Loaves and Fish

The following commentary was written by my brother, and with his permission I am sharing it with you.

Luke 10:2
He told them, "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the field."



Loaves and Fish
By Steve Bartlett

I was reading in Mark chapter 6 last night the familiar story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with the five loaves of bread and two fish.

We've all heard this one, right?

I hadn't. At least I hadn't REALLY heard it until last night.

First, let me set up the story. A very large crowd had been listening to Jesus preach. The Bible says that there were 5000 men in the crowd. When you add in women and children, a conservative estimate would easily double that number. Let's just say there were 10,000 people in the crowd. Not a small number by any stretch of the imagination.

It was getting late in the day and Jesus' disciples looked around at the crowd and said to Jesus, "We are in a remote place and it is already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding towns and buy themselves something to eat."

Now, let's pause here for just a moment to look at what the disciples are saying. It seems like a very innocuous comment at first glance. In fact, I don’t recall ever giving this a second thought…until I read it again last night. If I were to paraphrase it would probably sound something like this: "Jesus, we are out in the middle of nowhere and these people are hungry. If you don't get rid of these people they are going to become OUR problem."

The disciples are faithless, selfish, and full of fear.

Faithless? The disciples and the crowd were literally in the physical presence of God. They had witnessed many miracles and even performed some themselves. Yet they seemed to think that a hungry crowd was somehow beyond fixable.

Selfish? You might be asking, “Weren’t the disciples concerned for the people in the crowd?” Were they? Or were they more concerned for themselves if the crowd got out of control? (When you have 10,000 hungry people, things are bound to get a little nasty.)

Full of fear? Put yourself in the disciples’ place. A throng of 10,000 hungry men, women and children against thirteen men are not good odds.

But then Jesus responds. And this is the part that kicked me in the gut. Jesus’ initial response is short, but it is absolutely devastating. Are you ready for this?

Jesus says, “You feed them.”

Notice that Jesus does not tell them HOW to feed the crowd; He simply calls them to action. Jesus did not call the disciples into a huddle and say: “OK, Peter, you go find 10,000 hot dog buns. James, you find some hot dogs...Hebrew Nationals to be exact. John, you build a big fire so we can roast the hot dogs. Andrew, you find enough sodas for 10,000 people…”

Jesus didn’t call on the government to pass out stimulus checks so that the people could buy food.

Jesus didn’t even change the stones that many people were undoubtedly sitting on into loaves of bread.

No. He simply says, “You feed them.”

The disciples are taken aback. They respond, “Lord, to feed this many people would cost eight months worth of wages! Do you really expect us to go and spend that much on bread to feed these people?” (Do you see the selfishness coming out again?)

Then Jesus, in his infinite patience, asks them a simple question: “How much bread DO you have?”

And that is the point.

Jesus doesn’t ask the disciples to do His work with something they don’t have. Rather, he asks them to ACT in FAITH with what they DO have.

You see, when God asks us to do something, He will make it possible. He doesn’t fail. Whatever is needed to accomplish His purpose will be provided.

Unfortunately, we all too often become discouraged when we don’t have what we THINK we need. We say, “God, I don’t have the money.” We make excuses like, “I don’t have the talent.” We brush off His purpose with “I’ll get to it when I have the time.”

And just like the disciples we are faithless, selfish, and full of fear.

And Jesus calls us, even today, to ACT in FAITH with what we DO have.

We see a family struggling to put food on the table. “You feed them.”

We see families being evicted from their homes. We see the homeless in sub-freezing temperatures. “You shelter them.”

We see people hurting all around us. “You comfort them.”

“You…them.” Do you see the pattern?

And now, even in the land of plenty, we have difficult days surrounding us. Economic turmoil, job loss and home foreclosures abound. People are hurting all around us. We ourselves are hurting. These are dark times.

But the light always shines brightest in the dark! We now have a wealth of opportunity to ACT in FAITH with what we DO have! I love how John Piper says, “Let’s not waste this recession.” This is an opportunity to take the focus off of ourselves and to step out in faith.

When we act in faith with what we do have, financial recessions don’t matter.

When we act in faith with what we do have, God will give us all that we need.

When we act in faith with what we do have, people will get a glimpse of the true nature of God and they will want more!

When we ACT in FAITH with what we DO have...


“You feed them.”