Luke 8-9: Another Kingdom

Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
   They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (About five thousand men were there.)
   But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. - Luke 8:12-17 NIV

I used to think that this story was as simple as an illustration of Jesus' miraculous power, but it is more than that.  It is a contrast between our tendency to look to resolving problems with our own resources:  our might, our power, our wealth, our knowledge and going to the actual source to solve those problems instead.  Scientists now think there may be a parallel universe that has dimensions we cannot begin to imagine.  How they finally came to that conclusion when Jesus spoke of that parallel universe, the Kingdom of God, years ago.  There is the material world and there is the greater, far reaching spiritual world which contains more power than anything we can call up in this physical realm. 

Jesus told his disciples '“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”   It's also possible that no one who looks at just this physical world will ever experience the power of the Kingdom of God. 

2010 Post - Luke 8-9:  The Transfiguration