Mark 6:38-44 (NIV): “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five–and two fish.”
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 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 set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
As much as Jesus would have like to have seen His disciples instantly spring into action when He told them “You give (these 5000+ people) something to eat,” it was clear that that wasn’t’ going to happen. So Jesus began to work to both fix the problem and to show the disciples how it was done.
First of all , they needed to realize that they weren’t completely without resources. After a little research, they found that they had available to them five barley loaves, and two small fish. Of course, that wouldn’t do much to feed more than 5000 people! (“How far will they go among so many?” John 6:9 NIV) But that was the wrong question. The right question was, “What can God do with these resources?”
The next step was to impose order on the current chaos (a specialty of God’s ever since the creation of the universe!). Jesus had the people sit down in groups of 100s and 50s. Thus directed and organized, the people grew quiet and attentive, anxious to see what Jesus would do next.
Next Jesus did something that was completely normal, and, at the same time, completely counter intuitive: He prayed. Jesus always prayed before He ate, giving thanks to His Father for providing what He was about to eat. What was counterintuitive was that He didn’t vary His normal prayer, even under these extraordinary circumstances. There was no laying out before God the massive challenge – He already knew. There was no pleading for direction – Jesus was always plugged into the Father, and the Father had already told Him what He was going to do before the situation ever manifested itself. There was no pleading for a solution – God was already at work to meet the need. Instead, Jesus merely lifted up the small beginnings that the Father had provided, and thanked Him for what He was going to do with them.
Then Jesus began to break the bread and fish into pieces, which He handed to His disciples, sending them off to the seated groups of people to distribute. As they broke and distributed what had been given to them, there continued to be bread and fish to break and distribute. Like the widow’s jar of oil (2 Kings 4:1-7), the food didn’t run out until the last person had received what they needed. And even more than they needed. God did not produce only enough for each person to have a mouthful. The people all ate until they were satisfied, and the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of leftovers; more than enough to feed all 12 of them another meal.
The lesson that Jesus was teaching was that when the people of God’s kingdom are expressly called to do something, whether it is to share the gospel, or move a mountain, or even to feed more than 5000 people, they can trust God to abundantly provide everything they need.
Father, this is an amazing lesson for us. But how slow we are to believe and act on it! How easy it is for us to hear Your command, or sense Your will, and then excuse ourselves because we don’t feel that we have the skills or resources. But, Lord, Your arm is no shorter today, Your power no less, than it was in the days when You called forth the universe with a word, than when You divided the Red Sea with Your breath, than when You fed 5000 men with 5 loaves and 2 small fish. Help us to trust You more, and then to turn that trust into action. Amen.