you feed them

Two weeks ago, around 35 students from our Zeke37 youth program participated in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. This year’s theme was Feed Your 5,000. For a little over a day we fasted, taking in only liquids. In itself, it was a worthwhile experience. But with the help of our community, we also had the privilege of raising more than $2300 – enough to feed a child from infancy to well past their sixth birthday.

 

To some, this may seem inconsequential. “What is a single child amidst the 7,000 who die every day from hunger-related causes?” they ask. “And what is to say that, after eating for 6 ½ years, that child will not starve?” Others, the pragmatists, suggest that the problem is simply too large; after all, how can a few dozen students from small-town Delaware expect to change the world?

 

The Twelve were skeptics who asked the same sort of questions. In the course of their training, they saw a seemingly unending line of needs – masses of the sick, disabled and destitute. Time and again, these encounters served as the proverbial sandpaper that honed their attitudes toward a Kingdom bent. One in particular, the feeding of the 5,000, revealed the discrepancy between their hearts and the heart of Jesus.

 

It was late in the evening, and everyone was weary from a demanding season of ministry. They had tried to slip away unnoticed for a much-needed vacation, but to no avail; thousands followed them to their destination. Tired as he was, Jesus began to heal and teach the people. But as the sun sank toward the horizon, the disciples grew impatient: “It’s getting late, we are in the middle of nowhere, and these people haven’t eaten. Don’t you think you should send them away so they can find some food?” Yet Jesus didn’t seem concerned. “That won’t be necessary,” he said. “You feed them” (Mark 6:37a).

 

Predictably, the disciples protested. “How do you expect us to do that, Jesus? Have you seen the size of this crowd? We don’t have any food, and we don’t have nearly enough money” (verse 37b). They got hung up on the size of the problem at hand and the lack of resources at their disposal. Instead of focusing on who was with them, they reverted to asking how it could be done. Such a relapse is faith killing. It impairs our effectiveness for the Kingdom. Its implicit declaration is, “Jesus, I know you’re God, but this issue is just too big.”

 

Yet Jesus graciously overlooked the slight, redirecting them to take inventory of what they did have. In the crowd, the disciples found a boy who packed a sack lunch. And that child’s now-famous five loaves and two fish – the equivalent of a few slices of Wonder Bread and some lunchmeat – became the makings of a miracle in the hands of Jesus.

 

What if the one child our efforts saved is holding the makings of a modern-day miracle?

 

The story ends with more than enough food to go around. So much, in fact, that twelve full baskets of leftovers were gathered – one for each of the disciples. The cynics now held the evidence and the ingredients of the miraculous within their hands. Jesus’ message to them was clear: The miracle of multiplication would not stop that day.

 

Friends, we are the Twelve. And the fragments we hold, when given to Jesus, are more than enough to meet the needs of this broken world. The question we must answer is this: Are we willing to let go of them? Jesus’ command still stands: You feed them.