"Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted"
Last week, while I was attending the mass at my church, this part was read in the prayer. And I felt he's saying: you're wondering why the service isn't fruitful, I will tell you why.
- You feel the hunger of the people around you, for love.. for care.. for knowing the truth. And indeed this is the case, just the same as Phillip noticed and recognized.
- Yet, you do not get worried and pessimistic like Phillip did! instead, you do like what Andrew did. You set out searching for sources to feed the hunger! Andrew walked among the poeple asking: "does any of you have food guys?!!". Similarly, you go to your church, you talk with your fellow servants. You search in books. You prepare lessons. You share knowledge.
- Andrew found a fellow who had a small amount of food. And Andrew cried out: "here it is". the rest of the disciples were so excited. They ran to Andrew, and helped him setting the people down, and distributing the boy's food on them. They started to give a tiny bite to each of starving people.
- It fed only 10 people, and the other 4990 were still starving. So what!! Both the boy and Andrew did a great service anyways! noone can blame them!
- The boy gave up his own food.. isn't this wonderful!
- The disciples did a great effort setting people down, and distributing the food and barganing with each of the crowd saying "this is not enough for me" "No it is, look at your fellows around you".
Ofcourse this is not the story mentioned in the bible. But it is the story we are doing today. We get to meet, we have a passion to serve, we counsult each others, and we produce this tiny output, that alone, would feed the hunger of few people! We take from each other, and each of us is willing to give, just like the boy, which is great. Each of us is ready to go and excert a great effort to deliver the food he got, the knowledge he knew from fellow servants or pastors or books, to the hungry crowd around him. But we forget the most important step: "BRING THEM TO THE ME TO BLESS", says Jesus . Do not go to service depending on the food you got from fellow people: sermons, bible sharing, a Godly friend, a pastor. "I have to be involved in the process", says Jesus. Then the few we have, will feed the hunger around us, and will exceed!
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