"We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish."
This is how the disciples respond to Jesus. The people who have followed them into the wilderness, desperate for the healing and grace of Christ’s presence and teaching, are hungry. The disciples come to Jesus, thinking to send the crowds home. Jesus responds, “Feed them.”
“We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
We have nothing, they think. Nothing, but a few loaves a fish, which really are nothing when compared to the multitudes of hungry people. We have nothing.
How often do we think we have nothing, especially when faced with all the violence, anger, hurt, despair, and hunger in the world? How often do we think we have nothing, especially when compared to what we had in “the good old days” or compared to our need?
We are a people who often think in terms of scarcity: we focus on what we do not have, on what we need, on how small our offerings are. And yet Christ does not see in these terms.
“We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
Christ takes this meager offering: loaves and fish, and thanks God for them, and the whole crowd is fed. This is a miracle of abundance in the face of the world’s view of scarcity. When we think we have nothing, or nothing but a little, to offer, Christ takes what little we have, thanks God for it, and turns it into a miracle.
What is nothing to the one who created everything? All things are God’s and all things are God’s to make miracles from. When we feel that we don’t have anything left, or when we feel that we are nothing, we are always God’s.
“We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
God takes our “thing but”s and turns them into abundance. In response, our minds turn from the nothing to the twelve baskets of leftovers, the proof of how God’s work is a work of overflowing greatness.
What would it take for us to turn our minds from “We have nothing but” to “Look! We have these five loaves and two fish! Thanks be to God!” What more would come from thoughts of fullness? As Christ gave thanks for what was given and it multiplied, our thanksgivings will not go unheard.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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