PRAYER

As we prepare to read Your Word, give us ears to hear the knowledge You would have us learn. Prepare our hearts to be open, our minds to be alert and our Spirits to be sensitive to the moving of Your Holy Spirit as we read the text. Amen

READING

³⁰ The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught. ³¹ Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.

³² So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone.³³ But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

³⁵ Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. ³⁶ Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”

³⁷ But Jesus said, “You feed them.”

“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”

³⁸ “How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”

They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.

⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. ⁴² They all ate as much as they wanted, ⁴³ and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. ⁴⁴ A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.

⁴⁵ Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home. ⁴⁶ After telling everyone good-bye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.

REFLECTION

This is a familiar story that is packed with so many layers of meaning and application that it is difficult to choose just one to discuss. Instead, I'd like to encourage you to imagine yourself in this story. Imagine yourself as:

• one of the Apostles

• a person in the crowd

• the disciple who recognizes the need for food for the crowd

• the problem solver who suggests they send the crowds away so they can get food

• the perplexed disciple that can't fathom why Jesus would ask you to feed the crowd since you don't have any resources

• the owner of the bread and fish contemplating sharing

• a disciple handing out food

• a curious crowd member receiving the food and seeing everyone get fed

In my life, I have come to know one thing for certain. If God calls you to do something, God will equip you with what you need to do it. It takes trust to follow God but being trustworthy is one of God's characteristics. Are you being called to take a risk that requires you to trust God?

LENT CHECK IN

Consider responding to the text creatively:

Artistically- draw fish and loaves. Post on your social media or share with a friend

Musical - compose a song about the Scripture

Poetic - write a poem as a response to the scripture

Culinary - bake bread

Mathematical - Calculate how many people were in attendance (5000 is only the men, include an estimate of women and children). How many grams of fish and bread would each person eat? If there were 12 baskets left over, how many kilograms would that be? Estimate the volume size of each basket based on historical data.