Feeding the Thousands

Most Christians know the story of the feeding of the 5,000. The story is found in Matthew 14. Jesus went away after the beheading of John the Baptist, but found that a crowd had followed. His compassion overwhelmed Him and he healed their sick. But the hour grew late and the people hungry. The disciples told Jesus, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves" (Matt. 14:15). Jesus responded, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat" (Matt. 14:16). They assured Him that they lacked the capacity. "We have only five loaves here and two fish" (Matt. 14:17). To their surprise and, perhaps, dismay, Jesus told them to bring Him their meager amount. He had the crowd sit in groups, blessed the food, and distributed it to the disciples who distributed it to the crowd. When they were done, there were twelve baskets of leftovers (Matt. 14:19-20).

I'm not going to debate the miracle. I learned something interesting from this passage that I think we can take away for ourselves. I see a principle here that we can and should use in our daily lives. Look again.

The disciples did the right thing. They saw a need that they couldn't meet and took it to Jesus. They were tuned in to the needs of the crowd -- the crowd was tired and hungry. And they were aware of their own shortcomings -- they didn't have the capacity to feed them. They took it to the Lord in prayer. Jesus responded, "You feed them." What an interesting response! "Lord, there is a need we can't meet." And the Lord responded with "Meet the need." How did He do that? He asked them to take inventory. "You don't have enough to meet their need ... fine. What do you have?" They had enough to feed one or two people. And Jesus, by implication, said, "Good enough -- give me what you have." You know the rest of the story. He blessed it and met the need. But He didn't do it alone. He had them do it. He took what they had, blessed it, and used what they had (in materials, time, and effort) to meet the needs of the crowd.

In fact, this was the same approach with Moses, wasn't it? At the burning bush encounter (Exo. 3), Moses worried about how he would convince the Israelites that he was actually from God? Remember God's approach? He chose to use what Moses had. He had a staff, so God turned it into a snake and then into a staff. He had a hand, so God made it leprous and then clean. He could get water, so God told him He would turn it to blood. God seems to use what we have at hand -- inadequate in and of itself -- to accomplish His plan.

I suspect that we are often like the disciples or Moses in this way. We see a need. "Lord, there's a serious need and I lack the capacity to fix it." And we leave it at that. I suspect that many times what Jesus wants is for us to give Him what we have so He can bless it and use us to meet the needs we cannot meet. I am confident that many times what Jesus wants is for us to give Him what we have so that we can do the ministry to others that we don't have the capacity to do.

I hear too often about "burnout", the apparently common occurrence where pastors and other Christian workers simply run out of steam and cannot continue. I don't understand this concept. The disciples in this case started with insufficient means to meet the need that they saw. All it took was Jesus's blessing and they had more than they needed. I wonder how many times what we call "burnout" is one of two other possibilities. Either the person who burns out wasn't supposed to be there in the first place, or they stopped relying on the Sovereign of the Universe to supply what they needed to perform the task He gave them to perform. The alternative is hard to imagine. In terms of the story, it would imply that the disciples correctly saw a need and Christ certainly called them to meet it and then failed to supply what they needed to accomplish what He gave them to accomplish. "Okay, I said the blessing over your loaves and fishes; now distribute them." And five loaves and two fishes later they're "burnt out".

That's not the God we serve. He is the All-Sufficient One. He supplies what we need, even when we don't see it. And often He calls on us to step out in our weakness to do the miraculous even when we don't see the resources at hand. To participate in a miracle like that would be glorious. I think we all get the chance. Let's taste and see that the Lord is good.