In our gospel reading for today, Jesus and the disciples accumulate a large, hungry crowd around them because of the miraculous cures that Jesus has been performing. And as a test and demonstration for his disciples, Jesus offers to feed all those people. The disciples check their wallets, and take inventory of the food available, and they doubt that Jesus will be able to meet the needs. But Jesus does more than that – he provides an abundance....
Twenty loaves of bread - slice each loaf into 5 slices, and then give ONE slice to each of the one hundred people – one slice. That's the math that goes through Elisha's servant's mind as he surveys the crowd, and sees what little is available for them. And his response is, “How can I set THIS before a hundred people?” Elisha's servant doesn't think the Lord will be able to satisfy the hunger of this many people, with the little he has available.
And then, there is the math Andrew has to do in our gospel reading. Five loaves of bread – slice each loaf into TEN slices, then cut each SLICE into a hundred pieces and give one tiny piece to each of the FIVE THOUSAND people - one tiny piece. It's ridiculous! And Andrew's response is “What are these five loaves among so many people?” Andrew doesn't think Jesus will be able to satisfy the hunger of this many people, with the little he has available.
We're not convinced that God will satisfy OUR needs either. Our crops have suffered from the hail of July, and there is always the threat of more to come. The oilpatch is alive in our neighbourhood, but it would be a stretch to say that it is thriving. Companies have left the area permanently, and houses are still for sale all over town. It doesn't feel like a lot of bread is coming our way. And obviously, there won't be much extra to share. How will God possibly meet these needs?
And those are just the physical needs. We think God has NO HOPE of meeting our deeper needs – in fact, God gets in our way of meeting them. Like the need for identity and a sense of self-worth – we need to be independent for that, we need to be “self-directed” people, we need to make it on our own. Where's God in that? And what about our deep need for belonging? We need to mesh with our deeply secular friends in the world, we need to conform to what they're doing, or else we're the oddball judgmental fanatic who's doomed to live life alone. Where's God in that? And how about our deep need for a purpose in life? We need to create a legacy, to live for our favourite hobby, to build our own mighty empire. We don't see God having any kind of role in meeting any of these deep needs. Because if we truly trusted in God to meet all our needs, in HIS timing and in HIS method, we would naturally follow all of God's commandments. We sin – we meet our needs in ways that go against God - because we don't think Jesus will satisfy us – because we don't think Jesus CAN satisfy us.