Tag: loaves and fishes

Mark 8:1-4 ” During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, 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. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.’ His disciples answered, ‘But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?’ “

His time on earth was getting short and Jesus wanted His disciples to understand their mission.  Everyday He had guided, demonstrated, and shown them what to do…to think outside the box of human nature.  For this wasn’t the first time Jesus had fed a crowd with only a few loaves and fish…but the disciples still didn’t get it.  The disciples had witnessed and actually helped distribute the food to that crowd…but when challenged to come up with a plan for this hungry group, they quickly reverted back to their humanness.  How many times have you sold yourself short by your limited vision of what God could do?  We need to be asking for God’s vision in our life, not ours…and we need to be thinking outside our “human” box and  seeking God’s unlimited and miraculous vision instead.

Matthew 14:17 ” We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish, they answered.”

Next to the Resurrection, the feeding of the 5,000, is the only story found in all four Gospels.  Even though they all come from a little different perspective, the miracle was the same, and important enough to be recorded numerous times.  On the disciples part, they’ve been traveling with Jesus and witnessing countless miracles, but when Jesus challenged them to feed the throng of people milling around, they froze.  With a total lack of faith and vision they told Him, “We have only five loaves and two fish. We can’t start to feed this many people!”  But Jesus then takes matters into His own hands, gives thanks for what they already have, and multiplies it.  So what important lesson did the disciples learn that was significant enough to be recorded in all four Gospels?  Jesus took what they already had and increased it a 1000 times over.  He didn’t focus on their lack,  but rather on how it could be multiplied and used for His glory.  When God calls you to something, He’ll use what you already have…and as you move forward in faith and trust in Him, it will be multiplied.