Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’” vss. 16-17
Matthew 14:15-18
Jesus has been curing people in the crowd who needed healing and now the disciples become aware of an even more basic need. These people needed something to eat – they were getting hungry. The disciples propose a sensible solution, one that we might have considered. Why not shift the responsibility to the people themselves? Jesus should just send them away – they could take care of themselves. But Jesus has another possibility. The disciples could feed them, and they, of course, logically protested – they didn’t have the resources to do the job. We too are good at claiming poverty when it is suggested that we could do something about the hunger needs of those at the other end of the economic spectrum. We say we don’t have enough to even make a dent in the problem, and of course that’s true when we consider the small amounts each can contribute. But there is plenty of food in the world for everyone to have enough, and there is enough money in our pockets to make it happen. We simply lack the collective will to do what is right. We seem so afraid that some person is going to get a benefit that they don’t deserve, and so we keep cutting back instead of doing more. Amazing! Perhaps one day we’ll get Jesus’ message, and use our five loaves and two fish to feed the world.
Thought for the Day: Why are people going hungry in a land of plenty?
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