Reading 22
Enough for everyone
The reading
Mark 6:30-44
The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught. He said to them, "You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile." For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. They saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.
When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, "This place is deserted, and it is late in the day. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat." But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They asked him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?" He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go see." When they knew, they said, "Five, and two fish."
He commanded them that everyone should sit down in groups on the green grass. They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all. They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish. Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
The companions
Psalm 145:15-16
The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
2 Kings 4:42-44
A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, "Give to the people, that they may eat." His servant said, "What, should I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give the people, that they may eat; for the LORD says, 'They will eat, and will have some left over.'" So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to the LORD's word.
A word for the week
There is a particular anxiety that comes over you when there is not enough to go around. Too many guests and not enough food. Too many bills and not enough month. The dread of the shortfall, the arithmetic that will not add up no matter how you do it. The disciples felt exactly that on a hillside one evening, and what Jesus did with their panic is one of the most famous things he ever did, and among the most quietly instructive.
A huge crowd has followed Jesus to a deserted place, thousands of them, and stayed all day, and now it is getting late, and they are hungry and far from any village. The disciples come to Jesus with a sensible, anxious plan: send them away, so they can go buy their own food. It is the reasonable response to scarcity, everyone fend for yourself, we cannot possibly handle this. And Jesus says something that must have sounded absurd: you give them something to eat. You. Them. With what? they sputter. It would take most of a year's wages to buy bread for this many. There is no way.
Then Jesus asks the question that turns the whole thing around: how many loaves do you have? Go and see. Not, how much do you lack, which is what they were counting. How much do you actually have. And the answer is almost nothing: five loaves and two fish, one small meal, laughable against five thousand men and their families. But watch what Jesus does with the little that is actually there. He has the people sit down on the green grass in orderly groups. He takes the five loaves and the two fish, looks up to heaven, blesses them, breaks them, and gives them to the disciples to hand out. And they keep handing it out, and it keeps coming, until everyone, all of them, has eaten and is full, and there are twelve baskets of leftovers.
Mark the pattern, because it is how God tends to work. He did not create food out of thin air and rain it down; he could have. He asked what they had, took their small five-and-two, blessed it, and multiplied it in the giving. The miracle happened as it passed from hand to hand. And that is nearly always the shape of it. God rarely asks you to solve the whole impossible problem. He asks what you have, your small loaves, your ordinary and insufficient offering, and he says, bring me that. The math does not have to work before you offer it. The multiplying is his part. The bringing is yours.
The disciples were paralyzed by staring at the size of the need. Jesus moved them by asking about the size of the gift, however small. And the one with the five loaves had to be willing to hand them over, the whole of what he had, not knowing what would come of it. That is the ask. Not that you be enough. You are not; five loaves are not enough for five thousand, and you know it. The ask is that you bring your not-enough to Jesus and let him do with it what you cannot. He is the one who makes it stretch. You just have to be willing to hand over your loaves.
At the table
What "not-enough" are you staring at right now, counting the shortfall instead of the gift? What are the five loaves actually in your hands, and would you be willing to hand them over?
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered "the LORD" in the 2 Kings reading.