God’s Math – Matthew 14:13-21
13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
What does the passage say?
V.13-14 Jesus is looking for a quiet place to be alone because he has just heard the news that John the Baptist has been beheaded. Jesus does not let his grief overcome him but returns to his ministry. He cannot abandon those who pursue him. “Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. When he saw them coming he was overcome with pity and healed their sick” (The Message v14).
V.15-17 The disciples are concerned with logistics of such a huge crowd being in a remote area without food. Jesus tells them to feed the people but they complain they have way too little for such a large crowd. Just 5 loaves and 2 fish. Enough for them, not 5000.
V.18-21 “Jesus lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke and gave the bread to the disciples. They all ate their fill. They gathered 12 baskets of leftovers.(The Message)
What does this mean to me/ us?
The disciples wanted to send everyone away to get food. They knew what they had to offer was woefully inadequate to feed so many. How often do we rationalize that we can’t help someone or we can’t change such a big problem in the world because we have so little to offer. But Jesus took the lowly five loaves and two fish and through his blessings all were satisfied. Over 5000 people fed with more left over than what was started with. God can take our meager offerings and work huge miracles if we just take the step in faith to offer what we have. We need to let God worry about the how; we just need to join him in his work.
Lord, give us the courage to pursue you. To find where you are at work and to join in with whatever we have to offer. We pray we will not send those in need away because we don’t think we can help. Put in our hearts as the disciples had to be reminded that through you great things can happen no matter how difficult they seem. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen
*Contributed by Rich McGimsey
What are your thoughts?
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