You Give Them Something to Eat
You Give Them Something to Eat
Who will be joining us?
A Crowd of Seekers: To An Unexpected Picnic
The story of the Feeing of Five Thousand has been heard and preached on again and again. The story unfolds of the crowds who have been following Jesus from place to place. And at the suggestion of one of the disciples, knowing that the crowd must be hungry and seeing the multitudes also sees there are no resources to feed them. But Jesus challenges the disciples with this command, “You give the something to eat.”
What?
There’s five loaves and two fish.
That isn’t going to go far!
So Jesus tells them to have the crowd to sit down in groups of fifty. What is he going to do?
Surely, the disciples felt their inadequacy. But Jesus chooses to offer a picnic in groups of 50. Remember there were 5,000, men and most likely about twice that many with women and children. He had the disciples distribute the 5 loaves and two fish that multiplied and everyone ate until they were satisfied. To their amazement there were twelve basket full left over.
Sometimes we only see the scarcity of resources. But with God, all things are possible.
What if we live with the expectation even when things look so sparse and impossible that God will provide?
Now, that is uncomfortable.
Let’s picnic and trust God to bring the increase.
Will we feed them the tired, the weary, the hungry, the poor?
What will that look like?