Feeding the Five Thousand – Luke 9:1-36

Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.

I find it interesting that this passage about the Sending of the Twelve comes immediately before the Feeding of the Five Thousand.  The disciples had just been traveling throughout the countryside with no resources to their name.  Clearly, God has been providing for them as they have traveled and performed miracles.  And yet, they are not prepared for Jesus to provide for the crowds of people that have come to hear Him teach.

We have a tendency to buy into what I’ve heard called The Myth of Scarcity.  In other words, we tend to believe that there won’t be enough.  This tends to lead into a self-fulfilling prophecy where we hoard resources to make sure that we will have enough… ensuring that there, in fact, won’t be enough for everyone.

You can see this at work whenever you get a group of junior high guys together for a youth group pizza party.  They are afraid there won’t be enough, so the first ones through the line grab extra slices of pizza just in case they will want them later!  And sure enough, by the time we get to the end of the line, there aren’t enough slices for everyone, and the ones who took extra slices are throwing the crusts away in the trash because they’re too full.

The point?  The point is that we serve a God of abundance.  He’s able to provide for twelve disciples wandering the countryside… and He’s able to provide for a massive crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children… and surely He’s able to provide for you.  So when you’re tempted to buy into the myth of scarcity, remember that you serve a God of abundance!