I’ve got a friend who’s mum is amazing at parties. Every time I go to their house for a party, there is always a never ending spread of mouthwatering delicious food on offer. And there is always enough, she will make sure of it. What’s even more amazing is that often we’ve all been told to bring a dish with us, so everyone will turn up with their sausage rolls, breaded chicken, cous cous and breadsticks and somehow she’s divinely arranged it that there’s still a balanced spread of food and just an entire table of chocolate gateaux, (although I personally wouldn’t complain). I’ve never been to a party there and gone hungry, or thought there was something missing from the meal, every time she manages to crack it and orchestrate the best spread possible! It’s amazing! As you know I’ve been going through the book of John here, and I’m specifically looking at 7 events in the book which are signs of why Jesus came to earth and what his ministry was about. The first was Jesus turning water into wine, the second Jesus healing the official’s son, then came him healing the invalid and now we are onto the forth. And here we see Jesus do something very similar to my friend’s mum, except on a much bigger scale with much less food to begin with…
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“After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?’ Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’ Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”
Here we see that when we bring stuff to Jesus, not enough is more than enough.
Imagine being there, on the mountain with Jesus, feeling absolutely starving, and seeing a young boy bringing Jesus his packed lunch. I can imagine being impressed by the sacrifice the boy made, giving up his packed lunch for Jesus, and it would probably also reinforce my hunger a lot more as well no doubt. But then we’d see Jesus taking these 5 loaves and 2 fish and breaking them up amongst his disciples, giving them some food as well, that’s good leadership, making sure your team are fed, great job Jesus!
Then something amazing happens, we see Jesus’ disciples start handing the food out, and we get our portion and there’s enough to fill us up and it manages to feed 5,000 men and their families with 12 baskets left over! How has this Jesus done it? Made not enough, more than enough?
This miracle is exciting! It’s exciting because when we come to Jesus so often we feel like we don’t have much to offer, like we can’t do anything because our contribution is so tiny, so insignificant, so unimpressive that we think how is that going to make any kind of difference in this situation. But this sign shows us that when we let Jesus take it, not enough is more than enough. Because when we give it to Jesus he transforms it.
I often hear about the injustices in the world, the fact that today 22,000 children will die due to poverty, the fact that there are still 27 million slaves in the world, the fact that nearly half the worlds population live on less than £1.50 per day. I hear about these TERRIBLE injustices and I’m compelled to do something, but I’m also discouraged because I think about how small I am and how insignificant my contribution would be. I know I’m not on my own in thinking that my contribution is pretty useless. But this miracle gives us hope.
It gives us hope because it shows us that when we bring our contribution to Jesus, he makes not enough more than enough! When come to Jesus with the little we have to offer, the little we can do in these situations, he can take something small and make a huge difference.
Time and time again through history we see people have an enormous impact on a situation simply because they offer the little they have to Jesus and he makes it more.
What little can we offer to Jesus today, that he can take, and make into something more? What is on your heart to make a difference in but you feel like your contribution won’t make a difference? What’s in your packed lunch that Jesus can use to feed the multitudes?
Let’s go for it, because we know that if we give our little to Jesus, he can do an extraordinary miracle. With him, not enough is ALWAYS more than enough!
