Give it Away Now

The New Revised Standard Version Feeding the Five Thousand

6 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus 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. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Introduction- Holding On

Rob Bell told a story in one of his sermons that has stuck with me all these years.

They were on a family trip to the beach, and they were just taking a walk along the shore.

There were little fragments of sea shells that his kids were collecting, but nothing big and impressive.

Just then as they were walking, they saw a starfish floating out just a little bit in the ocean.

Apparently their son had always wanted to have a starfish, and so now was his big chance.

But what happened next was a bit odd.

His son ran toward the starfish, but then started coming back.

The family kept encouraginging him, go get your star fish.

And the boy would run out a little bit farther, and turn around and come back.

This repeated over and over and over again.

Rob asked his son what’s wrong? Just go get the starfish!

His son said “I can’t.”

Rob said “Why?”

His son said “My hands are too full of shells.”

We do this all the time, don’t we?

We see what we really want just ahead of us, but we’re so busy holding on to the little shards of something that isn’t even worth that much to reach out and grab what’s really valuable.

Believe it or not, I think that’s what’s happening here in our story.

Bible Breakdown

Previously On Church...

Even though we’ve skipped over to John’s gospel, we’re still following the story that we were in these last few weeks in Mark.

We’re just getting this week from a slightly different perspective.

In fact, if you want to have fun at home, go read Mark’s version of this story and then come back and read John’s, and let’s see what differences we notice!

Jesus has sent the disciples out on a preaching tour.

They go and have a great time, and find that even the demons are caving to whatever they ask them to.

So Jesus invites them to come away to a quiet place, to get some rest.

And as often happens with Jesus, they get interrupted by a crowd.

Small Details- Passover

As is always the case with the Bible, we want to pay attention to little details.

John tells us that this is happening when the Passover is near.

Passover is a central holiday in the lives of the Jewish tradition, but it will also come to mean something really important to Christians.

Passover is the season where Jesus would ultimately march toward the cross to liberate all of humanity.

So if John is tying this story to Passover, we might expect a couple of themes to show up in this story:

Liberation?

Sacrifice?

Resurrection?

Jesus is testing?

So as they’re surrounded by a crowd of 5,000 (just men: women and children are extra in this story), Jesus pulls his leadership team around him to ask a question.

Let’s feed these folks!

Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?

And then maybe you, like me, squirmed a bit when you saw the next line John gave us:

Jesus said this to test (Philip), for he himself knew what he was going to do.

Jesus can test us?

I didn’t study!

My dog ate my homework!

I’m stressed out!

What’s this all about?

I like how the Message translation handled this:

he said this to stretch Philip’s Faith.

In what ways have we had our faith stretched lately?

Some times our faith ends up just being on autopilot

Sunday- Let’s go to church!

Why?

Because it’s what we do on Sunday!

Prayer- When things get tough.

Read the Bible- After I’m done catching up on Harry Potter.

Are there ways that Jesus is inviting us to stretch our faith, to explore new heights, to allow him to do something miraculous in our lives?

A little kid steps up

As is often the case, the disciples respond to this test exactly the same way I would have- They just stare at each other kind of dumbfounded.

Out of this crowd comes a hero in the story…a little boy?

Not exactly the hero that we would have expected.

But this little boy comes up to the disciples and essentially, having heard Jesus’ question, empties his lunch box.

He’s got two fish and five barley loaves.

This is an essential piece of this story: the boy willingly gives them up.

If this kid had been even the littlest bit selfish- this story doesn’t happen.

If this kid was more interested in holding on to the shells rather than handing them over to see what Jesus could do with them, we never would have heard about this.

It is worth noting here: this sermon comes at the end of a week where our building was full to the brim with children.

I wonder how these little ones have and can continue to stretch our faith?

What is this among so many?

Now the disciples do some quick math in their head.

There are 5,000 men- probably more with the women and children.

There are 5 loaves of bread…so everyone gets 1/1000th of a piece of bread.

There are 2 fish…and that’s not even easy math any more.

They have a question that I think any reasonable person would be asking:

What is this among so many?

Essentially- Why bother?

We don’t have enough to do what we really want to do, so let’s not do anything at all.

Jesus doesn’t even answer the question.

He just starts doing.

What kind of miracle are we looking at?

Standard Unbelievable Miracle?

Maybe this happens exactly the way that so many have imagined that it happened through the years.

As people are passing around the bread and the fish, there is just miraculously more bread and fish.

I don’t know what that looks like!

Maybe you rip a piece of the bread off and it just grows back?

Maybe new pieces of bread and fish keep growing underneath the stuff that everyone’s eating?

This is Jesus we’re talking about, so I have absolutely no problem believing this is what happened.

But I wonder if there’s another possibility?

A Miracle of Generosity?

Some scholars were reading between the lines.

Sitting down was something this crowd would have done only when they were ready to open their own lunchboxes and eat.

What if when this little boy steps up and offers up everything that he has, just five loaves and two fish, it inspires everyone else to open up their lunch boxes and share?

What if when those who are wealthy see this boy do this, they decide to give what they have?

What if when those who are not at all wealthy see what Jesus can do with a generous little boy’s offering decide that they will be generous as well?

What if the real miracle is that this little boy was so giving that he actually inspires the stingy hearted among the crowd to open up and be more generous?

Does it matter?

Would that be any less miraculous?

Think about our world and how stingy some people can be!

We are all a whole lot like the boy with the seashells.

We could reach out and grab a hold of some honest to goodness generosity.

But we’re too busy holding on to what we think is ours.

For some people to be that generous, it would be a miracle.

As much as they wanted

John wants us to know that it was in fact a very generous miracle either way as well.

Everyone had as much as they wanted to eat.

I want to underline this line in the story:

I’ve spent the last week watching middle schoolers at snack time.

As much as everyone wants to eat is a TREMENDOUS amount of food!

Everyone in this story is satisfied by the generosity of Jesus, their neighbor, or both.

That nothing may be lost

Jesus apparently is like my mom, he loves to send everyone home with a to-go bag.

But again in John, you have to pay attention to the little details.

After all the leftovers come back, they have enough to fill 12 baskets.

As in the 12 tribes of Israel.

There is something here about more than just these 5,000 people being satisfied by the generosity of Jesus.

Apparently the whole country will be satisfied as well by that very same generosity.

Which might explain what happens next.

Not that kind of king

When the people see the sign, specifically the sign of 12 baskets being filled up with leftovers, they try to make Jesus king.

In fact, they try to make him king by force, like some sort of rebellion.

What is interesting here is that once again Jesus proves that the ways we view power in this world are not the ways that he views power.

Feeding 5,000 some odd people with a generous miracle? That’s power.

Political victory? Meh. Not interested.

Application

What does this story teach us about Jesus?

Jesus is still about that Splanknizomai

I think when we think about Jesus, we get trapped in our paintings and artwork that some of us have grown up with.

We think of Jesus this kind of robotic guy who’s wearing a bathrobe and a Miss America sash.

He’s always got that stern face on.

He’s always white (oh…scandalous!)

And he’s always teaching.

He we see in this story another side to Jesus that I think is probably worth carrying forward.

Jesus is still all about compassion toward others.

It is unacceptable to Jesus that people would come and hear him teach, and still be able to leave hungry.

It is unacceptable to Jesus that some people would have a lot while others wouldn’t have anything.

It is unacceptable to Jesus that there be injustice.

Compassion seems to be Jesus starting point, and everything else about his ministry flows out of that.

Which means it’s pretty important that we see Jesus the same way.

If our view of Jesus doesn’t start with compassion, we might be tempted to make him a weapon to fight for our particular opinions.

If our view of Jesus doesn’t start with compassion, we might be tempted to turn him into some robotic teacher for us to study.

If our view of Jesus doesn’t start with compassion, we might be tempted to form him in our image, rather than the other way around.

Jesus is always giving

Having compassion and acting out of compassion are two different things.

Whatever the reason, Jesus assumes the responsibility and obligation for getting these people something to eat.

It’s not enough to have compassion and to just see the need. Jesus is motivated to do something about it.

What he gives in this story isn’t limited, is it?

Sure, he gives the crowd something to eat.

But he also gives Philip a way to stretch his faith, to see the world a little bit differently.

He gives Andrew an opportunity to see that you can do a lot with a little.

And he gives a little boy a chance to be the hero of a story in a culture where children were thought of as little more than an obligation to take care of.

What has Jesus given you lately?

In VBS this week, the middle schoolers and I spent part of each day wondering where we had seen Jesus at work in our world.

One of the critical pieces of Christian faith is that if we believe in a resurrected Jesus, then we believe that he’s still alive and well and active in our world today.

Jesus is still giving us blessings upon blessings upon blessings...

If only we have eyes to see.

I’m a big fan of paper and pencil.

Maybe take a little bit of time this afternoon to jot down a few things that Jesus has blessed you with.

A relationship in your life?

An opportunity you didn’t have before?

A sunny day to enjoy a waterslide.

A bunch of kiddos in our church for VBS.

Jesus inspires the best in us

Again, this miracle could have gone either way, or maybe even both.

But I’m so captured by the idea of Jesus inspiring generosity in the crowd.

Because I want to be inspired to that same generosity.

A moment of pastoral confession, I know that I have a streak of stingy-ness in me.

I’m sure I’m alone in that.

But when I hear stories like this in the Bible, when I keep my eyes focused on who Jesus is, I think he inspires me to leave some of that behind.

He reminds me that the starfish of generosity is worth dropping my shells of self-interest over, doesn’t he?

And I hope I’m not alone in that.

I so hope that the word Christian becomes synonomous with generosity.

I hope that people think Christians are big tippers in restaurants. (Check time: talk about last night?)

I hope that people assume Christians are generous with compliments and words of encouragement.

I hope that people assume Christians are thoughtful and extravagant gift givers.

I hope all that…but we might have some work to do, don’t we?

How does this story teach us to see the world?

Scarcity and Abundance

There are two big ways that people can see the world.

Those who see scarcity.

These people believe that what we have and can have is a zero sum game.

There is only so much to go around.

When it’s gone, it’s gone.

So these folks will hold on to anything and everything they want.

And, these folks will never feel like they have enough.

They’ll never have enough money.

They’ll never have enough toys.

They’ll never have enough food.

They’ll never have enough stuff.

Then there are those who see the world in abundance.

These folks assume that God the giver will always make sure we have enough.

As such, they don’t really mind when they run low on something.

They don’t have any problem giving away what they have.

They can be generous whether or not they have a lot to be generous with.

They’re generous because God is generous with them.

I saw the sign.

I used to walk past a sign every day from a mission partner that had a sign around this story.

Five loaves and two fish is never enough until you give it away.

Some of us have come to assume that our giving will happen somewhere down the road.

When I get that next job, I’ll give more.

When I get the car I want, I’ll give more.

When my life settles down, I’ll give more.

Maybe today we could experience our own miracle.

Maybe like the little boy in this story inspired the crowd, we could allow Jesus to inspire us?

Maybe today we could step a little bit closer toward generosity.

Move in clicks!

Maybe for you generosity means getting out of some of the debt that you have accumulated.

Maybe for you generosity means being more generous with your time with your family and loved ones.

Maybe for you it’s enough to just ask what the next click in generosity is for your spiritual walk.

Give to compassion, not an institution.

We will likely be talking about stewardship, generosity and giving a good bit more in the coming weeks and months.

And if it turns you off to hear a pastor up front asking for more money, just know me too.

But let’s start here:

If Jesus is about compassion, about splanknizomai, then we should give in our generosity to compassion, not to an institution.

I can’t imagine a more boring thing in the world than giving so that a church can stay open or a pastor can keep his salary or things like that.

But…there is something I can imagine.

I can imagine a group of dedicated disciples working to have compassion on the community around them.

I can imagine a whole community coming together to work to feed those who don’t have any food.

I can imagine working together to spread good news in a world that is absolutely exhausted from all the bad news of the recent years.

And I know that all takes resources to make happen. So I can imagine generosity toward compassion.

And I hope that I can invite you in to that.

What we have may not ever be enough for us.

But when we give it away, it’s more than enough for Jesus to work with.