that response, He would then work a miracle that would amaze some, convict others, and convince many that He was, in fact, the Son of God.
How can your knowledge, your expertise, your words be used to point people to Jesus?
