How Shall We Feed Them?
BY Alex Stevenson
Our world is full of hungry people. Many hunger for the basics of life: food, clothing, and shelter. Thousands die daily for lack of basic nutrition. Children are robbed of their potential because of malnutrition. Many suffer because of a lack of proper health care. Even right here in America, the richest country in the world, there are people who live in cardboard boxes, who wear plastic bags, and whose children starve.John 6:1-15 Hunger doesn't end with the necessities, though, it only begins there. People hunger for security. As the rate of crime rises, many don't even feel safe at home. People also hunger for love. They need to love as well as to be loved. Many nevertheless feel alone and abandoned. People also need to feel that they matter. Yet, in a world of over five billion people, the individual is lost. "Who am I compared to so many?"
Beyond these physical and emotional needs there are also spiritual needs. There is the need for forgiveness. The need for spiritual growth. The need for God's presence. And the need for faith in the face of life's uncertainties.
Our world is full of hungry people. And as we see the masses of starving people with emaciated bodies or malnourished souls, our hearts go out to them. How are we going to feed them? Where do we begin to feed all those hungry bodies and souls; hungry for grace, hungry for love, or just plain hungry? Once we start, will we ever finish?
Feeding of the Five Thousand
The people following Jesus were hungry. They had heard Jesus' words and seen the miracles he worked and they yearned for more. The miracles that Jesus did weren't just parlor tricks. They were more than entertainment. The healings and demon exorcisms were performed to demonstrate the hand of God: visible signs that God was still with Israel in a saving way.The things that Jesus said were more than pretty sayings. Jesus told them about the Kingdom of God. Jesus talked about a heavenly banquet where all would be fed. The people wanted and needed moremore of God's words, more of God's wonders. They hungered for freedom from the Roman oppression. They hungered for justice for those who had been trampled under by the rich and powerful. They hungered for the power of their heavenly King to be manifest in their lives. The people hungered for God, so they sought out Jesus, the Son of God.
So great was their hunger that they were driven to extremes. When a person is truly hungry, he will do anything to satisfy his hunger, and these people were hungry. They left their businesses, homes, and the activities of their daily lives just to witness this traveling wonder worker. Five thousand of them came. Jesus had tried to get away from the crowds by traveling to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Yet the people followed him. Driven by a hunger that consumed them, they went after Jesus.
The people were hungry for God, but they were also just plain hungry. They had come a long way to see Jesus. The human body has its limitations. It runs out of energy rather quickly. They needed the basics of life: bread, food, something to fill their empty aching stomachs.
Jesus knows. When Jesus saw this great crowd coming he knew they were hungry. And he knew how great their hunger was. He knew how overwhelmingly they hungered for God. They were lost without God; like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34). Jesus also knew that they needed bread. After all Jesus was human too. He had fasted in the wilderness. He had felt emptiness in his stomach. He knew their hunger because he had experienced oppression and injustice just like them.
Jesus knew what he was going to do. He was going to feed the people. If he had to call down manna from heaven like Moses, he would feed them. But he was going to feed them more than bread for their stomachs. He was going to give them spiritual food. Through feeding the people physically, he would teach his disciples to feed the people spiritually as well.
So Jesus turned to Philip and said, "Where are we to buy bread to feed these people?" I am sure Philip was surprised by this question. His first reaction was, "How in the world could we feed all these people? There are too many of them. It would cost six months wages to buy enough food for all of them. Besides, feeding the multitudes is not in the budget."
But Andrew said, "Look Jesus, here is a child with five rolls and two fish. It ain't much. It couldn't possibly feed all these people. But it's a start, and the people are awfully hungry."
Jesus multiplies. The people were hungry, so Jesus took the food and went to work. First, he commanded the disciples, "Make the people sit down." After the people were seated, Jesus took the bread and blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and the fish also. They distributed the food to all the people, and they ate until they were filled. Then Jesus told the disciples to go gather up the scraps. As they went around and gathered the scraps they each filled a basket. Five thousand people had eaten from just five loaves and there was more left over than what they began with.
But the people misunderstood. Jesus had filled their bellies and that was all they thought about. They realized such a man could bring them national security. If he could single-handedly feed all the hungry, he could surely make the Romans go away. So they tried to make him King of Israel. But Jesus' point was that just as he had fed them physically, he could feed them spiritually.
Jesus commands. Our world is full of hungry people. And Jesus turns to us, his disciples, and says, "Feed them." Like Philip, we say, "Lord, the need is too great. We don't have the resources to feed all the hungry. We don't have the time, energy, or people to bring the Good News to all the lost souls of this world."
This account in John 6 reminds us that it was not Philip's excuses that fed the hungry. It was Andrew's offering that made the difference. God
takes our meager offerings of time, energy and material resources and multiplies them. It wasn't Andrew with his gift that fed the hungry, it was God who fed them. In the same way we don't feed the hungry with our meager offerings. We can't fill the empty places in everyone's stomachs and hearts and souls. Only Christ, the Son of God, can do that.But glory be to God, Jesus calls us to participate in that miracle of feeding the multitudes whether they be five thousand or five billion. It is not what we give that meets peoples needs. It is what God does with what we give that makes a difference. So don't be overwhelmed by the magnitude of need in our world. Just offer the few loaves and fishes you have and let the Master bless them. Then stand back and watch a miracle unfold. o
Rev. Alex Stevenson is pastor of Latimer Memorial United Methodist Church, 200 River Street, Belton, SC 29627.