What is the problem?

For more than twenty years Professor Edwin R. Keedy of the University of Pennsylvania Law School used to start his first class by putting two figures on the blackboard 4 2. Then he would ask "What's the solution?" One student would call out "six." Another would say "two." Then several would shout out "eight!" But the teacher would shake his head in the negative. Then Keedy would point out their collective error. All of you failed to ask the key question: "What is the problem?" Gentlemen, unless you know what the problem is, you cannot possibly find the answer." This teacher knew that in law as in everyday life too much time is spent trying to solve the wrong problem. Could this have been the case with the miracle performed in John 6? Here we find thousands of hungry people. Jesus wants to feed them so He asks Phillip where they can buy bread so that the multitude can be fed. In mere pessimism this disciple responds by saying, "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little." The verse prior says that Jesus "said this to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do." Jesus had the answer but he wanted Phillip and the other disciples to discover the problem. Simply stated they suffered from poor eye sight. They had the inability to see the vision Jesus had in this situation. What they saw was an impossibility; Jesus saw an opportunity. The issue was not the hungry multitude but rather their lack of vision. Could this be our story. Is it possible that Jesus has the answer for our needs, but is desperately trying to get us to see the problem? He sees big things in store for our lives. However, the question is "what do you see?"