Matthew 14:17-18 - "[The disciples] said to [Jesus], 'We have only five loaves here and two fish.' And he said, 'Bring them here to me.'"
We had our annual church picnic with our late morning worship yesterday. There was plenty of food: chicken, pasta, fruit, watermelons, desserts, desserts, more desserts, and a Kona Ice truck, which basically makes fancy snow cones. We had about 150 people or so, plus we had a blast personally inviting all the people in the park to join us for worship, food, and Kona Ice. I'd guess we had about 300 people total then for some part of the picnic, which also included lots of ball game equipment and water canons, which were a huge hit to many of the new friends in the park on a hot summer day. So bottom line, we had a good number of people and plenty of food for our picnic.
In today's Bible verses, Jesus was teaching about 5,000 people in the middle of nowhere when he decided that the disciples should host a picnic for all those folks. Bottom line, there were a ton of people but basically no food, as indicated by the disciples saying, "We have only five loaves here and two fish."
But then Jesus responds with one of my all-time favorite lines in the Bible. Jesus says, "Bring them here to me." In essence, Jesus is saying, "Give me what you've got." And by implication, he's saying, "I will make sure that there's plenty to go around."
And Jesus did. Jesus made sure that there was plenty to go around.
For after giving Jesus their meager supply, the disciples distributed the food, fed the masses, and gathered up far more leftovers than the "five loaves and two fish" that they started with.
Ya see, Friends, here's the deal. Just like the disciples had far more people to serve than they could possibly serve, many of you have the same. Some of you have territories that one can barely drive in a year let alone serve all the families, children, or businesses within it. Some of you have multiple jobs where demands are coming from all directions as the work piles higher and higher. Some of you oversee large departments of your company so that the emails flow in an endless cycle of requests for feedback and coordination. Some of you work by day and go to school by night. And most of you have family that want you to feed them physically and emotionally at the end of a long hard day. Whew, it makes me tired just thinking about what y'all got going on in your lives.
You must be exhausted. You must say, "Lord, how can I possibly manage and serve and feed all these people?"
But, if you'll take a deep breath and listen, Jesus replies to each of us with what I pray will become one of your all-time favorite Bible verses too. Jesus says to you, as he said to the disciples of old, "Give me what you've got. And I will make sure that there's plenty to go around."
And Jesus will.
If you'll stop and take a deep breath at various moments through the day and give Jesus what you've got, he will personally and powerfully make sure that there's plenty to go around and cover all that you have to do.
Trust him, and you'll see!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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