Distributing the Miracle

Scriptures: Matthew 14:13-21; Isaiah 55:1-5

As I prepared to write this sermon, I looked up some rather disturbing statistics. Did you know that Americans eat 75 acres of pizza, 53 million hot dogs, 167 million eggs, 3 million gallons of ice cream, and 3,000 tons of candy a day?

Yet on the other side of the world, 11.6 million people in the nation of Somalia are at risk of starving to death due to a drought. Across the globe, there are 840 million chronically malnourished people.

The Department of Agriculture in our own country estimates there are 3.8 million families who experience hunger and up to 12 million families concerned about having enough food to feed their families.

Now we know, for a fact, that people go hungry not because there is a lack of food in our world. Yes, Somalia’s famine has been precipitated by a severe drought that has caused their famine.

But here in America – 40-50% of what we harvest each year – NEVER GETS EATEN. That’s half our food supply just being tossed out.



So we know there is plenty of food to go around. The problem is not a desperate scarcity of food – the problem is distribution.

I ran into this reality actually lately when I was trying to decide how much food to have at a buffet dinner. We wanted two choices of meat – beef and chicken. Well, if we had 200 people, the caterer said they made enough so 200 people could eat beef, and 200 people could eat chicken. I asked her why on earth she would do that – she was fixing enough food to feed 400 people, and her response was… “Because if you put it out there, people will take both instead of one or the other.”

Our problem isn’t about scarcity. It’s about hoarding our own resources, of gobbling up whatever we can, then throwing the rest away, and not distributing it properly.

Before you start getting TOO down on yourself, however, keep in mind, when the disciples see all these people around and are starting to feel a bit hungry…the disciples say – “Send them away.” Let them go to the next village and buy food for themselves. It’s their responsibility to figure out how they’re going to eat today – not ours. The disciples suffered from the same problem we all do. Looking out for #1.

Jesus has something else in mind though, and says, “No. YOU feed them.” The disciples argue – “There’s not enough.” Now, in the way John’s gospel records this account in the sixth chapter is Andrew – Peter’s brother – actually confiscates some bread and fish from a kid who’s standing nearby in order to try and feed the people. “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

But Jesus says – “Bring the five loaves and two fish to me and I’ll see what I can do with it.” He says a prayer, blesses the food – and gives it back to the disciples so they can distribute the food he has given them.

By the time they’re done – they have more left over than they started out with!

This miracle is one I look at as one of the more “practical” miracles Jesus performs. Odds are, other people in the crowd had brought food with them. When they saw the disciples distributing what they had, were probably moved by the compassion being shown and shared what they had as well. Ultimately, there was enough food among the few to feed the many.

But this story is about how Jesus provides the blessing and the miracle, and how the disciples then distribute it. In a kingdom meal there is more than enough when we come together and share in the distribution.

Hunger in the world is not caused because God has not provided us with the miracle of abundant food – hunger in our world occurs because we don’t distribute what God has given us! God HAS provided us with the miracle already. There’s plenty of food – But God says “YOU distribute it.”

And believe it or not – this story isn’t completely about food. It’s not fully about ways in which to reduce world hunger – which don’t get me wrong, we should definitely be striving for!

But it’s also about the one who provides the miracle in the first place. In the Gospel of John, we are told Jesus is “the bread of life.” He is who feeds us and sustains us.

As his disciples – we are the distributors of not just earthly food – but we are the distributors of Jesus. What we do matters when it comes to building up the kingdom of God. People are spiritually hungry.

I recently ran across a book called “The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger In An Age of Plenty.” It pointed out that despite our material wealth, there are record rates of depression, a divorce rate that continues to hover around fifty percent, an ever-increasing number of children in poverty, and a media that glorifies violence. In short, we are a spiritually bankrupt group of people that claims to be primarily Christian.

Our Isaiah text highlights this issue as well. It’s not that people can’t afford the food – it’s that they invest in the wrong things. Isaiah isn’t talking about actual food when he states: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

We know Isaiah’s not talking about earthly food, because he goes on and says, “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.”

God feeds us with more than just bread and fish. He fills us up with the bread of life, with everlasting waters that never run dry.

Starvation of the spirit is less obvious on the outside than physical hunger because the spirit starves much more slowly and it resides within. Spiritual malnutrition may go unrecognized for long periods because the body goes on.

Yet just as surely as one's body gives signs that it needs nourishment, so does the spirit, and it, too, will eventually be recognized on the outside by its symptoms. Bitterness, hatred, resentment, self-pity, hopelessness, despair, paranoia, envy, jealousy, family conflict, arguing, broken relationships… all are signs of a spiritual hunger that isn’t being fed. We aren’t going to the right source for our nutrition.

So if we hope to do away with physical hunger, we have to attend to our spiritual hunger. Because when we are fed spiritually, when we are living out the radical spiritual imperatives Jesus lays down for discipleship – many of the other problems have ways of working themselves out, miraculously. Think about it.

Romans 12 says do not repay evil for evil. If it is possible as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with everyone. Do not take revenge. If your enemy is hungry – feed him. If he is thirsty – give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. In other words… kill them with kindness.

I know it’s not in our nature – but think about it. If Christians actually heeded these words, actually lived this out rather than giving into our natural instinct to fight and quarrel, to defend ourselves, to seek vengeance when we have been wronged… how might Christians actually change how the world works? The world is watching how we respond and behave to the crises that surround us.

When someone trash-talks you – your natural inclination is to fight back, to clear your name, to heap upon the person talking badly about you as much abuse as they have piled upon you. That’s what’s natural. But that’s not how we’re called to behave if we’re spiritually fed and spiritually mature people. We’re called instead to turn around and smile at them – and feed them.

Feed them not with a dose of their own medicine, as tempting as that may seem, but feed them with the same grace and love that has been heaped upon us by God.

It’s frustrating, because some will not take heed of our kindness. They will see us as weak and foolish for not fighting back. For not engaging the argument. For not striking while the iron is hot.

Well, that’s ok. Because the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, to those who are being fed from something other than the living God. What we need to do is we need to give people what they really need to live. They need the bread of life that is the eternal food.

The seeds have been planted, the crops grow despite the weeds, and the harvest is plentiful and abundant. God’s grace and love overflows – and we have been charged to distribute what we have been given. We don’t see how much of the miracle of God we can choke down for ourselves – but rather we are called to distribute it among those who are hungry. And you’ll know those who are hungry – they will be the ones who ridicule, chide and speak badly about you. So feed them with the food that is eternal. Feed them Christ. What he provides never runs out.