YOU feed them

DAILY BYTE

So Jesus, filled with compassion, ended up spending the whole day in the wilderness with the crowds – healing, teaching and preaching. Near the end of the day, a group of disciples approach Jesus with a concern: "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

You know how it is often said that you have to read between the lines of what someone is saying to get the true meaning? Well, if I had to read between the lines here, I would imagine the disciples were saying something like: “Look Jesus, it’s getting late and we are tired and hungry! So let’s chase everyone away!”

And then in my imagination I see the disciples tugging on Jesus’ cloak as their voices drop to a conspiratorial whisper: “you see the real problem, Jesus, is that there is barely enough food for just us here. There’s not enough for everyone to share. And we are REALLY hungry.”

At least that is how it would have been if I was one of the disciples!

However, there on the shores of some distant lake, God’s compassion meets human selfishness as it always has from the very beginning.

‘You give them something to eat,’ Jesus retorts.

The word ‘you’ is emphatic in the Greek, ‘YOU feed them,’ Jesus said.

Imagine yourself as one of the disciples at this point, which should be relatively easy to do considering our own innate selfishness is constantly being challenged by God’s compassion. Think about all the prayers you might have prayed: ‘Lord, won’t you please take care of all the starving people in the world?’ ‘YOU feed them!’

‘Lord, won’t you please take care of all the little orphans in the world?’ ‘YOU care for them!’

‘Lord, don’t you see how many people have to live in shacks, won’t you please give them somewhere to sleep?’ ‘YOU shelter them’.

Hectic stuff to hear I know but this is the thing – God’s love finds us, holds us, heals us and then challenges us. God challenges us to love others as he has loved us!

Compassion is more than mere sentimentality and more than just feelings because compassion compels us into action. Michael W. Smith profoundly expressed this truth when he sang: “Love is not really love until you give it away.”

In what direction and towards what need do you think God might be challenging you to love? Hearing God’s challenge to care for others is quite frankly both scary and intimidating. And yet, it is an essential part of being a disciple of Christ. If we follow Jesus, we will find that he walks us into situations of great human need.

‘YOU feed them’.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, it is so scary and intimidating to hear you call to love. But we know that your will is that we love others as you have loved us. Help us to put aside our selfishness and follow you always – even if that following means we have to love others in extremely challenging ways. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 14. 15-16 (NIV)

As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."
Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."