Slices
Prepare
Read 2 Corinthians 12:9. What is God saying to you through this?
Bible passage
Jesus feeds the five thousand
30 The apostles gathered round Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognised them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. ‘This is a remote place,’ they said, ‘and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.’
37 But he answered, ‘You give them something to eat.’
They said to him, ‘That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?’
38 ‘How many loaves do you have?’ he asked. ‘Go and see.’
When they found out, they said, ‘Five – and two fish.’
39 Then Jesus told them to make all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
Explore
The Jewish reader of this passage would be reminded of someone else who was responsible for a huge group of people in a desert, who taught them the things of God and who provided ‘bread’ (manna) for them. Knowing he could lead people only so far, Moses prayed that God would provide someone who would be able to lead them into the full blessings he had in store for them, ‘… so that the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd’ (Numbers 27:15–17). It was not Joshua, son of Nun, who would lead people into the fullness of God’s blessing, but Jesus, Son of God.
This incident marks another steep learning curve for Jesus’ disciples. They have learned to minister to people spiritually (and to have their own physical needs provided for by their hosts). But Jesus meets people’s spiritual and physical needs. Now he tells them, ‘You give them something to eat.’
Confronted with this impossible command, they learn a profound secret of the kingdom of God: if we give our limited resources to Jesus, they will be multiplied. Like an old instrument in the hands of a gifted musician, or meagre ingredients in the hands of a master chef, what matters is not the scale of our resources, but whose hands they are in.
Respond
Pray: ‘Lord Jesus, I place into your hands my ordinariness, my limitations, my few resources. Use them today to feed any hungry and lost people I meet.’
Deeper Bible study
‘Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, / thou fount of life, thou light of men, / from the best bliss that earth imparts / we turn unfilled to thee again.’1
The disciples returned excitedly from their mission. Jesus knew they needed solitude to recuperate physically and spiritually, but, as must happen in Christian service, the needs of others came first. The crowd tracked the boat, hurrying around the lake on foot. They were hungry and weary but, more importantly, lost and confused. They were not searching for physical bread, but to satisfy their spiritual hunger. They needed guidance and direction. The dry legalism of their religious culture had left them unfulfilled, but now they have come to Christ who feeds them spiritually. That crowd stands for all mankind. We all have deep spiritual hunger. We long for more than the world can give. Our hearts reach out towards the infinite, the transcendent, the divine, because God has made us in his image so that we can relate to God and each other.
The disciples reminded Jesus that it was late and the people hungry. We are all familiar with what happened next. Later, at the last supper, Jesus would again break bread to symbolise his body. After he had given himself on the cross and risen again, the early church recognised the symbolism of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus took the bread, thanked God for the bread, broke the bread and gave the bread. These were also the four verbs of the last supper – took, thanked, broke, gave. In my church, these words are said weekly, at every communion service. Our response, too, is a series of verbs – we take, eat, remember, feed. ‘Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.’2 We take deeply into ourselves the spiritual bread which will sustain us in this life and lead us to the next.
Jesus, Lord of our inner lives, we turn, unfilled, to you again. Feed us with the bread of life, sustain us on our journey and take us to yourself.
1 Bernard of Clairvaux, twelfth century, tr Ray Palmer, 1808–87 2 A Prayer Book for Australia, p142
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Jeremiah 51,52; Psalm 119:73–96
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for Local Mission Partner Christian Schools Workers Hastings, as they seek God’s plan for the future with one of their workers leaving at the end of the year and as they wrestle with financial challenges.
