Rev. Debbie Cato
Matthew
14:1-21
Fairfield Community Church
August 13, 2023
Holy God,
Since we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your
divine mouth, make us hunger for heavenly food, that it may nourish us today in
the ways of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, the bread of heaven. Amen
There Is Enough!
Crowds of
people follow Jesus wherever he goes.
People want to be healed by his miraculous power. They want to hear his amazing teaching. People are drawn to Jesus’ compassion. They see the love on his face. They hear it in his voice. People are attracted to Jesus because of who
He is and they follow him wherever he goes.
Jesus just learned that his cousin John; the one who went before him to prepare people for Jesus’ ministry; the one who baptized him in the River Jordan; was killed by Herod. The way John was killed was shocking. Jesus is grieving. He wants to be alone and so Jesus gets into a boat to go somewhere that is isolated. Some place where the crowds won’t find him. But when his boat lands; there they are! The crowds are waiting for him.
Jesus looks around at the crowd and he sees how large it is. A lot of people have come to see him. He sees all those people standing there waiting for him and he is filled with compassion. They need Him. Never mind his grief. He heals their sick. Jesus meets their needs.
In fact, Jesus is so focused on the crowd of people that he loses track of time. He doesn’t notice that it is getting dark. His disciples come to him – probably tired and frustrated that Jesus got side-tracked. Come on, Jesus! It’s late. We’re tired. We’re hungry! Besides, these people are probably hungry! Let them go get some supper.
But Jesus has other ideas. “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” He tells them. You give them something to eat.
You give them something to eat. Don’t you just hate it when you pray that God will take care of someone or something and then He turns it around and puts it on your heart to take care of it?! God tells us that all the time! I want YOU to do that. It’s as if He means this “being the hands and feet of Jesus” thing.
When asked about prayer, Pope Francis said, “You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That's how prayer works.” You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That’s how prayer works. God expects us to act.
Jesus expected the disciples to feed the crowd that evening, to take care of them. He expected the disciples to act. The Gospels tell us that there were five thousand in the crowd. What they don’t say is there were five thousand men in the crowd. Women and children were not counted, but you know there were women and children there! And so it’s possible that the actual size of the crowd was double that! It’s probable there were 10,000 people – or more - in the crowd that day. 10,000 people to feed! That would feel overwhelming, wouldn’t it?
After looking around, they found a small boy who offered his lunch. Children don’t feel the impossible. They will give what they have more willingly than us adults who can see that what we have is not enough. “We only have five loaves of bread and two fish,” the disciples say to Jesus. Look at all these people and these measly loaves of bread and tiny fish! It’s impossible! We can’t feed the people ourselves! What are you talking about, Jesus?! We don’t have enough! We can’t do it.
Isn’t that what we think when we look at our limited resources and the tremendous need in our communities? When we look at our dwindling numbers? The size of our Sunday offering? Our shrinking bank accounts? We don’t have enough. We can’t do that, Jesus!
Jesus doesn’t say much. He doesn’t chastise the disciples or explain anything to them. Instead, he asks the huge crowd of hungry people to sit down, and he simply takes the loaves and the two small fish into his hands. He thanks God for the food – Jesus prays over the small meal he’s about to share with this crowd of 10,000 or so people. After praying, Jesus takes the loaves and the fish, and he gives them to his disciples to give to the people in the crowd.
After everyone has enough to eat; after everyone is full; after 10,000 or so people have filled their bellies, the disciples pick up the leftovers so that nothing goes to waste. Picture the disciples wandering throughout the hillside, among the thousands of people sitting around on the grass, gathering up leftover bread and fish in their baskets. They must have been amazed to find enough leftovers for each of them to fill a basket! What had seemed to the disciples to be not enough to feed the large crowd of hungry people was actually an over-abundance. Each of the disciples filled a basket of leftovers. Twelve baskets of leftovers!
We don’t know exactly how such a meager amount of food fed so many people. None of the Gospel writers tell us. It must not matter. The how isn’t what’s important.
What we do know is that Jesus looks with different eyes than we look. Jesus wants his disciples to know that God is a God of abundance, not a God of scarcity. Jesus wants his disciples to know that there is enough for them to do what needs to be done. When God sees a need, God provides.
Just like those disciples that evening on the hillside, I think sometimes we are filled with doubt that we can do what God calls us to do. I think we doubt because we live out of fear and see only what we don’t have. We live out of scarcity. We are too old, we say. We are too small. We’ve never done it before. We don’t have the money to do that. We can’t do that. No one will come. No one will volunteer. It won’t work. We don’t have enough. And so we don’t do anything; we don’t even try.
Clearly, whatever we have is not enough. Yet, as this text points out, the “not enough” is not the final answer. When placed in the hands of Jesus, what we have, becomes more than enough. With Jesus, a little can become much, a few can become many, and the weak can become strong.
All Jesus expects from us is just a “little faith”. He said, “If you have faith the size of just a little mustard seed, you can say to this mountain here, ‘Move over!’ and it will move over, and there will be nothing impossible for you.”
How might things be different if we worshipped and prayed and ministered out of Christ’s abundance? If we believed big? If we believed in God’s abundant provision? Would we be more willing to share what we have like this small boy shared his meager lunch of loaves and fishes? Would we actually believe that Jesus can multiply our gifts to meet the needs? If we acted out of a mentality of abundance would we be more willing to provide opportunities for God to surprise us and transform our expectations?
Jesus still performs miracles. But for each miracle he performs, he asks something of us. We cannot expect to just sit back and do nothing. He asks us to act. What is He calling you to do? What is He calling this church to do?
May His kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.
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