You Give Them Something To Eat!

Luke 9:10-17

Key Verse 9:13a

He replied, "You give them something to eat."

In the passage, we would like to see how Jesus trained his disciples to feed a multitude of people. Like many of us, the disciples were very limited by all kinds of limitations. Yet, they overcame their limitations, and were able to feed a multitude of people physically and spiritually. In their natural persons, they were unable. But thanks to Jesus' training, they were able. How then did Jesus train them?

Part I: "You give them something to eat!"

The first point of training is to feed the flock of God not through human abilities alone but through faith in Jesus Christ. If man relied on his own abilities, he will quickly find himself incapable of feeding others as much as is necessary. God gave man the desire to serve others. In this desire to serve others, he may wish to do something good and noble for others. But if one relied on himself alone, because he is very limited, he will run into situations where he would say to himself, "Well, this is too difficult for me to handle." Then he will end up saying, "I give up." Then he fails to meet the need others have. The godly desire that arose in him remains unfulfilled.

In the passage, the disciples ran into exactly the same situation. Look at verses 10-13. "When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.” 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." 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."" 

In the passage, we can see that the disciples ran into a situation where they showed their human limits. Thus far they had used up all of their energy to serve others. By the time they came back from their mission journey, they were dog-tired, so that all they wanted was to go to a nice buffet restaurant, eat to the max, go back to their common life-house, take a quick shower, and then sleep all day long. We do not know how long the disciples' mission journey lasted. Maybe it lasted about a week. Assuming that it took about a week, and given the badness of the local economy and the strictness of Jesus' instructions (not to take money, purse or anything but rely on what others would provide for them), we can easily imagine that the disciples were deprived of physical comforts such as the desire to eat the kind of food they wanted, to get the sleep their bodies demanded, and the mental and spiritual breaks they rightly deserved. But, as they returned from the journey, they had no to time to get some relief for themselves. Jesus wanted to give them some time to rest. So Jesus took them to a remote place where the disciples could rest at least for a day or two. But the crowds did not leave them alone. They followed Jesus and his company even to their resting place. By the time, the disciples proposed Jesus to send the people away it is quite probable that the disciples already skipped not a meal or two but even three meals. Yet the conference continued. Finally, the disciples could not bear the situation any more. Their patience ran out. Some of them even became angry about the whole situation. So what did they do? Well, they sort of banded together and asked Jesus to stop the program, and send the people away. As if Jesus had been waiting for this moment to come, Jesus said to the disciples, "You give them something to eat!" 

Why? As we know, it was Jesus who ended up feeding the crowds. Yet, Jesus said, "You" give them something to eat. Combine this factor with the way Jesus fed the flock. We can then find an answer to the question of why Jesus said to the disciples, "You give them something to eat!" It was not to torture the disciples, but to teach (or train) them that by faith they should overcome limitations and meet the needs of the people put under their care. 

“You give them something to eat.” Here, “You” refers to everyone who loves Jesus and  follows Jesus – a lay person, a clergyman, a student, a teacher, a woman, a man…” Laypersons may say, "Look! I am a layperson. I have to work 24/7. So I cannot feed sheep." This kind of excuse sounds reasonable. But it is no different than a virgin who says, "Look! Marriage life is too difficult to handle, so I am not going to get married." 

Remember two things are immaterial: limitations and human conditions. Your situation may be limited. But to those who have faith in the Lord, limitations work as the opportunity to experience God's miracle, and do the work God wants you to do. Human conditions are also immaterial. A Married couple can feed sheep, and unmarried people can also feed sheep. Laypersons can also feed sheep. The poor can feed sheep. The rich can feed sheep. A mother can feed sheep. A father can feed sheep. A widow can feed sheep. A widower can feed sheep. If you do not have faith in the Lord, however, you cannot feed sheep regardless of your human conditions. If you have no faith in the Lord, regardless of the circumstances, still you will not be able to feed sheep. Rather, you will find all the right excuses for not feeding sheep. 

Mother Barry set a good example in feeding sheep with faith. In many ways, she is limited. A lot of people say, "Oh, woman cannot and should not be anointed to be pastors." But although she is a woman she does more work than a lot of pastors are doing. She is close to age 80. But at such an old age, she still feeds sheep. To her, her human conditions are immaterial. Her human abilities are also very limited. But since she has faith in the Lord, she is still feeding many sheep. 

"You give them something to eat!" Here "you" refers to not regular you but a special you. You are special not because of yourself but because of your faith in the Lord who is special. The disciples should not have said, "Send them away." Why? It is because the disciples were the disciples not of anyone but of a very special person called Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Humanly Jesus was limited in many ways - in time, in money, in his bodily strength, etc. But, still he being the author and perfecter of faith was able and is still able to feed sheep, despite limitations. “You give them something to eat!” This is the call for each us to have faith in the Lord and give people something to eat, even five thousand of them. 

Part II: They all ate and were satisfied.

If anyone is a disciple of Jesus, then it is a must for him or her to feed the flock of God, regardless of circumstances and regardless of one's human conditions. The question then becomes how. In the following passage, we can briefly consider an answer to this question. 

First, have them sit down

Verses 14-15 read, "(About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." The disciples did so, and everybody sat down." It has been said that God never changes. One of its meanings is that he never changes in the way he does what he does. Each and everyday God performs zillions of different tasks. And each time he does what he does, he does it in a way which is consistent and perfect; there are no oops; no mistakes are made. And each time he does what he does, he always applies exactly the same principle. One of the principles of getting things done perfectly is found here: environment making. He first makes a perfect environment, and then he pours other blessings into that environment. In Genesis 1:1-31 we see the Lord God doing the same thing in creating the universe. He first prepared the basic environment. Then, he goes to the next step. In this way, we see him filling the environments with everything that is good, and all this is done step by step. 

The environment is both spiritual and physical. The environment also has its own character. For example, it must be a "believing" environment, with everyone in a group or meeting trusting in God’s total goodness. It also must be orderly and systematic. In the passage, Jesus ordered the disciples to make such an environment. V. 14 states that there were about 5,000 "men", not counting "women" or "children." So we can easily imagine that the number was a lot bigger than 5,000. We all know that men have their own needs and women have their own needs too. Both men and women of Jesus’ day recognized that Jesus could meet all the needs that both men and women have. So it is quite conceivable that a lot of women ran to the picnic place. Remember how the woman suffering from a bleeding disease ran to Jesus and touched Jesus, way ahead of others. Of course, children have their own needs. And children love outdoor activities. And some children outrun their parents. Look, for example, at how Little Peter Lopez can outrun his daddy. So, we can assume that the congregation consisted of a lot of children as well. [After all consider that it was a small boy who brought a lunch box containing five loaves of bread and two fish!] So let us re-do the numbers. First, it is quite possible that there were about 5,000 women. Then let’s say there were 2,000 children, for children also are very excited in running to a park area. All added up, then, the number can easily be around 12,000. Divide it by 50. Then we have 240. So 12,000 [individuals] became 240 [groups]. They were to be organized in an orderly manner. 

I think it took quite a while for the disciples to get them organized in this way. Let us say that the twelve disciples worked together to get the people organized. So, 240 divided by 12 equals 20. The number then became 20 meaning each disciple was to take care of 20 groups. Not that bad! Suddenly the number became "manageable". Each group leader is then to serve 50. Then we get a picture. Jesus is working at the top; below Jesus were the 12 disciples; each disciple serves 20 groups; and each group leader serves 50. 

Here all Jesus had to do was to deal with 12.  Now, in running a restaurant business, which Jesus opened up in an outdoor environment somewhere around Bethsaida, Jesus works as the chef, the disciples as Jesus’ assistants, and 20 group leaders work as bus boys. In this way, Jesus helped the disciples set up a system. As each of them sat down in an orderly manner with a believing mind, Jesus was ready to feed them as much as they needed. 

"Have them sit down..." This little instruction indicates that we need to prepare an environment among ourselves, both spiritually and physically, expecting that the Lord God would fully provide us with as much as we need. Here is the homework for us to do: we need to list all the college campuses that need to be pioneered; we need to get them organized, figuring out exactly the needs the college students have; then we need to come back to Jesus for his feeding. When both Shepherd Jay and I went to Ecuador, this was what we did. We visited the two largest cities: Guayaquil and Quito. We visited the two largest college campuses in Guayaquil, and then we visited the largest college campus in Quito. We liked Guayaquil the best. In fact, the Lord God showed us more than seven signs to pioneer Guayaquil. After coming back from the journey, we found out that the Lord God had already sent Missionary Noah Jang way ahead of us. The city of Guayaquil then reminded me of what our Lord Jesus said to Peter, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat." So to me Guayaquil sounded like "Go ya (you) kill". And there we saw 60,000 students, a huge school of fish. Let us pray that the Lord God would have Shep. Jay and his wife Carrie ready for the pioneering work in Ecuador. Let us pray to prepare an environment for God's work to arise in all college campuses across the United States and beyond. 

Second, the five loaves and the two fish

It has been said, that a thousand mile journey begins with just one step. Likewise, in getting the flock of God fed fully, we must first start out with what we have - five loaves of bread and two fish. Other synoptic gospels tell us that the 5 loaves and 2 fish were not even what the disciples owned. Yet, Jesus almost twisted the arms of the disciples to go and find out, and bring them to him. Actually all the disciples complained about the scarcity of the food as dinner for the crowds. But, Andrew went and coaxed a small boy to surrender the food, and brought it to Jesus. 

Now, think about what Jesus did with the five loaves and two fish. He "received" them. He then "took" and started working on them. In other words, he used them as a "capital." The messages we get out of this act of Jesus are tremendous in meaning. For example, this event tells us that no one can say, "Oh, I do not have any thing for Jesus to work with." In the case of the disciples, they did not have any food. In their pockets, they did not even have a penny to buy food. Still Jesus encouraged them to go and look. Then they found something, that is, a small boy holding a lunch box. Andrew opened it, and there it was, five loaves and two fish. Combine this factor with what Andrew did: he brought what he discovered to Jesus, so Jesus would use and work on them. This leads us to another principle, that is, to bring five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus, for Jesus to bless and multiply them. 

The message then is that everyone has something to bring to Jesus, so Jesus could work on it. That something might look insignificant. But remember: to Jesus nothing is insignificant. To Jesus, everything is significant. Why? Jesus knows how to make what is insignificant truly significant. 

Third, looking up to heaven

The next point is to offer prayers to God for His blessing. Let us turn to our neighbor and say, "Pray." After taking up the five loaves of bread and two fish, what did Jesus do? He looked up to heaven. Why did he do this? We can easily understand the reason when we think about the meaning of the word "heaven." Here "heaven" does not mean an aerial space. Rather it refers to the invisible realm where God operates as the sovereign ruler. So looking up to heaven is symbolic of prayer. 

There is an interesting story about the power of prayer. Once upon a time before getting married Shepherd Jim Tonne lived in a common life house in Long Beach. There among some of the common life brothers a problem arose: the lack of a laundry machine. So, the brothers in the common life got together and discussed the situation. Being the common life leader and not knowing what to do with the problem, Shepherd Jim Tonne suggested that the common life brothers pray, saying, "Oh, let us pray about this problem." Then one brother rebuked Jim saying, "What do you mean by 'Let us pray about it?’ I have a credit card, and by using my credit card, we can buy one right away. When the statement comes in, we can split the bill." But, because Jim was the common life leader, instead of using “the credit card method”, they relied on “the prayer method”. Then, the next day out of nowhere a man came along and donated a laundry machine. 

Fourth, he gave thanks

In prayer what did Jesus do? Not that much. He simply gave thanks to God. For what then did Jesus thank God? The answer is obvious. He thanked God for giving the multitude of people five loaves of bread and two fish as dinner for that many people. Can you do that? 

In addition, Jesus must have thanked God for already answering his prayer that is, providing him with the right amount of food to feed the multitude of people. The latter point is really appealing when we think about the “time” of his thanks-giving: he first thanked and then the results came out. In our cases, mostly we do things the other way around: we secure the result first, and then we give thanks to God for what we have. But Jesus did it the other way around. He gave thanks first, and then he got the delivery. For this reason we say that thanksgiving is the best expression of faith. And it fits the definition of faith as well, that is, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb 11:1

Jesus applied the same principle of faith in prayer when he asked his disciples to pray believing that they had already received what they prayed for, as Mark 11:24 says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."   

Fifth, Jesus broke the bread and the fish

Each time we study the Bible passage about Jesus who fed a multitude of people with a handful of food, we wonder how Jesus might have done it. In the Bible there are many miracles recorded. Some records on God’s miracles describe the procedures in which God performed the miracles. For example, the Israelites passed through the Red Sea as on dry ground. How did it happen? Exodus 15:8 gives us a hint: By the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up. The surging waters stood firm like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.” The word “nostrils” and the word "congealed" indicate that by sending the waves of cold wind, the Lord let the waters parted out, and then it is quite probable that the Lord God let the temperature of the deep waters drop down so the waters would all freeze up. But some miracle records are silent about the "procedures". For example, in the case of Jesus changing wash water into choice wine, we do not know how Jesus did it. Simply it happened that way. Now the miracle of turning the five loaves of bread and two fish into mountains of Big Macs and filet minions belongs to the first category. It describes the procedures (or simply "method" if you will)! What was the method? The word "broke" is the method. Wow! That is too simple. It does not seem to come with that much wisdom (or to be miraculous). But on further prayer, I was convinced of a lot of wisdom hidden in this so-called “divine method.” 

The wisdom is: breaking is the key to multiplying. For example, it was when Peter "broke" down that Jesus was able to use him in a major way. Until he broke down (or was broken down), Simon Peter remained a single person. He remained as his own man. The Lord God was not able to use him in feeding a multitude of people. The same was true with Paul. It was only after Jesus broke him down that Jesus was able to use him to feed a multitude of people. The same was true with Moses. While he was in the Pharaoh's royal palace, Moses remained a man of his own dream. But, over the forty long years the Lord God broke him down to pieces. The Lord pounded on him until all of his human dreams were shattered into a million different pieces, and then the Lord God could use him to save many. We see the same truth with women. For example, Luke 7 describes a woman who had lived a sinful life. But when this woman met Jesus, she "broke" her alabaster jar, poured the perfume on Jesus' head. Then, Jesus was able to use her preciously to spread the gospel to many. 

In this nation America every Sunday, many Christians attend church services. They listen to sermons. Inspired by the messages and admonitions they are inspired to do something great for the Lord. But with human desires alone, one cannot fulfill the kind of work God desires him to fulfill. Before the Lord is able to use him, he must first break his own human dreams. Then the Lord God can use him in feeding others.  

Six, he gave them to the disciples 

Although it may sound obvious, the important point we should not ignore here is that Jesus first blesses his disciples and then through them the crowds. In the case of Abraham, the Lord God taught Abraham what it is to live by faith in the Lord first. Then, through Abraham, the Lord blessed people around him also. This then indicates that daily we must struggle to live by faith in the Lord, not just for our own sake, but for all peoples on earth. 

Seventh, to set before the people

Again as obvious as it may seem, this point should not be neglected either.  For in my opinion, it is of the greatest importance and the point is, that, whatever blessings the Lord God blesses us with, we should not let the Lord's blessings stop at and get stuck in our own barn.  Rather, we must remember that the final destination of God's blessings coming into our lives is the flock of God scattered all around the world.  

In conclusion: You give them something to eat, said Jesus. Jesus never asks his disciples to do anything without first providing them with the means by which to do what he is asking them to do. And the means is absolute faith in the Lord. As we have faith in Him, then the Lord blesses our faith, and starts working in and through us. The Lord can feed many in and through us.

One word: you give them something to eat