Give Them Something to Eat

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT

Luke 9:12-17

12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." 13 He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish — unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." 14(About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each."  15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

NIV

Although this is one of the best-known miracles of Jesus, feeding five thousand with two fish and five loaves, there is something else that stirs us to consider. Of course, we also know there were far more than five thousand for that was the number of men, then the woman and any of their children could have made the number eating to up to ten or maybe fourteen thousand, and there were still leftovers. It is the words of Jesus that give us a moment to pause. “You give them something to eat”. It is commendable that twelve were thinking about the needs of the people. It is a good thing to think about the needs of others, but to tell them to go and buy your own food, may not be the best way to handle being concerned for their hunger. This is why Jesus told them they were to give the people something to eat. First, we wonder if Jesus was teaching his disciples to exercise their faith. Second, we wonder if Jesus was teaching them to show compassion for the people by feeding them from their own resources. We do have those ministries today, such as the Fairborn Fish Pantry, that do indeed feed the people real food, meeting their needs with the resources that are made available from many different sources. However, there is another type of feeding the people that also meets their needs, although this food is for their spiritual needs. This is feeding the people from the word of God. This should not just be the responsibility of the pastor, or maybe we could say the prophet, evangelist, apostles, pastors, and teachers for the perfecting of the saints or to prepare believers for works of service so the body of Christ may be built up and we all reach unity in the faith in the knowledge of the Son, and become mature, attaining to the full measure of Christ. Perhaps, this feeding from the word of God should be up to all of us, just as Jesus wanted his disciples to feed the thousands. Yes, we should see to the physical needs for food of those who have a difficult time providing for themselves, but then many are also having problems finding food from God for their souls. Let us always be open and ready to give them something to eat.