We
have all heard about this famous event, in which Jesus fed thousands of people
with just a few bread and fish. As we
dig deeper into the story, we learn that the number of people Jesus fed that
day exceeded 5000. Five thousand is the
magic number. But that’s only the count
of the men (v. 10). Since the Greek
language is very accurate, the word used is literally for men – male humans. And so, logically speaking, there ought to be
women and children in the crowd as well, provided there was a boy mentioned in
the story (v. 9). So, the estimate could
easily reach to 20,000 people following Jesus that day. That’s a lot of people, is that not?
A
problem arose when these people had nothing to eat. It would be difficult, even in our modern
day, to provide food to eat for 20,000 people in an instant. If on average, in one sitting a person eat
1lbs of food (1/2 kg or 500 g), then for 20,000 people ought to be provided
about 10 tons of food. How could ten
tons of food be provided in a very short period of time in a mountain? The calculation is impossible. To provide that much, it requires preparation
and proper storage. So the assumption
was that everybody must be responsible for his/her own food. Every family was assumed to be responsible
for his/her own family. But that
assumption was defeated as quickly as Jesus asked Philip, one of His disciples.
Philip
was presented with an impossible problem.
Jesus asked him: “Where are we to buy bread, so that these
people may eat?” I imagine
Philip scratching his head in disbelief.
He might not be a math whiz, but he knew that it would be impossible to
conjure up food for 20,000 people in one time for them to eat in one
sitting. He calculated that 200 denarii
would not be enough to buy bread for these people to eat. For sure they would not be satisfied. We probably are now scratching our head
trying to understand what 200 denarii is worth in our modern world. Let me explain to you.
1
denarius is an average worker’s wage in a day.
If we assume average worker works 10 hours a day and the minimum wage is
at $10 an hour (McDonald’s in the US), then we get $100 wage a day. Thus 1 denarius is worth $100. So 200 denarii is worth $20,000. And $20,000 is about Rp. 270 million. Now, if we go to the store the price of 1 kg
of bread is $4. So ten tons of bread
would cost $40,000. What Philip
mentioned only covered half of it. No
wonder Philip said: “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not
be enough for each of them to get a little.” $40,000 is 400 denarii in this case. If in average we work 5 days a week, 20 days
a month, thus in order to get 200 denarii, we ought to work for 10 months. For 400 denarii, we ought to work 1 year and
eight months. With $40,000 one can eat
bread for roughly 18 years, that’s with 3x500g of bread a day because in
average a person eats 0.5 kg of food in one sitting. It must be very depressing for Philip to deal
with this impossible task.
Have
you ever had an impossible mission that you have to tackle? I believe you have. I have.
It’s an overwhelming feeling.
Almost like the all of the oxygen in your lung is sucked out. And we are placed in a space without
oxygen. We can’t breathe. We need oxygen, but can’t find any. It’s also like hitting a massive wall. And we are just this tiny insect in front of
the giant wall of stones. No matter what
we do. No matter how hard we bang or hit
the wall, it doesn’t move. The wall is
just too strong and too big for us. We
have lined up all our resources, savings, networks, you name it, but we come up
short, way short. The temptation is to
conclude: “It can’t be done!” Because of
the conclusion, we then withdraw. We
don’t join in. We don’t even try to do
anything. Either way, salting the ocean
or watering the desert is just not making any dent in the environment. The ocean will not be saltier. The desert will not be less dry. So we do not participate.
Philip
probably was thinking the same. His 1
denarius wage a day would not make a dent to the need of that time. 400 denarii is needed. 1 year and eight months of work. And he probably only had a few denarii in his
pocket. And it’s for his emergency
need. What would a few denarii do to
this massive need? Philip might have
thought. As he was idling, his friend
Andrew came up with something. He,
undoubtedly shared Philip’s skeptical mood, but yet he reported to Jesus: “There
is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so
many?” Apparently, this one boy
probably sat near them and they saw what this boy had. It was not mentioned whether the boy had the
initiative to give what he had or not. Perhaps
after he heard what’s needed, he took the initiative to share what he had. Or perhaps Jesus asked Andrew to ask the boy
politely to share what he had. Anyhow,
the five loaves of bread and two fish were given to Jesus. Perhaps the boy was naïve to just give away
his provision thinking it could feed all 20,000 people. Or perhaps he wholeheartedly trusted that
Jesus could do something extraordinary with the small amount of food in order
to feed the crowd. Lo and behold, Jesus
did the impossible. Two fish and five
loaves of barley was enough to feed 20,000 people. In the hands of Jesus nothing is impossible. And the result is stunning. All those people ate and were satisfied. Jesus did not need ten tons of food to be
provided in order to feed all of them.
Five loaves of bread and two fish probably only weighed 5 kg. But all people were satisfied. And not only that, there was leftover, 12
baskets of the fragments of the barley and the fish. Now, pay attention here. The Scripture is precise. It is said: “12 And when they
had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments,
that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and
filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those
who had eaten.” The leftover is
said to be from the five barley loaves.
And so the leftover was not from any other food. This clarity is important to dismiss any
speculation that says that it was not a miracle, but rather people felt ashamed
for hiding their provision, and thus they shared what they had, and that’s why
the thousands of people ate in satisfaction.
Such speculation is a denial of God’s power. Such speculation is not biblical.
This
is how the problem is solved. The five
loaves of barley and the two fish became the means which Jesus used to do the
impossible. For sure the five loaves of
barley and the two fish alone won’t make a dent to the 20,000 hungry
stomach. But there was one huge X
factor. The X factor that many skeptics
often dismiss is Jesus. Jesus made use
of the small amount of food in order to feed the 20,000 hungry mouths. The 5kg food was enough to feed 20,000
people. This calculation is impossible
in any century. The math is simple, in
average we need 10,000 kg of food in order to feed 20,000 people in one sitting. 5kg of food can only feed 10. But this 5kg of food just fed 20,000 mouths. Any scientist would just have their jaws
dropped to the ground. Moreover, the
leftover was said to be 12 baskets. If
one basket is about 5kg, then they had 60kgs of leftover. In the law of physics, we don’t know any food
that can multiply many times over in just a few minutes. Well, we know that one seed of barley can
multiply into hundreds of seed, but it would be in the course of three to four
months under a very conducive environment and careful planting. Not in a few minutes. Fish can also multiply a lot. But not dead fish. The fish must be alive and the eggs
fertilized. Some fish can lay thousands
of eggs in one time. Some hundreds. But what they had was loaves of barley not
barley seed, and dead fish not living fish.
It’s a miracle. Performed by
Jesus. That’s the point of the story. And the people caught the message. Verse 14 testifies to it: “14 When
the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the
Prophet who is to come into the world!”
They too pointed to Jesus as the cause of the miracle. They believed.
Their
conclusion is very important.
Deuteronomy 18:15-19 speaks:
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall
listen— 16 just as you
desired of the Lord your God at
Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the
voice of the Lord my God or see
this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And
the Lord said to me, ‘They are
right in what they have spoken. 18 I
will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will
put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not
listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of
him.
Philip, in John 1:45 has made a
conclusion:
45 Philip
found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law
and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
There is no denial that Jesus is the
one. No one can perform such a
miracle. Everybody who hears of this
event can only conclude the same, that Jesus is the one. So all eyes now look at Jesus. And so our eyes too should.
When
we hit the massive giant wall of our life, what do we do? We have exhausted our best reasoning and
efforts but nothing can break the wall.
The wall stands tall. The law of
physics prohibits us from proceeding. Do
we then give up? Do we just then lie
down and do nothing? Do we then idle and
stare in blanks? Have we ever thought of
going to Jesus and asking Him for help?
Have we ever considered bringing to Jesus the little we have and offered
it to Him so He could do miracle with the seemingly insignificant thing we
brought to Him? We might not be
rich. We might not have $40,000 lying in
our savings. We might not have five
talents like some geniuses have. We might
not have the voice of an angel like Charlotte Church. We might not have the sharp mind of
Einstein. We might not have the craft of
Leonardo Da Vinci. We might not have the
musical intelligence Mozart had. We might
not have the business instinct like Mark Zuckerberg. We might not have a business empire like
Microsoft. But God gives us
something. Every Christian has at least
one spiritual gift. Blessed are you who
have more. Blessed are you if you have
also other gifts, like wealth, fame, power.
The question is: “What are you gonna do with it?” Are you going to keep it hidden? Thinking that it won’t make a dent
anyway. If we focus on the law of
physics, then you are right. It won’t
make a dent anyway.
Let
me ask you this: “What are your five loaves and two fish that you can offer to
Jesus to be used by Him?” This event
can’t be replicated by anyone else.
Jesus did this sort of miracle only twice. But He did an even stunning miracle when He
used simple people like the apostles to turn the world upside down. He certainly can use no matter how little
your giving is into something very impactful.
What is important is whether we trust Him enough for us to give Him what
we have? You might have your voice to
offer to God. You might have your
courage to evangelize to offer to the Lord.
You might have your musical gift you can offer to God. You might have the gift of leadership you can
give to God. You might have your keen
understanding of the Scripture to offer the Lord to participate in ministry. You might have the gift of writing in order
to communicate God’s message to people. You
might have your $10 a month to give to God.
Praise the Lord if you are blessed with more, it means you can give even
more. The world might look like a
massive giant wall that makes us feel tiny.
We might feel that our gift means nothing to the work that needs to be
done in this world. But in God’s hands
your small gift will produce a big impact.
The five loaves of barley and the two fish made a huge impact in the hands
of the Lord. 20,000 people were blessed
that day. The impossible was overcome by
Jesus.
What
are your five loaves of barley and two fish?
Think beyond the law of physics.
Think beyond the law of the world.
The 5kg of food can feed 20,000 people.
Your small gift may also impact the lives of many. In Kenya $1 can buy 500ml of milk and a loaf
of bread. Your small gift may save the
lives of people in other places. It does
make a dent in this troubled world. Your
gift of singing might touch the heart of the weary and they might be reminded
of the love of Christ through it. Your
gift of leadership may help organize a mission project that so many people may
be helped medically or educationally or/and be saved through evangelism. There are many other gifts that God has given
all of you that you can offer to God in order to be used by Him in His
ministry. In the hands of God, the
impact will be massive. No wall, no
matter how massive and giant it is, may stop God. The stupidity, grotesque, and scandal of the
cross He even makes into the most glorious act of love and the most honorable
sacrifice of salvation. How much more
can he transform your small gift into a powerful ministerial work? Brothers and sisters, do not hesitate, just
offer to God the small thing you have, and witness Him work wonders. What are your five loaves and two fish? Amen.
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