The feeding of the four thousand depicted in Matthew 15, like many of Christ’s other miracles, is rich with meaning. On the surface, we see themes like God’s compassion for His people and His omnipotence in His ability to perform the miraculous. But this has long been one of my favorite pieces of scripture, not because of what Christ does, but because of what he says and his attitude with the disciples.
Matthew 15:29-38 reads as follows:
29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children.
I imagine when Christ articulated his aim of feeding the mass of people, the disciples sarcastically responded ‘And how exactly are we going to do that, Jesus?’ (paraphrased). I can feel the eye rolls.
Christ, in His wisdom, doesn’t layout a twelve step logistical plan for the disciples to execute in order to accomplish the miracle – He asks one simple question: ‘How many loaves do you have?’
He asks what the disciples have because He knows though there are limitations to what they can bring there are infinite possibilities in what He can do with their offerings.
Christ’s question is a kind reminder that in face of great need, when we are up against the world’s weightiest problems, don’t start with the problem – start with what we have.
Because our role as people who want to cultivate the world and make it better can easily be muddied. It’s remarkably easy to get lost in all the worthy causes to fight, spread ourselves too thin, and make no progress. It’s too easy to be overwhelmed with a problem and have trouble getting started, believing the lies that our small portion won’t have an impact.
But Christ’s simple question to the disciples reminds us that what is required of us may not be easy, but it is simple: come forward with whatever ‘loaves’ we have. Christ will do the rest.
The storming of the Capitol on Wednesday brought me to tears – anger, unspeakable frustration, and mourning have followed. I wish that I had a plan for how to fix this (yes I recognize how naïve that sounds), but I admit as I’ve thought about the deep division, the echo chambers, the widening economic gaps in our society, it is hard not to feel defeated. How will we ever fix this? I fight the desire to sarcastically ask ‘And how exactly are we going to do that, God?’
But in His kindness, His patience, His grace, He asks:
‘What do you have, Haley? What can you give? Let’s start there.’ So that’s what I’ll do.
For those interested, ‘what I have’ for now is this, but the list is growing and in process – open and eager for suggestions.
- Prayer
- Honest, humble, empathetic conversation with people of differing views
- Greater awareness of current events and history
- Listening to podcasts and reading news sources that typically cater to those with differing views than I do
- Relentlessly fact checking everything, and when others share information with me asking thoughtful questions to help encourage their fact checking as well
- Supporting the elected officials who display the character and integrity I believe our country is in desperate need of (through financial donations, votes, and thank you/encouragement letters)
- Considering what I want to communicate with my elected representatives
- Side note: I have lobbied before on Capitol Hill to help support the fight against human trafficking. It’s actually incredibly straightforward. Even emailing an elected official has a massive impact, so I’m trying to strategically think about (1) the exact topics I want to discuss with them (there are many!) and (2) how I can do this more frequently and encourage others to do the same