Manna From Heaven

As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

Today’s story of Jesus miraculously multiplying a few fish and loaves to feed upwards of five thousand people is one of the rare few stories that can be found in all the four gospels (see also Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-13). This suggests it is an important story. The narrative is practically the same in all four gospels, although John has a little boy providing the initial offering of bread and fish. Why is this story so important? Apart from the spiritual significance of the bread — remember Jesus saying he was the bread of life? (see John 6:35) — it also shows that Jesus cares about our temporal needs. Like food.

But how does he provide food to us? He doesn’t drop food down from heaven, although he did do that a few centuries ago (see Exodus 16). He expects those of us who have to give those who do not have. Listen to what he tells his disciples to do: “YOU give them something to eat.” I am sure they were taken aback. Undoubtedly they recognized that the huge crowd of people that Jesus was talking to was getting hungry and realized they would soon need to be fed, but they never imagined that the solution to the problem might involve them. 

We are the same. We are very good at identifying problems, but we never think the solution might lie with us. How often have you heard somebody lament the condition of the world and say, “Somebody should do something!” Yes, somebody should. How about that somebody be you? Know what I’m saying. Not everything might be in our capability. For instance, we might not be able to fix the potholes in the road. But there are things that we can do. Like feeding the hungry. This ministry has teams in several places in the world that helps those in need.

For instance, our teams in Beirut have reached out to refugees, especially those from Syria who reside in camps. In Mumbai, our outreach ministry has provided food and provisions to over half a million people during the past year. We hope to be able to do this across more cities in the country in the months to come, and reach out to more countries in the world as well. There are people who are starving. Something needs to be done to feed them. You can help. https://www.facebook.com/manna4everyone. 

That takes care of temporal needs. There are spiritual needs that people have as well. Let us feed their souls too.