There is Enough

Matthew 14:12-21

July 26, 2015

5000 people is a lot of people.

It’s a crowd. A big crowd.

Like a sporting event crowd.

Actually, the biggest city in the area was

probably around 7,000 people,

Christ Feeds 5000, Eric Feather

so if this hillside picnic were a city,

it would have been the second largest in the area.

We don’t know why the individuals

in this crowd showed up to see Jesus.

it says some wanted healing,

some probably were looking for any kind of hope,

some may have wanted to hear what Jesus had to say

But like in any large crowd,

some were probably pick pockets,

some might have been trying to sell things,

some were probably begging for money,

And some were probably just there just

to see why the rest of the people were there.

It’s kind of a mystery why anything

or any one attracts a crowd.

Why more than one person shows up at any event.

Advertisers and promoters and agents spend

their careers trying to figure out what makes

something popular, what interests the masses.

If someone attracted a crowd like this today,

someone would try to give them their own

TV show, or You Tube channel, 

or have them do a tour of speaking engagements.

In Jesus time they try to make him king,

but Jesus just walks away from all that.

Jesus drew a crowd, but he wasn’t after fame or money.

He just wanted to teach and heal.

Now, I think that promoters and advertisers,

and disciples then and now can agree on one thing:

and that is that you don’t try to feed a crowd of 5000,

not all at once, not without selling tickets ahead of time,

or charging them, not without some kind of sponsorship.

and definitely not without some advanced planning.

Phillip has a reasonable response

when Jesus asks him where they’re

going to get food for all these people.

He says we don’t’ have enough,

We don’t’ have access to enough

we’ll never have enough to feed all these people.

There is not enough.

There is not enough.

Those words have been repeated and repeated

over and over again in our world throughout time.

As I said last week, lots of things change –

places, norms historical, settings,

but humanity really hasn’t changed much.

And humanity is tight fisted.

We are normally gripped by the fear that there won’t be enough.

For most of us, there’s not even any

evidence that there is not enough now,

but we worry there may not be enough later.

In the US, we are maybe the wealthiest,

most comfortable society

in all of history, yet we still need more.

There are people and corporations with billions and billions,

And yet, people are going bankrupt from medical bills

Immigrant families and children are put in detention centers

just for being in this country,

people don’t have enough food to eat,

people live on the streets.

And the story that the world tells is that

there is just not enough for everyone.

We hear it so much, it’s repeated and insinuated,

and drilled into us and the fear is in us and drives us.

It’s the story of scarcity that Phillip was using.

There is not enough.

This is the story of scarcity.

We end up only with whatever we manage to get for ourselves.

What we work for, what we “deserve”.

It’s the survival of the fittest, take or be taken.

And at its root, this principle of scarcity is a lack of faith in God.

It says there are no gifts to be given

because there's no giver.

There is not enough, there will never be enough.

But in the middle of that story

being told on that hillside in front of that crowd.

One boy came up with all he had.

Five loaves and two fish.

But like the Andrew said,

“What’s so little food when you’re talking about so many people?”

We don’t know why this boy had this food.

Or what he intended to do with it that day when joined that crowd.

Maybe he was coming home from the market.

Maybe it was all his families food for the week,

maybe it was all he had for his long travels.

Food was far more precious and less plentiful than it is today.

All we know is that he was willing to share it,

and that was all Jesus needed to get the ball rolling on this hillside.

And Jesus took what the boy had to share

he blessed it, he broke it and gave it away.

With complete trust in what he and God were going to do.

Now here is where the mystery happens.

Without a food committee, without making

an announcement of a pot luck, without any planning

whatsoever, there was enough for everyone in that crowd.

Now the story is not clear on how it happened.

Some people read this and see that Jesus made more bread

and more fish right there.

Enough for all to eat and more.

ex nihilo, out of nothing.

Now that is a miracle of God no doubt.

But some people look at this and see something else.

they see Jesus bring the Spirit of God to rest

on a community of 5000 people

who were inspired to trust and share all that they had.

A normal crowd of people who traveled with their own provisions,

taking whatever they had just bought at the market,

whatever they were taking along with them for their journey,

whatever they were going to eat themselves

whatever they were there to sell to this big crowd,

and they didn’t hoard it for themselves.

They brought it out of their tunics and pockets

and baskets and shopping bags and let it all go

they brought it all out and they shared it

with the people around them who had nothing to eat.

And there was more than enough for everyone.

And I think that is still an incredible miracle.

Whichever way you see it,

Jesus’ miracles are never just miracles.

They always show us something about God.

And with that picnic meal miracle,

Jesus showed that the world is filled with God’s blessings.

We can trust in God’s blessings. There is enough.

With that meal, and this meal that we eat every week,

Jesus is reordering the world’s reality.

Not just in our stomachs, and in our churches,

Jesus is talking about the economy, the government,

the world, and our hearts.

There is enough: enough food, enough money,

enough space, enough time, enough attention, enough love.

Jesus shows us and this crowd the real story

God’s grace, God’s gifts, God’s love for everyone.

Jesus shows us and feeds us the real story

about God’s abundance.

What Jesus is saying is that when people

come together in faith and trust in God,

there is nothing that can’t happen.

Nothing that can’t be done.

No one that won’t be fed.

Jesus says

There is always enough.

Just come to the table.