5 August 2019 - bread from heaven

give them some food yourselves.

In what the LORD asks of us he sometimes brings us right up against our own limitations. He shows us problems that are strictly unsolvable from a human point and view and asks us to solve them.

Today's Readings

(Audio)

But they said to him,
"Five loaves and two fish are all we have here."

We might fear that the LORD is being indifferent at such times, telling us to look after things when he could intervene directly and solve them. But we know that the LORD is not indifferent. We saw when "his heart was moved with pity for them" and even now he tells us, "There is no need for them to go away" because he does not want the crowds to be deprived of his presence, his teacher, and his healing hand, even just for the evening. He has the crowds but they are not yet his own. Who knows how many would return if they left at this point?

Our participation in feeding the crowds is not enough to make it work and the resources we bring are insufficient. Jesus doesn't call us to find a more clever way to solve the problem. Rather, he invites us to bring to him what we do have, and, as we do so, our very selves.

Then he said, "Bring them here to me,"

The crowds we serve aren't always well behaved or grateful.

The children of Israel lamented,
“Would that we had meat for food!
We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt,
and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks,
the onions, and the garlic.
But now we are famished;
we see nothing before us but this manna.”

The crowd is not often satisfied with the manna from heaven. But really, are we better than them? How often does the Bread of Life completely satisfy us? So, as we feed the crowds with the miraculous bread that only Jesus can provide, we too must allow ourselves to be more fully provided for by him. We too have wandering hearts that are interested in finding food elsewhere, which is of course why we suggest it in the first place. We need to learn to rest in these green pastures and to trust in the shepherd who has compassion on the sheep.

While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.