30Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.
33But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, "This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat."
37But He answered and said to 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 them something to eat?"
38But He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see."
And when they found out they said, "Five, and two fish."
39Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. 41And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. 42So they all ate and were filled. 43And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. 44Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
I have heard this story so many times before, but there are some details here I hadn't noticed or heard before.
It looks like this is shortly after Jesus had sent out the twelve apostles to go preach in the surrounding area. The apostles just returned and were telling Jesus all that they did. Jesus told them they needed to get away, to take a vacation.
Now picture this: being so overworked that you really needed a vacation. In fact, the person who assigned you the work insisted that you should take a vacation. So you head out in a boat to a location you heard is a nice quiet deserted place. Sounds like a great vacation right? But just as you approach the shore you see crowds of people, just the work you were trying to take a vacation from. My instinct would have been to turn the boat around and look for another shore, hoping the next shore would really be deserted and free of work!
But that is not what Jesus did. He went ashore anyway. He was tired, needed a break, but he felt compassion for these people. Jesus was always full of compassion. This tells me that Jesus will never tire of hearing my requests. There will never be one request too many or one request too big.
But the next thing that surprised me as I read this story again is that I always thought Jesus fed the 5000 because there was nothing there for them to eat, that there was no other option, otherwise people would starve. It is true that it was a remote place and nothing right in the area to eat. But it doesn't sound like it would have been unreasonable for the people to go to the nearest villages to get something to eat. Even the apostles would have considered going into town to get some food if the cost wouldn't have been outrageous. Besides, this would have been the perfect excuse to send the people away so they could have their much needed peace and quiet.
But Jesus did not want to send them away. I think he saw their need for food and their need for the Word. He could send them away for food, but then they wouldn't be able to hear the Word. So I think he created the miracle of the food so he could satisfy their greater need for the Word. He knows what our greatest needs are. Sometimes when we get a prayer answered and a request we had was granted, it is not necessarily because God felt that was what we needed most. It may have been granted because it helps us toward meeting another greater need. The same may be true when requests are not granted. It may be that by denying a request it helps us toward meeting another greater need. Only God knows what our greatest needs are.
There is one other thing caught my interest when I read this passage this time that I hadn't noted before. It is such a tiny thing, but to me has a great impact. When the disciples came to Jesus and told Him that they had nothing to eat, He responded "You give them something to eat". It wasn't "I will see what I can do", or "Lets give them something...", but "You give them something...".
I see a metaphor in here. A little while ago Jesus commissioned his apostles to go out and preach. They returned from this happy in their success. But Jesus says their task is not done. They are to continue feeding the hungry flock. Jesus had prepared them to do God's work. They are to continue doing so.
Jesus has prepared each of us for something special too. We are to carry out that work to the best of our abilities. There are times that we feel overworked and need a vacation. We can take a break from some things, but we should never be taking a break from doing God's work. Remember, God will never give you more than you can handle -- He is always there to help us and give us strength.