Give Them Something to Eat
Matthew 14:13-21
August 7, 2005
John the Baptist had become a thorn in the side of the monarchy and an enemy of those who believed that they didn’t have to be accountable for their actions. Out of hatred and jealousy, King Herod’s wife and daughter demanded – and received – John’s head on a platter.
In grief and sorrow, Jesus withdrew to a place apart; a place where he could spend time alone praying and recovering from his heartfelt anguish. But solitude was something which was rare for him, and it was not to be found this time. The crowds followed him. His compassion overrode his fatigue and he moved about them, preaching, teaching, touching, and healing.
When evening came, it was obvious that they were hungry. After all, even the most compelling of teachers – even the Son of God - can’t hold a crowd’s attention indefinitely without a break now and then for food and a bathroom. There were five thousand men there that day. The miracle that is about to happen increases in amazement when you stop to consider that there were probably more than 5,000 folks there…a lot more. Let’s make the assumption that most of those men were married. They would have had their wives along. In addition, there would have been children. All in all, we may be talking about 15 to 20,000 people…a huge crowd.
The disciples, not being all that creative, didn’t see any way that they could feed all these people. So they began to encourage Jesus to send them away while it was still light enough that they could make their way into town to find food and shelter. Jesus told them that sending them away wasn’t necessary. He told the disciples to feed them.
I’ve always thought that Twinkies are a food group. I have a friend Cheryl who I met when she was in high school. She is about 29 now. She has a teaching degree from Goshen College in music, and taught Middle School for a while in Colorado, but found out that she really didn’t like teaching. So now she is back in Goshen where she lives with her husband while picking up a few classes at Notre Dame in order to get into Veterinary School. We communicate on occasion by e-mail to keep up with each other.
She was a member of my youth group when I served Trinity Church in Hobart. I made a comment one day about Twinkies being a food group. Every couple of weeks from that time on, she would bring me in an industrial-sized box of Twinkies. I thought that if it wasn’t for the fact that she already had a family that loved her, I would have adopted her on the spot.
But then I remembered the San Francisco incident in 1979 when Dan White killed Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk. You remember, don’t you, that White’s attorney was able to get him convicted of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter because he said that he had eaten so many Twinkies that the high sugar content in his body caused him to have diminished mental capacity…the so called, “Twinkie Defense.”
In the days of Jesus, Twinkies weren’t an option. There were basically two food groups: bread and fish. The disciples looked around, rummaged through their pockets, canvassed the area, talked with other folks present…and discovered that all they could come up with were five loaves of bread and two fish.
Somehow, I don’t think we’re talking about loaves of Wonder Bread or pan fried Mississippi River Catfish. I’ve got a feeling we’re talking about five crackers and a couple of sardines. There is no way, the Disciples thought, that this was going to do any good. After all, it was barely enough for a single person’s lunch, let alone that entire multitude.
Along with not being very creative, the disciples didn’t remember their history very well. They had heard all of the stories of the faith. They had been told about the exploits of their heroic ancestors. They grew up knowing that they could trust God. But at that particular moment, they forgot. I guess that there is nothing all that unusual about that. We forget about God from time to time ourselves. So the Disciples forgot their history. They forgot about, among other things, the prophets Elijah and Elisha.
During the ministry of the prophet Elijah, there was a drought in the land. He found himself up in the city of Zarephath, in modern day Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast (I Kings 17:8-16). There was a widow there who was down to her very last flour and cooking oil. She was going to make one last meal for her and her son and then prepare to die.
But Elijah asked her to feed him and then promised her that as long as the drought lasted, she would always have flour and oil. The writer of I Kings tells us that during the course of the drought, the woman’s jar of flour was never empty and her jug of oil did not fail. The Disciples forgot about that story.
The prophet Elisha was down in the Jordan valley once during a rather severe famine. He happened to be in the company of about a hundred people when this fellow came along with twenty barley loaves and a sack of grain. Elisha told the guy to give it to the people to eat, but he said that there was no way this food would feed a hundred people. But Elisha repeated his instruction, everyone ate, and they had food left over (II Kings 4:42-44). The Disciples forgot about that story.
So they came up with a little bread and a couple of fish, and Jesus knew that would be enough. He had all of the people sit down on the grass. After blessing the food, Jesus gave it to the Disciples for distribution. Not only was there enough to feed everyone, but after dinner was finished, they collected twelve baskets of leftovers.
Understand that the disciples acted in good faith; at least as far as their faith took them. They took inventory of their resources and discovered that they only had five loaves of bread and two fish. There was no way, they thought, that all these folks could be fed, so they suggested that they go off on their own to find dinner.
But Jesus knew of the abundance that awaited them from the hand of God. He wasn’t willing to cast them away in the slim hope that they could find enough to eat in the neighboring towns, villages and fishing outposts. He saw that there was no need for the crowd to take their chances elsewhere when nourishment from God was within their reach.
I am always looking for new ways to preach the old gospel stories. I try to be attentive to ways that the story can be approached from a different angle, perhaps to see things in the text that we hadn’t seen before.
I was browsing resources for this sermon and found the website of a mega church out in California. This is a church that reaches tens of thousands each week in their worship services. The pastor had an online Bible study, one session of which was this miracle story. He approached it differently than I think I would like to do.
The title of his study was, “How to Prepare for a Miracle.” He had four steps in the process of receiving miracles in people’s lives. 1) Admit that you have a need, 2) assess what you have to work with, 3) give God whatever you have, 4) expect God to multiply whatever you give him. That’s pretty good, I think. It’s not bad.
But sometimes, it seems to me that there is a risk that Christians can be a little self-centered, selfish, and arrogant. I do believe that Jesus came in order that we might have life and have it more abundantly. But I don’t believe that our abundant life is first on the agenda. As I read the gospel, our task is to ensure the abundant life of others first. When we are so occupied, it seems to me, our own abundant life will take care of itself.
Remember that Jesus said, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mark 10:31). “…whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Mark 10:43-45).
I believe that the key to unlocking this story of the feeding of the 5,000 is found in the reply of Jesus when the disciples wanted to send the people away. The Disciples were well-meaning, but really didn’t have a clue until Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”
That is our calling, to give them something to eat. I believe that when Jesus tells us to do that, we always underestimate our resources. We always tend to believe that we don’t have enough, that we can’t do enough, that we don’t know enough, that we’re not smart enough, that we’re not creative enough
When my boys were younger, we had some favorite television shows we would watch together. One of the shows we always made a point of seeing was “MacGyver.” He was amazing. He was some sort of special, super-duper secret agent who always went on assignments with nothing in his pocket except his Swiss Army Knife. In every show, he would get into trouble and would be facing a situation of certain death. But he would always find a roll of duct tape somewhere. With tape and his pocket knife, he was always able to solve any problem he faced. The guy could build a 747 with duct tape and a pocket knife!
Jesus tells us to give them something to eat. He knows that we have resources we don’t yet realize. When the hungry come looking for a bit to eat, or when the grieving come looking for understanding and reassurance, or when the lost come looking for a new direction, or when the weak come looking for strength, or when the resentful come looking for understanding, or when the afraid come looking for courage, or when the addicted come looking for freedom, or when the hopeless come looking for hope… it is up to us to remember the words of Jesus. “You give them something…”
When there are needs around us, people do not need to be sent away. We have it in our power to help them see God through us. When people wonder what God is like, let them look at us as we model godly behavior. Let them see God through our eyes. Let them understand the lengths God will go to meet their needs.
The thing that Christians need to realize is that we already have been given abundant life. Sharing that abundance with others is our task…and our joy. Miracles occur in our life when we help others see the miracles in their own.
