When has emptiness of any kind filled you with a hunger you couldn’t fill? When has any fullness not been enough to keep you hungering for more?
News headlines daily scream at how little we have. We are running on empty. There is too much hunger, war, anger, grief. Emptiness surrounds our lives and it seems as if there is no way that everyone can get everything they want or need. On a personal level, how does that play out in your daily lives? Are your savings enough? Is vacation time adequate? Are you healthy enough? Do you have enough friends, or time, or understanding of others? Is there enough love for your marriage to grow or you family to be strong?
Do any people ever really have enough? How often do we fear that we are running on empty and there is nothing left to add to the tank?
One day Jesus and his disciples found themselves in a deserted place, at the end of the day with a hungry crowd. There was no way to feed them all! It had the makings of a disaster. People had walked a long way just to hear Jesus speak and likely were with him an entire day. Planning had not been on the agenda and they needed a meal to give them the energy to walk many miles back home. They were hungry and the disciples knew there was a problem they couldn’t help with. They canvassed the crowd to see what might be shared and turned up only 5 loaves of bread and two pieces of salted fish. It was definitely, not enough!
There was no way all those hungry stomachs could be filled. And yet, Matthew incredibly says that Jesus blessed that meager supply of food and there was more than enough food to fill the bellies of that massive crowd! That is difficult to believe, right? We can argue about how miracles happen, and yet we know they do. This account boggles the imagination, but makes one wonder – in God’s world, is there ever (really) “not enough?”
The origin of any gift puts determines both the use and the response of such a gift. The giver has a reason for the gift. The recipient understands why a gift was given. But after that, in our world, many times we find it is just not enough! Gifts are often perceived to be inappropriate or insufficient. Gift givers are often unimpressed with the level of thankfulness that comes back in return.
In God’ realm, everything is different. Because God is creator then every THING is a gift. Everything has the potential to be understood as a gift from God. And so, God is the first and last touch of every part of creation. There is nothing that does not begin with God’s creative touch.
Too often the world’s question is why God doesn’t give more, especially when we want so much? And yet maybe the real issue has to do with how the gifts God has created are received and used. And such questions lead us back to this story from Matthew about too little food which was not enough for so many!
Just as there is a background for any gift, so there is with every moment in the life of Jesus. Just before this miracle of loaves and fish, Jesus had been startled with the news that his cousin, John the Baptist, had been murdered by Herod. John had fulfilled his prophetic calling, literally giving up his life to prepare hungry people to receive Jesus as Messiah. Like hungry kids waiting for a meal, John had gathered crowds at the river to prepare to receive Jesus and the blessings they had waited for so long to the Messiah to bring their way.
And John’s earthly reward was death. What a waste! What a loss! What pain! Jesus had every reason to grieve, be angry, confused and so he first went away to a lonely place to pray. But a hungry crowd followed wanting more stories and miracles. And so, Jesus taught and then he fed hungry people even though his own belly ached with pain at the emptiness caused by John’s death. What would Jesus do with the ache of death and the emptiness of bellies? This miracle of feeding proclaims God’s power to fill what we cannot!
Was the miracle of feeding an escape from grief? Was Jesus showing what God does to our cries of not having enough? Jesus had lost so much and appeared to have little to work with, and yet, rather than selfishly lament his loss and meager pantry, he reached out to the hungry lives in his midst, as he does today!
This miracle of feeding is the only miracle recorded in every Gospel. Why is a miracle where there was not enough is so important that every Gospel needed to tell it? Why is this so important today? Please understand this miracle was not to prove Jesus is God, but to announce that God’s gifts are more than enough, and faith is the miracle that fills the emptiness of an imperfect world. Jesus announced to hungry people “there is always more than enough!” He took ordinary bread. He blessed it (giving it a purpose.) He broke it (releasing it for service.) He fed hungry people and turned earthly things into gifts from God!
The key begins with seeing every “THING” as gift from God – to treat every THING (no matter how meager or insignificant) as HOLY STUFF! Rather than complaining or worrying about how “little” we have, faith leads us to offer what we have as faith-filled gifts and God does the rest! He provides the miracle simply using the gifts at hand.
Isn’t that the point of Easter? Jesus ran out of time. There wasn’t enough understanding. The disciples didn’t have enough patience. The crowds didn’t have enough love. And Jesus carried that emptiness, planted it in a tomb, and blessed the world with the surprise of new life. Can you imagine his disciples’ thoughts when they told Jesus there was a crowd of 5000 hungry people, it was dinnertime, and there were no restaurants nearby and Jesus told them, “Sit them down and give them something to eat?”
Their wisdom and experience told them there wasn’t enough. And yet their eyes were opened to the love of a God who doesn’t let our weakness get in the way of his abundant gift giving! And the same is true in each of our lives as well!
Many years ago, on a Sunday before worship I looked outside one of the windows of our sanctuary and noticed a pile of coins on the ground. I went outside and found hundreds of very old, very valuable coins. One of the ushers and his young son came out to see what I was looking at. Obviously, they had been stolen and somehow left by the church building. We called the police.
As we waited, I was trying to imagine how much they might be worth. And then I heard the voice of the young boy telling his father, “Maybe we should put them in the Sunday School offering today and use them to feed hungry people!” I was caught so off guard! I saw value because of their worth, while a young boy saw loaves and fish to feed hungry people. Obviously, the police took them to find the rightful owner, but that young boy turned that moment into a miracle of insight.
If 5 loaves and 2 fish fed thousands of hungry bellies –all indications are that there is always enough for what needs to be done. If everything that exists is a potential gift of God, miracles still happen as we find it in our hearts to feed the hungry, comfort the lonely, bring healing to the sick, and life to the dying. And it is in the loving presence of Jesus that God offers every one of us the opportunity to share God’s gifts in our lives as we follow Jesus’ example in this miracle by taking, blessing, and sharing.
Our great question to ponder is whether or not there is ever not enough. Maybe the greater issue is whether or not God’s gifts are seen for what they are and are allowed to become the miracles that fill the emptiness of an imperfect world.
Is there ever “not enough?” What do you think 5000 people and 12 disciples w/ extra baskets of leftovers would tell us if we asked that question of them? Appearances can be deceiving, and miracles are a dime a dozen when God’s gifts are used for the purpose they are given. Why worry about never having enough when God always gives more than we have started with. And he proved the point with a manger in Bethlehem and an empty tomb in Jerusalem!