Matthew 14

There was a hungry crowd gathered. It was getting late. The disciples wanted Jesus to send everyone away so that they could get something to eat in the local villages. Jesus chose not to send them away but instead performed one of his most famous miracles. About five thousand were fed with five loaves and two fish.

I notice, in this reading, two interesting things about this story:

First, the disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away so that they could eat. Not so that the disciples could eat but so that the crowd could eat. How engaging must it have been to hear Jesus speak that the people were actually forgetting to eat. Jesus would have to tell them to leave and get food or else they would stay there with Him all night.

Second, I never noticed before that Jesus didn't say that He would feed all of the people. He told the disciples to feed the people. The disciples, of course, didn't understand how they could feed the people with the five loaves and two fish that they had, but Jesus told them to bring the food to Him. He blessed it, and then He turned around and gave it back to the disciples so that the people could eat.

This is interesting because it's the same thing that Christ requests of us. He wants us to feed the people, and we continually complain that we don't have the right tools, the right facilities, the right people, the right systems, the right timing, the right whatever to feed the people. Christ can take those inadequacies and make them work for His purposes if we allow Him to be in control of the tools we have.

In this case, the disciples fed the people and then had twelve baskets full of food leftover. Twelve baskets. One for each disciple to remember that not only can Christ enable you to do the task He asks, but that He can enable you to do it bigger and better than you could ever imagine. Christ doesn't ask us to do things that can't be done. He asks us to trust in Him.