Charles on 15 March 2005

Scripture
Luke 9 : 12 - 17
12 As the day was drawing to a close, the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away to the neighboring villages and farms so they can rest and get some food, for we are here in a deserted place.”

13 But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
They replied, “We have nothing more than five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all these people.”

14 Now there were about 5,000 men. So he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty.” 15 They did this and got all of them seated. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves in pieces and kept giving them to the disciples to pass on to the crowd. 17 All of them ate and were filled. When they collected the leftover pieces, there were twelve baskets.


Observation

We are all familiar with the iconic history of Jesus feeding the 5000 with only two fishes and five loaves of bread. It is a miracle, no doubt. One thing I noticed was that this happened right in the middle of his tour of healing, casting our demons, etc. Just before this, he was healing the sick.

I believe Jesus had in mind what to do exactly when he fed the poor. He was meeting a need. Many people have heard about this Jesus and was speculating his identity - some went as far as to believing he is the resurrected Elijah or John the Baptist. We need to remember that this is the generation who witnessed the beheading of John the Baptist - the one revolution that threatened the authorities. The execution of John at that time sent shocks through the nation and served as a warning against anything radical. Jesus seems to follow in that pattern, ignored the warning and drew a lot of attention - people were intrigued and fearful at the same time. Spectators followed to see what this Jesus was all about. I guess he quite aptly surprised them by feeding them - meeting their basic need. And when he got their attention and softened their hearts, he started teaching about the Kingdom of God.

Application

Sometimes we get caught up with the spiritual aspects and forget the basics. Jesus demonstrated that there is a time for everything. If feeding is needful then feeding it will be. This reminds me of Bob Larson when he was here. Instead of attempting to find out if Barry had any demons, he fed him and met him at his basic needs before anything else. I think this is the essence of love. What does it mean to love? To love is to feed and keep. We cannot keep anyone's trust if we do not first feed. Seems the cliche is so true now - "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach!"

Prayer
Dear God. Help me not be the spiritual arrogant that only operates in the spiritual realm of prayer, warfare and all things "wow". But give me eyes to see and meet the needs of my fellow men. If giving a hug, a cloak or food is the only thing that will matter, then help me place that as a priority in my heart. Teach me to give when there is a need. For I know this will breed trust for their ears to be open to the saving grace of your word. Amen.