Give them something to eat!

Faced with thou­sands of peo­p­le and only two fish and five loaves of bread in his hands, Jesus encou­ra­ged his fri­ends with the words: «Give them some­thing to eat!» In order for Jesus to final­ly per­form the fee­ding mira­cle, He had to see the hun­ger of the peo­p­le and a boy had to pro­vi­de his hum­ble resour­ces. In the same pas­sa­ge, Jesus decla­res that He is the bread of life. Inspi­red by this fee­ding mira­cle, we want to dis­tri­bu­te the bread that is Jesus to the peo­p­le around us.

On 14 June 2020, almost exact­ly three months after the lock­down, we were able to broad­cast a live­stream for the first time. This was the result of an enorm­ous invest­ment of time and money by a num­ber of peo­p­le. About a year later, a Chris­ti­an media pro­fes­sio­nal made the fol­lo­wing state­ment at a joint lunch on the Eich­berg: «Your live­stream in this tech­ni­cal and con­tent qua­li­ty has the poten­ti­al to reach at least 500 peo­p­le from your regi­on.» I can’t get this sen­tence out of my head. God has ent­rus­ted us with talents that we should use so that they can mul­ti­ply. Due to a men­tal error in the power of ten, I lin­ked the state­ment with the sto­ry of the fee­ding of the 5000, which is why the pro­ject title is not cal­led Live­stream 500, but has a zero in bra­ckets after it. It means that the­re should be no upper limit. We want to trust God with a lot.

See the hunger

In John 6 we find very inte­res­t­ing con­nec­tions around bread. It cul­mi­na­tes in Jesus» state­ment: «I am the bread of life. Whoe­ver comes to me will never hun­ger again. Whoe­ver belie­ves in me will never thirst again» (John 6:35 NLB). In the imme­dia­te con­text, Jesus is tal­king about the man­na that God pro­vi­ded for the peo­p­le of Isra­el during their 40 years of wan­de­ring in the desert. Every mor­ning, after the dew had dis­ap­peared, fine grains lay on the ground like frost. The man­na con­tai­ned all the fib­re, vit­amins and car­bo­hy­dra­tes that the desert wan­de­rers nee­ded. As the quails pro­vi­ded the neces­sa­ry pro­te­in, they did not need any addi­tio­nal food sup­ple­ments. Jesus claims to be ever­y­thing a per­son needs in the same mea­su­re. Jesus is enough. The­re is no need for food supplements.

The fee­ding of the 5000 takes place in this con­text. «When Jesus lifted his eyes, he saw a lar­ge crowd of peo­p­le coming up the moun­ta­ins in search of him. He tur­ned to Phil­ip and asked: «Phil­ip, whe­re can we buy enough bread to feed all the­se peo­p­le?» (John 6:5 NLB). Jesus asks Phil­ip whe­re to buy bread to feed the peo­p­le. This shows that Jesus reco­g­ni­s­es people’s needs and is pre­pared to act. Peo­p­le need bread, the bread!

Are we awa­re that our neigh­bour, our stu­dy or work col­le­ague needs Jesus? Per­haps we think that the fami­ly next door has just had a har­mo­nious holi­day and their stan­dard of living is hig­her than ours. Whe­ther they rea­li­se it or not, they need the bread. May­be our col­le­ague at work is thin­king about the next step in their care­er. Whe­ther they know it or not, they are hun­gry. Every per­son in this world, whe­ther suc­cessful or rag­ged, needs Jesus. Do we reco­g­ni­se our own hun­ger and that of our fel­low human beings?

«Howe­ver, he was only test­ing Phil­ip, becau­se he alre­a­dy knew what he was going to do. Phil­ip repli­ed: «It would cost a small for­tu­ne (200 days» wages) to pro­vi­de them with food!» (John 6:6f NLB). What is behind this rehear­sal? This hun­ger can­not be met with finan­ces, orga­ni­sa­ti­on or admi­nis­tra­ti­on. No-one can shirk their respon­si­bi­li­ty by making a lar­ge dona­ti­on to the church. The new stage design or the remo­del­led youth cent­re are also hel­pful ele­ments, but they do not feed anyo­ne. The three other aut­hors (Matthew, Mark, Luke), who also tell this sto­ry, wri­te at this point: «[…] Give them food!» (Matthew 14:16 NLB).

Making limited resources available

«Ano­ther disci­ple, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brot­her, spo­ke up: «Here is a litt­le boy with five bar­ley loaves and two fish. But what use is that to us with so many peo­p­le?» (John 6:8f NLB). Five loaves and two fish – a drop in the oce­an! Not so for the donor. This boy could have fil­led his own bel­ly, but ins­tead he sel­fless­ly and gene­rous­ly made his mode­st resour­ces available. He deser­ves a lot of cre­dit for that. We often think that we bare­ly have enough for our­sel­ves. How could we give out any­thing else?

If the boy had imme­dia­te­ly han­ded out his pro­vi­si­ons, the­re would have been a crumb for each per­son. Point­less. But he does the only right thing: he puts his limi­t­ed resour­ces at Jesus» dis­po­sal and thus makes the fee­ding mira­cle possible.

We want to bring Jesus, the bread of life, to our fel­low human beings in our vil­la­ges. When we look at our inven­to­ry, it’s not enough. We feel inca­pa­ble. We have too litt­le to offer. We can bare­ly make ends meet our­sel­ves. That’s why we have crea­ted busi­ness cards on which each of us can wri­te three names that we want to pray for in the coming weeks. It is a way of not acting direct­ly, but acting indi­rect­ly – through Jesus. We can pray that God will open the hearts of the peo­p­le who are important to us and give us an oppor­tu­ni­ty to invi­te them to the live­stream. We belie­ve that the live­stream is a won­derful way to get into homes that are other­wi­se clo­sed to the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is a way of brin­ging bread to peo­p­le who are far away from atten­ding church.

So that we can approach peo­p­le in a win­ning and fri­end­ly way along­side pray­er, we have pre­pared «givea­ways»: Mus­tard and tooth­pas­te tubes with a fun­ny and invi­ting text as well as the QR code that directs peo­p­le to our new­ly desi­gned web­site for the live­stream. Inci­den­tal­ly, dif­fe­rent lan­guages can be sel­ec­ted the­re so that our for­eign fri­ends can also find a bar­ri­er-free way to the «bread».

Experience the miracle

«Then Jesus took the loaves, than­ked God and gave them to the peo­p­le howe­ver much they wan­ted. He did the same with the fish. And ever­yo­ne ate until they were full. «Gather up the lef­to­vers,» Jesus ins­truc­ted his disci­ples, ’so that not­hing peri­s­hes. At the begin­ning the­re had only been five bar­ley loaves, but after the meal, twel­ve bas­kets were fil­led with the lef­to­ver bread!» (John 6:11–13 NLB).

Not the boy, not the fri­ends of Jesus, but Jesus hims­elf is respon­si­ble for the suc­cess. Our task is to take that one step into the water and then wit­ness Jesus working a mira­cle. Last Sun­day we heard that the priests had to put their feet in the water when they crossed the Jor­dan. It only took that one step and then the mira­cle hap­pen­ed. Are we rea­dy to take this step? As fol­lo­wers of Jesus, it is our task to make our litt­le, the two fish and five loaves, available. It’s not much, but ent­rus­ted to the right hands, it can lead to gre­at things.

I think it’s bril­li­ant how Jesus lets his fri­ends take part in the mira­cle. They were allo­wed to hand out the food: «Give them some­thing to eat!» They were also ins­truc­ted to coll­ect the lef­to­vers. After 5,000 peo­p­le had eaten their fill, two fish and five loaves beca­me twel­ve bas­kets of lef­to­ver bread. The­re was more at the end than at the begin­ning. And all becau­se a young boy made his mode­st resour­ces available. I want to expe­ri­ence that too! Let’s put Jesus to the test. This requi­res your and my hum­ble resour­ces, which a living God can mul­ti­ply. The most important thing about this mira­cle was not the lef­to­vers, but the fact that 5,000 peo­p­le got enough bread. Free and clear. And ever­yo­ne ate until they were full. Jesus is the bread that satis­fies a person’s hun­ger fore­ver. The peo­p­le around us should recei­ve the bread of life deli­ver­ed to their homes free of charge.

The twel­ve bas­kets of lef­to­ver bread are impres­si­ve. The num­ber 12 has a spe­cial mea­ning in the Bible. In anci­ent Isra­el the­re were the twel­ve tri­bes and with Jesus the­re were the twel­ve disci­ples. It is the full num­ber and expres­ses that the­re is enough bread for all peo­p­le on this earth, cer­tain­ly also for your neigh­bours and work col­le­agues.

«When the peo­p­le saw this mira­cle, they exclai­med: «This real­ly is the pro­phet we have been wai­ting for. He is the one who is to come into the world» » (John 6:14 NLB). Ima­gi­ne your spou­se, your child­ren, your neigh­bour or your club col­le­ague shou­ting with con­vic­tion: «Jesus real­ly is the bread of life. I don’t need any­thing extra. He came into the world as the Mes­siah and recon­ci­led the world – inclu­ding me – with God!» Our live­stream is a modern and effec­ti­ve vehic­le for brin­ging bread to the peo­p­le. What can hap­pen when bet­ween 300 and 400 peo­p­le give their litt­le to Jesus and take that one step into the water? Our the­me for the year is «You fol­low me!» Jesus speaks to each of us per­so­nal­ly and invi­tes us to fol­low Him. The sen­tence: «Give them some­thing to eat!» is also a per­so­nal invi­ta­ti­on to stretch out our hum­ble resour­ces to Jesus and to intro­du­ce our fel­low human beings to Jesus.

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: John 6:1–14

1. Do you rea­li­se and do you agree that ever­yo­ne needs Jesus?
2. What does it mean that Jesus is enough?
3. What are the spe­cial oppor­tu­ni­ties of our livestream?
4. Fill in the busi­ness cards with the names of important peo­p­le from your envi­ron­ment who do not yet know Jesus personally.
5. What does it mean to you to put your foot in the water and invi­te peo­p­le to the livestream?
6. Take time to pray tog­e­ther for the names on your cards!