You might not remember this
Bible story -- the feeding of the
4000. It comes a couple of chapters
later in Matthew's Gospel than the
more famous story of the feeding of
the 5000. Earlier, Jesus had been
teaching and a huge crowd gathered
to hear him. The number of the crowd
was 5000 men, not counting the women
and children too. Apparently, there
was only one good mother connected
to that huge crowd because when it
came time to eat, the only food that
could be found in the entire throng
was a little boy's lunch consisting
of five barley loaves and two small
fish. Only his mom had thought
ahead. You know the rest of the
story. Jesus took the sack lunch,
blessed it, broke it into pieces and
had the disciples distribute it and
he kept on breaking it until
everyone had enough to eat. Then to
teach his disciples a lesson about
God's law of supply and demand, he
had them pick up the leftovers and
what they picked up was more than
what they started with. Now it's a
short time later, lunch time and not
as big a crowd. How many loaves do
you have? he asks his disciples. In
this red-letter verse, it's just a
short time later and they are faced
with a very similar situation -- a
crowd of 4000 gathered to hear Jesus
speak and nobody thought ahead to
bring food. So Jesus tells his
disciples that he wants the people
to be fed. The disciples take stock
of their food supply and tell Jesus
that they don't know where they were
going to get enough to handle this
problem? You'd think they'd have
learned. But they didn't. So Jesus
asks the the question we started
with, They tell him, "Seven loaves
and a couple of fish." Déjà vu all
over again. The same Jesus who
before had caused 5 loaves and 2
fish stretch to feed 5000 now causes
7 loaves and a few fish stretch to
feed 4000. Plus 7 basketfuls of
leftovers.
How many
loaves do you have? That's a really
good question for us too as we live
in these uncertain times. It's
really easy to wring our hands and
ask, "Where's this all going to
end?" when we know perfectly well
where it will end. The same Jesus
who has provided food to eat,
clothes to wear and shelter from the
storm will continue to provide. How
many loaves do you have? We may not
have as many loaves as we once had
but our Lord has a knack for
stretching the loaves that he has
given us to satisfy our needs. How
many loaves do you have? is really a
reminder not to despair because God
is still in charge, he's still in
heaven and he still holds all things
in his hand.
It's also a
call the flip side of despair --
trust. The world in which we live is
an unsettled place. It has always
been that way. The world is fickle,
a moving-target for trust,
undependable. But God is not. The
God who loves us enough to save us
loves us enough to satisfy our
needs. The Apostle reminds us, "He
who did not spare his own Son but
gave him up...will he not also give
us all things."
How many
loaves do you have? In the hands of
Jesus, that's more than enough.
