Jesus Crazy Command:You Feed Them!

Their Story (Mark 6: 30-44)

Imagine you are one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, and you, along with the other eleven, now return from a long, tiring, but successful ministry trip where you preached the kingdom, healed the sick and cast out devils.

You are exhausted yet excited as you begin to recount to Jesus everything that happened on your journey, He listens with a wide grin and a thankful heart to His Father for keeping you safe in His name.

Seeing the approaching crowds coming and going, Jesus says to you, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” you wholeheartedly agree. However, as you try to go on that “mini-vacation”, the crowds follow you and Jesus, and Jesus, being Jesus, starts another all-day ministry assignment of preaching and teaching. As the shadows grow long along the rocky ground and the sun gets low in the sky, you ask Jesus to send this 20,000-plus crowd away to buy some food from the farms and villages because they are in a remote place and may starve. Jesus then turns to you with that familiar sparkle in His eye and says, “You feed them”. (Mark 6:37)

Can you feel the absolute shock and bewilderment the disciples must have felt when Jesus practically said to them, “Do the impossible?”

It ended well for them that day, as Jesus took five loaves and two fish, blessed them, broke them and distributed them to the disciples, who actually did feed everyone until they were satisfied. But what I want to suggest to you is that as we follow Jesus in our discipleship, He will lead us to re-enact this very story with Him in our generation.

Our Story

Jesus is no longer on earth in the flesh but is still active in the world, teaching among the crowds (unbelievers) by His Spirit, convicting them of sin, judgement and righteousness (John 16:8-11) through the million and one scenarios He orchestrates in their lives, some of which are interactions with you, disciples of Jesus Christ.

As we follow our Lord by intentionally engaging, serving and living our life around our “crowd of unbelievers” at work or in your neighbourhood, we too, like the first twelve disciples, will recognise that hunger is a problem. However, for Jesus, it’s an opportunity where He tells us to feed them through Him, just like the 12 disciples did.

Their Hunger

While the biblical story focused on physical hunger for food, which is still a problem today in some parts of the world, that most likely won`t be the type of hunger we will encounter the most with the crowds among whom we live in the developed West.

Hunger To Be Seen, Known and Loved – As we observe social media with the flurry of dangerous trends, silly skits, and pointless reaction videos, they reveal a deep hunger in their heart to be seen, known and “loved” by others, even if those others are total strangers on the internet. Jesus tells us – You Feed Them.

Hunger For Identity – As we observe the growing number of letters in the LGBTQ+ alphabet, the war over pronouns and misgendering, what we are seeing is a desperate cry for identity, and more accurately, the identity that the Father alone gives. Jesus tells us – You Feed Them.

Hunger For a Just and Better World – As we observe the rise in social justice issues, climate crisis challenges, and the abandonment of more traditional politicians for more populist ones. Underneath is the hunger for a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. – Jesus tells us – You Feed Them.

How To Feed Them

Like the disciples before us, we can feel overwhelmed by the needs before us, matched with an acute sense of our inability to meet those needs. Like them, we may begin to look within ourselves and calculate how much work, money or time we have to give this and feel woefully short. (Mark 6:37)

However, Jesus is not asking you to do this alone or out of your resources. Paul tells us that Jesus is our sufficiency. (2 Corinthians 3:5) So how do we feed them? We feed them by living in the reality and power of Jesus and His gospel so they can see. We feed them by being among them, showing them an alternative way to be human, showing them a life where we are loved and known by the Father, and brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are secure in that love. We are seen, known and still deeply loved. Then we can invite them to be known as well by putting their faith in Jesus Christ and joining the family.

We feed them by being among them and not primarily identifying ourselves by our race, class, gender, pronouns, sexual orientation, financial status, political party or any such thing. We primarily identify ourselves as children of God and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. These identities are bestowed, not earned, so you need not fight to be recognised. They are permanent, not temporary, so you have no fear of losing who you are. We can invite them to into true identity in Christ Jesus.

We feed them by working among them on some of the world`s most pressing issues, but not in the desperation that usually accompanies them as they speak of “1.5 to survive” regarding climate change or the 17 SDG`s and 2030 agenda. We work with the clear biblical hope that Jesus resurrection has ushered in a new heaven and new earth and and it will eventual be completed when He returns. We work in hope and not in fear, that Christ is redeeming everything to Himself and we can invite them into new creation by faith in Christ Jesus.

We feed them by living as disciples of Jesus when we are among them and truly believing the gospel of the kingdom.

Face to Face With Myself

• Do you see the hunger of those around me?
• Do I believe Jesus and the gospel is the true bread?

Face To Face With Jesus Christ

• Ask the Lord to make your aware of the true nature of the hunger around you and to make you a dispenser of true bread to satisfy them.

Adrian Reid

Serving God`s people by illuminating Jesus Christ until He becomes the central and universal obsession of His church, and helping His people live out their calling as sons and daughters of God where they live as priests before God, brothers and sisters to each other, and a kingdom community of creative servants for the world.