Only Five Loaves and Two Fish
Devotions for Growing Christians
Only Five Loaves and Two Fish
Matthew 14:16-18 - “But Jesus said to them, ‘They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!’ And they said to Him, ‘We have here only five loaves and two fish.’ And He said, ‘Bring them here to Me.’"
Read the complete account of this miracle in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and John 6.
Growing Christians are constantly surrounded - even bombarded - with the needs of others. Physical and spiritual needs are crying out all around us. So many desperate physical needs are in far-off places where political unrest, civil war, earthquakes, floods, famines and other natural disasters take many lives and leave thousands homeless. Christians have a responsibility to help meet these needs. We do it by prayer and by financial assistance - and even direct involvement wherever possible. There are many opportunities for us to help meet these needs through relief efforts and missionary endeavors around the world.
But we also have a responsibility to meet the needs close to home. Too often we excuse ourselves from the nearby needs because we gave a little time to a missions project at church, or a little money to the appeal of a Christian organization. While we must be sure not to neglect our responsibility to support worthwhile ministries, we must ask ourselves if we're doing anything about the needs immediately around us. There are many physical and spiritual needs right in our schools, our work places, our towns and our churches. In fact, when we take off the blinders, we’ll see so many needs that we don't know where to begin! The problems seem so gigantic and complicated, and so hopeless and frightening. So we get discouraged and end up doing little or nothing.
What can we do? What should we do? The answers to those two important questions are given in the miracle of the “feeding of the five thousand.” You see, the miracles of our Lord Jesus were never just arbitrary, spur-of-the-moment bursts of "raw" supernatural power. No! The miracles of Christ were designed to teach, as well as to authenticate His deity. They were always planned. That were purposeful demonstrations of God’s power. (See John 6:6.) The "how" of meeting needs is a great teaching from this miracle.
Setting
In order to appreciate the teaching, let's examine its setting. Jesus had taken His disciples away from the exhausting demands of their ministry for a little rest and relaxation (Mark 6:7, 30-32). Leaving the major population centers on the western shores of the Sea of Galilee, they had sailed to a relatively deserted area on the eastern shore.
Taking periodic "retreats" is definitely a biblical principle for the Christian servant. Since the Lord knows that we can't "burn the candle at both ends" indefinitely, He provides "R & R" times for us. This important principle must be kept in mind - especially by the "Christian workaholic!"
But most Christians don't have problems with being workaholics. Christian "relaxaholics" - take notice! The retreat didn't last very long! No sooner had they arrived at their "retreat center" than the needy crowd showed up. Immediately the Lord began to minister to their many physical and spiritual needs (Luke 9:11).
“YOU give them something to eat!”
Apparently the disciples were just standing around and watching. Maybe they were even a little uptight because their retreat had ended so abruptly. In any case, as evening approached, the disciples suggested to Jesus that He send the hungry crowd away to find food and lodging for the night. They certainly didn't expect the Lord's response: "You give them something to eat!"
Imagine what the disciples thought! "Wait a minute, Lord. This isn't our responsibility! These people chose to come here on their own, without any food. Why should we bail them out? They can live with the consequences of their short-sighted decisions. Look at the magnitude of the need! We just don't have the resources. Besides, no one invited them to crash our retreat!"
It's not hard to hear ourselves saying the same thing about people in need. “That fellow student who is messing up her life should know better. Why should I waste my time trying to help her?” Or, “That guy I work with is always getting himself into financial difficulties through his own short-sighted decisions!” Or, “My neighbor has so many problems - if I ‘love my neighbor as myself’ I'll never have any time for anything else!”
In view of the setting of this miracle, our Lord's statement of "You give them something to eat" certainly rules out a lot of our excuses. We have a definite responsibility to meet the needs of people around us - regardless of our plans for "our own time," or the magnitude of the need, or the question of who's at fault. This second principle must be kept in balance with the first principle: Let's not burn out, but let's not cop out, either!
Give what you have
Another principle this miracle teaches is, "Give what you have." We are not expected to give what we don't have, but we are expected to give what we do have! When the disciples could round up only five loaves and two fish, the Lord didn't tell them to be ashamed of themselves or to quit gold-bricking! But neither did He tell them to forget His command to feed the huge crowd, even though they could come up with only five small loaves and two small fish.
Although this would hardly be enough to feed one person, let alone make a dent in the hunger of the multitude, the disciples were expected to give what they had to meet the need. The Lord took on Himself the responsibility for multiplying the resources. Our responsibility is to give what we have to Him - no more but no less! The little we have can meet the greatest need when it is given to Christ - and then multiplied by Him!
More than 5,000 (possibly as many as 12,000, counting women and children) were fed with only five loaves of bread and two fish - when they were multiplied by the Lord!
How many spiritually hungry people who need Christ are in your workplace or on your campus? Several thousand? What do you have to give? Did you say you have only a small stammering testimony for Christ? Give what you have! Your quiet consistent life and your small but faithful testimony can affect the entire campus or corporation for the Lord - in an almost unbelievable way!
If this miracle teaches that God can do wonders with our "five loaves and two fish," why aren’t more of the spiritual and physical needs around us being met? Maybe it's because we’re not giving all that we have! Are we like the little boy who gave his whole lunch (John 6:9)? Or are we holding out by giving one loaf, and keeping the rest for ourselves? What about our time and abilities? What about our goals for the future?
Remember - the boy was hungry - just like the rest of the crowd. And remember - he had no idea what the Lord would do with his lunch, or that he would end up getting as much as he wanted to eat (John 6:11-12)! He wasn’t forced to give anything, but he willingly gave his whole "brown bag" to the Lord.
What I am doing with my brown bag? Am I still clinging to my "five loaves and two fish" to meet my own wants and “needs”? Or have I turned my entire brown bag over to the Lord? Like the boy who gave his all his lunch to the Lord, we can be sure that God will continue to meet our needs as we work with Him in meeting the needs of others!
The LORD will multiply
Perhaps another reason why we're not meeting more of the needs around us is that we don't bring our "five loaves and two fish" to the Lord for multiplication! We may recognize the needs, and realize that we have the responsibility to meet these needs. We may even be trying with all we have to meet these needs. But unless we follow the Lord's command of "Bring them to Me" (Matthew 14:18), not many "mouths" will be “fed."
We must literally depend on God to multiply our meager contribution. We just aren't capable of pulling off a miracle in our own strength. Many Christians have tried, and ended up discouraged, skeptical and burned out. But God is able! Watch the ways in which your dedicated efforts to meet the needs of just a few neighborhood contacts or co-workers will ripple out miraculously in blessing to many others! And what a blessing for us, when we really catch this principle of meeting needs, and wait by faith in excited anticipation for the multiplication miracle to begin!
The giver is blessed
Here, then, is a further teaching of this great miracle. The giver will always be blessed along with the receiver! In fact, we’ll end up with far more than we had when we started! Notice that each of the disciples received a basket containing much more than the original five loaves and two fish (Mark 6:43)! God will always resupply our resources for the further meeting of needs (2 Corinthians 9:10-11).
The Lord Jesus could have provided bread for the multitude in any number of different ways. As God, He could have had manna rain down from the sky, as He did in the Old Testament. But He chose to use the little boy's lunch. Why? Because He wanted to teach His disciples (and that includes you and me) a few lessons about meeting needs - with only five loaves and two fish!
- Dave Reid