Day 15 - Feeding the 5000

by Patrick Fleming

Matthew 14:18-21

One of the greatest miracles performed by Jesus in the Bible is “The Feeding of the 5000.” In fact, it’s the only miracle besides the resurrection to appear in all four Gospels. God gloriously uses Jesus and his disciples to perform this act through the gift of multiplication. God proves to us that he is indeed about multiplication as long as we put our trust in him. We start the account with Jesus’ disciples locating the boy who has merely five loaves of bread and two fish. 

The disciples, seeing the hungry crowd, ask Jesus how they are to feed such a large crowd with only the boy's lunch. “‘Bring them here to me.’ And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:18-21).

This boy so generously gives up his meal because he puts his trust and faith in God and Jesus to perform a miracle. A miracle of multiplication that only God can perform. The act seems impossible, right? But God takes this seemingly insignificant person and uses the boy to display his amazing glory. We also recognize that multiplication requires trust, sacrifice, and is clearly a result of God's work, not our own.

We HAVE to trust that God will always provide even when we think it’s impossible. The story covers aspects of generosity by the hero boy and deep compassion from Jesus, sharing this meal for others to enjoy. The other miracle I’ve always been in awe of is that this crowd was not only fed but they were full, and the disciples recovered twelve baskets of broken pieces that were left over! Only an act of God can explain such an amazing event. When we put our trust in God and sacrifice everything, we will be full and  completely satisfied, never longing for more.

I’m sure you’ve experienced the gift of God multiplying something in your life either when you were in great need or when you weren’t expecting it at all. By continuing to serve our God and his son through acts of grace and generosity, we can trust in his plan. And whatever that plan may be, we have to believe it is for the greater good of mankind. This story displays small acts of faith that God uses to multiply and accomplish much bigger things than we can fathom which occur through tough and desperate times. Have faith and believe in him at all times, even when life gets hard and seems impossible to navigate. Just as the boy so selflessly gave up his meal, God will bless you when you put your trust and faith in him.