Feeding of the 5,000

With all of the responsibilities and assignments that bombard us every day, how often do we feel insufficient and incapable of succeeding? I know I have felt that way multiple times, but Christ teaches us a very powerful lesson in Matthew 14 about how we can overcome those feelings of inadequacy.  The story of the feeding of 5,000 is in Matthew 14: 13-21.  Matthew tells us that a great multitude of people, “about five thousand men, beside women and children” had gathered to hear Jesus’s teachings.  When evening came, Christ’s disciples suggested that they send the multitude away to eat. However, Christ saw this as an opportunity to teach a lesson and elevate his disciples.  Jesus commanded the disciples to “give ye them to eat” (v. 16).  Another gospel account tells us that a lad had five loaves and two fishes, and that was it.  That was the only food available to them.  In the disciples’ minds, Jesus had given them an impossible command.  He had given them the “what”, but not the “how.” They were faithful, however, and brought the five loaves and two fishes to Jesus.  The scriptures tell us that “[Jesus] commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”  Matthew tells us that before Christ did anything, he “look[ed] up to heaven.” Christ looked at the solution, not the problem.  So often when we are challenged with something that seems impossible, we focus only on the problem and not on the solution.  When all the multitude had eaten, the scriptures tell us that “they took up the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.”  There was an abundance of the miracle.  Every single person was full.

            Now why does the miracle of feeding the 5,000 matter for us today?  Picture yourself as the lad that had the five loaves and two fishes, and Jesus is asking you to feed 5,000 people. You would feel pretty inadequate and insufficient, wouldn’t you? That is a common feeling when Jesus asks us to do something – he gives us a very big “what,” but we can’t imagine the “how.”  However, Jesus isn’t requiring us to do it alone. All we have to do is give Him all that we have, and Jesus will produce the miracle.  This lad willingly gave his five loaves and two fishes, not knowing how it was going to be enough, but there ended up being more leftovers than they started with.  If we give Christ all that we have, he won’t just make it enough, he will make it more than enough.  Something that Brother Griffin said in class has really stuck with me, “Whatever you feel like you’re lacking, try giving more of that thing to the Lord.”  Whatever we feel that we lack, Jesus can multiply it and make it more than enough.  Have faith in the Lord and trust in his miracles.