30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
“What would it take for you to believe in God?” I remember one my more astute friends posing that question to an unbeliever in our little group. We talked about that for a little while. We wondered if a miracle would do it. At the time I thought it would. I did not understand miracles at that point in my life. I think I misunderstood faith as well. I saw miracles as proofs and faith as some sort of an assent to a logical argument. Having witnessed a few miracles myself in my ministry, I have come to see them to be something else. Miracles do not remove the need for faith, they demand faith of us.
Imagine yourself to be one of those disciples. You look over the massive crowd, thousands of people, and you know that they are getting hungry. Hungry people can get irritable; there is a neologism for that: hangry. You urge Jesus to cut short the sermon and let these people go so they can get something to eat before it is too late. But Jesus asks you to feed them. You do the computation. In today’s dollars, 200 denarii would be about $20,000, or about $4 per person for lunch. That is close to what it would cost. Jesus asks what you have, and you bring him the pitiable five loaves and two fish which you had planned to eat yourselves.
Jesus blesses and breaks the bread, hands the five loaves and two fish to you, and tells you to feed them. Turning around and facing that hungry crowd took faith on the part of the disciples. It would not have happened if they had not believed Jesus. Without faith, the disciples should have looked at Jesus and declared him to be mad and cruel to set such a meal before thousands. But they did turn around and they did feed the hungry that day with a meal for which no one labored. In a blessed moment, the curse of Genesis 3 was set aside. They ate not by the sweat of their brow, but by the grace of God.