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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.’
Joh_6:12
I. The significance of the text.—At the outset there was no thought on the part of the disciples of the possibility of a super-abundant supply. They were busy calculating what might be ‘sufficient.’ When Christ breaks the loaves and fishes, we may be sure there will be an ample provision for all. He Himself teaches us that in this miracle we may learn of Him as the Bread of God Which came down from heaven that He might give life unto the world. His Body has been broken and His Blood shed, and in Him there is an abundance of inexhaustible supply, not for our needs alone, but also for the needs of the whole world. At His Table we are bidden to draw near with faith that we may be fed. May it not be that we experience that He not merely feeds, but feasts us? There are in Him resources far beyond anything that we have yet experienced for our life and service. May we have grace at His Table to ‘gather up the broken pieces that remain over,’ and to see to it that nothing of His infinite provision for us is lost by any one of us.’
II. A safeguard against presumption.—This command to ‘gather up’ is a safeguard against presumption. The disciples might have argued that, having One with them Who can so marvellously supply bread in the wilderness, all necessity for care and forethought on their part was removed. No, each one must take his basket, his wallet, and fill it from this abundant provision. Christ never exercises His miraculous powers where men, by prudent thought, can secure provision for themselves from His supplies. A true policy of faith will never clothe itself in the nightdress of sloth. It is impossible for us to trust our God too implicitly to work with us in all He calls us to do, but we must never presume on His working instead of us. If on the one hand we are taught that Christ is not extravagant in the exercise of His miraculous power, we are taught on the other that we too need to be careful guardians of His provision. Those broken pieces that remained over had been miraculously provided; the disciples must take care of them. The Bread of God, the Bread of Life, has been provided by the most amazing miracle, and with Him God will freely give us all things, but we must guard His gifts or we shall not be fed.
III. A note of warning.—There is a solemn note of warning in the reason assigned to this command, ‘that nothing be lost.’ ‘The broken pieces that remain over.’ How abundant is the supply in Him Whose Body was broken, and Whose Blood was shed to make the satisfaction for the sins of the whole world! How sore is the hunger of a sin-stricken world! Let us by God’s grace determine that nothing of that precious provision shall be lost, but that we will gather it up in our individual and collective baskets and bear it forth to meet the needs of a perishing world.
Illustration
‘In this little circumstance, again, we have a proof that real food was supplied, and in sufficient quantity for all. There was not merely a morsel for each man, but an abundant supply, enough and to spare. Our Lord’s care for little things, and dislike of waste and extravagance, appear strongly in this sentence. It would be well if the principle contained in the words was more remembered by Christians—“Let nothing be lost.” It is a deep principle of very wide application. Time, money, and opportunities of showing kindness and doing good are specially to be remembered in applying the principle. It admits of question whether the “disciples” who distributed the bread on this occasion, and afterwards gathered the fragments, did not include other helpers beside the twelve apostles. The time necessary for the distribution of bread among five thousand people, if only twelve pairs of hands were employed, would prove on calculation to be very great.’
LET NOTHING BE LOST
I. We have to try and realise the reality, the earnestness of life.—It is a terrible responsibility which God has given us in allowing us to live. It has been truly said in the Arab proverb, ‘Every day in thy life is a leaf in thy history.’ We may forget what sort of story we have been writing day by day, but on the last day of all, when the books are opened, the leaves from life’s history will be read out. This ought to make us careful how we live day by day, since as the days are, so will the years be. As we look forward, waiting to begin our journey on the untrodden paths, let us bethink us of our equipment.
II. We need to take with us more humble faith in God.—We talk of our faith, but all the while we are planning and devising for the future; fretting our hearts about what may never come to pass, and presently our cherished plan miscarries, the house which we made so strong for ourselves crumbles into ruin, and we learn that we have been foolishly following our own way instead of committing our way unto the Lord. If we would be happy and avoid the cares and worries which kill more often than actual disease, we must learn, child-like, to put our hand into the Hand of God, and to say, ‘Lord, undertake for us.’
III. We need more earnestness in the discharge of our religious duties.—And remember, that every duty, every act of our daily work, is a religious duty to be done unto God and not unto men. Life in this world is like a vast machine in which there are numerous wheels and handles to be turned, some small, some great. Every one of us has his special handle—his special place or part in the work; let us strive by God’s help to fulfil His command, ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.’ Let us strive day by day to tread in the footsteps of our Master, Jesus. He it is Who doth go before us, and if we follow closely, nothing can come amiss to us, since we shall know that the sorrow and the joy alike drop from the same dear Hand. Let each day that God lends to us see ‘something attempted, something done.’ Let our prayer be—
‘Lord imbue me
With will to work in this diurnal sphere,
Knowing myself my life’s day-labourer here,
Where evening brings the day’s work’s wages to me,’
Thus we shall be prepared for all the changes and the chances of this mortal life, if only we can say with truth,
‘To-morrow let my sun his beams display,
Or in clouds hide them; I have lived to day.’
Rev. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton.
Illustration(1) ‘Most of you have heard of the Roman Emperor who said with anguish, “I have lost a day.” Some of you may have heard of a nobleman, of whom it was said that he lost an hour in the morning, and was looking for it all the rest of the day. How many of us have lost a day given us by God, how many are wasting their time in looking sadly after those neglected opportunities which will never return!
“Here hath been dawning another blue day,
Think, wilt thou let it slip useless away?”
(2) ‘When the friends of Mendelssohn, the great composer, tried to dissuade him from his work, he said, “Let me work while it is yet day. Who can tell how soon the bell may toll.” Such should be the feeling of every worker for Jesus Christ, of every Christian. A great English writer and a good man had these words engraved on the dial-plate of his watch, “The night cometh,” that he might be reminded that he must work his work while it is called to-day.’