After the disciples returned from preaching and healing in the surrounding villages, Jesus invited them to a deserted location to rest. However, what had been supposed to be a place of rest, became a place of the miraculous. The crowd followed Jesus and the disciples into the deserted place. After teaching the crowd, the disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away, but he told them to feed the people. They didn’t think they had the resources to accomplish what Jesus told them. So Jesus took what they had, blessed it and gave it to the people, in that way feeding the whole group of 5000 men (plus women and children). In fact, they had more left over than they began with!
This was an amazing demonstration of heavenly provision, utilizing what we have to provide for what we need. The point is that we always have enough, the problem is not in what we have, but what we think about what we have. Jesus demonstrated that the five loaves and two fish, the amount of food the disciples had in their possession, was sufficient to feed the whole crowd of five thousand men. The problem wasn’t in the amount, but in what the disciples thought about the amount. We, like the disciples, look at what we have and compare it to what we need. In that comparison, we often conclude that what we have isn’t enough. Jesus takes what we have and reveals that it is more than enough. Jesus’ action in feeding the five thousand is an invitation for us to change the way we think about our life, what we have and what we need. Over and over, Jesus taught his disciples that our heavenly Father will take care of us, because we are more precious to him than the birds of the air and the grass of the field, therefore we are free to live in peace and focus our energies toward seeking his kingdom and his righteousness.
David Freitag 