…We often look at this miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and celebrate how he saved the day. So long as Jesus is around, we have nothing to worry about. He’ll fix it. He’ll take care of it. If he won’t send them away, he can feed all the people.
The only trouble is that’s not exactly what happens in the text. Jesus doesn’t send them away and Jesus doesn’t technically feed all those people.
Instead, we read in verse 16, “Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’”
“Whoa. Hold up now preacher. What do you mean telling us to do it. That’s what we pay you for?”
“We have nothing here except five loaves of bread and two fish,” they reply. “What do you expect us to do?”…