When we allow God to use us to be His blessing to others, great things can happen. When the Disciples asked Christ to dismiss the crowd, they were acting selfish and wanted to spend their own time with Christ. Christ said, “You give them something to eat.” We are God’s hands and feet to be used for His blessings. When we allow God’s love to work through us, there will be an overabundance of God’s grace us, and for others.

At that time, Jesus saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.

Matthew 14.14-22

Transcript:

The disciples come to him and say, “This is a lonely place, and the day is now over. Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” This is the first element that I want us to pay attention to in this morning’s gospel.

In this moment, the disciples are showing their selfishness about their time with God. They have just shared all of this time with the crowds and with Christ. And many times this happens in the gospel. They want time with him just as we want time with God. We come to church so we can be with God. And sometimes we are tempted to not want to be bothered by other people. Sometimes we are tempted that we want our own time with God. And what does Christ say? No, don’t send them away. You give them something to eat.

You see, my brothers and sisters, when Christ established the church, He gave us a responsibility. When He returned to His throne in Heaven, while He is still present mystically with us, we are now His hands and His feet. It is up to us to bring people to Christ. We cannot be selfish when it comes to the church. We cannot expect to come into the church and have our peace and quiet with God.

My brothers and sisters, life is not always peace and quiet, especially when there is a crowd gathered. If you don’t believe me, think just to Thanksgiving dinner or to Christmas dinner where Yiayia and Papou and the kids are there and the grandkids are there and there’s multiple people around the table. Is there peace and quiet? I don’t think so. So why do we expect peace and quiet when we come always into God’s house as if we’re coming into a museum, as if we’re coming into some art exhibit? “Shh. Don’t disturb me. I’m praying.” This was the impact for me in reading this morning’s gospel, the disciples wanted the crowds to go away. The excuse they gave, “We only have five loaves of bread and two fish.” They must not have been Greek because five loaves of bread would not have been enough for Greek disciples. Even that would not have been enough food for them. It wasn’t about the food. It was about selfishness.

And that brings us to the second element. Christ says, “You give it to them. We have a responsibility.” And this is where I mention there’s a difference between the original Greek text and the English in this particular edition of the gospel. In the Greek, it says, “He blessed it and broke it and gave it to His disciples. And the disciples gave it to the crowds.” We didn’t Hear that little interim in the English, which is why it’s always important for us to hear the original.

You see, my brothers and sisters, God didn’t just give it to them directly. Jesus didn’t have a long line of 5,000 people giving them a piece of bread. He used the church.He gave it to the disciples, and the disciples gave them the bread. And there were more than 5,000 people. It says, not including women and children. So we can imagine there must have been at least 10,000 people there with five loaves of bread and two fish.

God’s power and the disciple’s cooperation, that’s the formula. Yes, God could have called down from Heaven. “Okay, everybody, go up to the loaf. There’ll be enough bread for everybody,” and everyone would have been fed. But instead, He’s teaching us a lesson. A, don’t be selfish with God’s church. And B, be God’s hands and feet.

Our job, my brothers and sisters, is to receive from God and then give to others. Whether that is in today’s gospel, bread and fish, whether that is in merely the good news of the gospel itself, whether that is the money, the resources that God has given us that we then give to others in our charitable work as loving Christians, you name it, God gave it to us first. And then we turn around and we bless others with it.

And then here is the best part. At the end of the gospel, there were so many. It says they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces. Each of the disciples had a big basket full of leftovers. Do you see what happens when you allow God’s love to work through us? There is not just enough, but there’s an overabundance of God’s grace. There is extra for us to give to others.

And so I have a challenge for us this week. As we wake up each morning, I want us to ask ourselves, how has God blessed me today? And how will I be His hands and feet to others today? How can we be a blessing to those who will then experience, witness, and believe in God’s grace? And I’m here to tell you when that takes place, these walls will not be able to contain the crowds. It will be that other gospel lesson where they couldn’t get in because there were so many people who wanted to spend time with God. But that only happens when we put our selfishness aside and we allow ourselves to become the hands and feet of God.

And then just open your eyes and your heart and watch how God’s loving grace flows and flows and everyone is receiving, and then everyone is giving and that everyone is praising God.