When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!”
My dad has a habit. Occasionally, when he has an errand to run in town and sees that one of us is at home and not particularly busy, he’ll ask if we would like to go with him. Now, my dad is a very capable man. He doesn’t need our help to take care of the errand. That’s never the point. The point is to offer whichever one of us seems unoccupied the opportunity to be a part of doing that task together. It’s a deeper kind of quality time rooted in cooperation.
In our small group, we looked at three miracles that Jesus did—feeding the five thousand, feeding the four thousand, and turning water into wine. In all of these miracles, Jesus chooses to perform the miracle through the active participation of someone else. Either the disciples had to actively pass out the food, or the servants at the wedding had to take the ladle to the master of the feast.
According to my small group leader, this is what the Christian life should be like—active participation and cooperation with God as He works to bring about His will on earth. And I agree! But as I looked at one of the accounts in particular, I couldn’t help but see a little more going on as well.
A Lesson From Feeding the Five Thousand
Mark 6 contains the account of the feeding of the five thousand. Before this crowd gathered, Jesus had intended that He and His disciples go away for a while to be alone and rest following the mission Jesus had sent the Twelve on earlier in the chapter. But that didn’t work out very well.
The people saw Jesus and His disciples leaving, and they ran ahead and beat them to the place they were sailing to. But when Jesus sees this, the Bible says, “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things” (v. 34).
Then we come across our focal passage for today. It’s gotten late, and the disciples tell Jesus that the people need food, so He should send them away.
The Disciples’ Mistake
Here’s what hit me square in the gut as I read this passage. Jesus was already aware of the need. Both the physical need and the spiritual need. He recognized that these people had a need that only He could fill. The problem is that while the disciples saw some of that need, they thought the solution was to send the people who were trying to draw close to Jesus away.
The simple fact was, the disciples couldn’t see a way to take care of that need, which made the prospect of participating in God’s plan to fill the need rather uncomfortable for them. You can practically hear it through the page when they ask Jesus if they should go spend eight months’ wages to try to feed these people. There was no way they had that amount saved up, so the question drips with discomfort and disbelief. And because they were uncomfortable with the situation, they defaulted to sending the people away from the only One who could truly care for their needs.
It’s easy to look at this description of the disciples’ actions and be amazed that they could have so little faith or be so easily moved to send the people away, but I think for many of us, that might be a bit hypocritical. Myself included.
We are all called to cooperate with the work of God. But I know I’ve been guilty of finding myself in an uncomfortable situation that God has called me to participate in and choosing to outsource that work or not engage with it at all because of my discomfort.
Our Father’s Invitation
The scenario that keeps coming to my mind is discipleship. It can be tempting, when faced with someone who wants to know Jesus more, to wrap up the conversation by telling them our favorite preacher to listen to or our favorite book to read. But discipleship isn’t something we can outsource. We can’t treat it like we’re someone at a call center ready to connect that person to the right resource or department at a local church. We need to be ready to be active participants in the miracle God wants to work in that person’s life, regardless of how long it might take or how unprepared we might feel.
Our Heavenly Father has invited us to come be a part of what He’s doing, and if we’ll step into that calling, there’s no telling what wonders we’ll get to see. So let’s start this week. Let’s keep our eyes open for opportunities, for people who want to draw close to Jesus. And when we see them, let’s step up, participate, and see what He will do!
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