On Sunday I didn’t have time to get into a point of the text in Luke 9 that I was excited about.  We talked about how Jesus took/received the 12 disciples for the purpose of training/Sabbath.  We talked about how Jesus took/received the crowd that forced themselves on him for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to them.  We talked about John 1:12 which says that we have the option to take/receive Jesus and thus become a part of his family.

We didn’t talk about Luke 9:16 where Jesus is now feeding the crowd after preaching to them and performing healings.  It was told to Jesus that he now was responsible for a crowd of around 10,000 men, women and children who had ventured away from their homes and had nothing to eat.  This crowd was probably 4 times larger than the nearest town and there was no such thing as fast food or grocery stores, so there was no natural solution to the hunger problem.  This also was Gentile territory and so hospitality would have been harder to come by. 

Jesus had his disciples organize the crowd and gather any food available.  All that was given to him was 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread (these would have been small size fish and mini loaves).  The important point is that Jesus received (lambanō ) this paltry food.  When Jesus receives our best, no matter how paltry and insufficient, he multiplies it and makes it enough.  I’m aware of many difficult issues that people in our church are constantly facing and I often find myself feeling utterly helpless to do anything to help people.  My words of advice, my counseling sessions, my prayers, my sermons all seem so utterly tiny compared to the problems I know people are dealing with.

However, this passage encourages me because I know that if I just keep preaching and leading (what I’m called to do) God can take that little bit and use it to do much more than I could imagine.  Can you relate to me?  Do you wish you could do more to help others in your family, your community, or your world?  Don’t become discouraged, just give the little bit you have and believe Jesus will multiply it!