Hint: The answer isn't Jesus.
Ah yes, "Jesus," the typical, safe answer to any question posited to seven-year-olds in Sunday schools across the USA. I remember being a young Christian boy in kids ministry hearing many an exhausted volunteer add the disclaimer "and don't just say 'Jesus' when you answer the question" after asking the kids why loving your neighbor is important.
However, in the kids' defense, there are plenty of questions that "Jesus" is the answer to.
But what about this question: Who fed the 5,000 hungry Israelites in Matthew 14? After looking at the heading in your Bible—which most likely says something like "Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand"—you might feel safe in offering the typical Sunday school answer.
But would you be correct? In the countless times we've read through this story, did we miss a very important detail about who exactly fed the crowd?
Let's take another look.
(Someone) Feeds the Five Thousand
Jesus has just learned of the death of His cousin, John the Baptist, and is understandably distressed by the news. He wants to get away for a little while to have some alone time. But then the crowds, who were quite needy, caught wind of Jesus' whereabouts and decided to interrupt His mourning in hope of spiritual sustenance (in the best case) or some old-fashioned entertainment (in the worst case).
Because Jesus is endlessly patient and merciful, He receives the crowds with tenderness and spends the day ministering to them and healing their sick. Yet, as night falls, the crowd begins to look like their post-Exodus ancestors: out in the wilderness with no food to eat.
Jesus' ever-pragmatic disciples come to Him and suggest sending the crowds away to go into the towns to buy food for themselves.
That's when Jesus says this in verse 16: “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
The disciples protest and say that all they have to offer is five loaves of bread and two fish, hardly enough to feed a crowd of 5,000 men (not to mention the thousands of women and children who were also present).
Concerning the inadequate amount of bread and fish, Jesus instructs the disciples, "Bring them here to me" (vs. 18). He directed the crowds to sit down, blessed the loaves and fish in His hands, and then "gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds" (vs. 19, emphasis mine).
So, who fed the 5,000? The disciples.
What's the Point?
You might accuse me of splitting hairs here. "Okay, Jordan, yeah I get that. But why is that important? After all, Jesus was the one who performed the miracle. Matthew is just trying to illustrate how Jesus provided food for the wilderness-trapped Israelites just like God did in Exodus 16. You're reading too far into this."
What's significant about this minor detail?
I think pointing out that the disciples fed the crowd gives an extra weight to this story, as well as a major encouragement to us today.
Whether you're a vocational minister, missionary, church volunteer, or layperson, we all feel the same way when it comes to our efforts to minister to other people: inadequate.
Before I came to Belgium, I felt overwhelmed by the thought that I was only a 23-year-old guy. I barely felt like an adult. I had been married just over two years, my first kid was a few months old, and I possessed a grand total of three years’ ministry experience, all of which had been spent in student ministry. What did I possibly have to offer adults on the other side of the world as a teaching pastor?
My answer then is the same as my answer now: not much.
Much like the disciples recognizing the incredible need of the crowds and only being able to offer a measly five loaves of bread and two fish, I can see that the needs of the people I minister to far outsize what I have to offer. Chalk it up to youth, inexperience, lack of a doctorate, or the plain old fact that I'm human; the truth remains that I can't possibly be everything that my people need me to be.
The same is true for you. The same was true for the disciples.
Jesus gives the same instructions to you that He gave to Peter and the gang: Bring me what you have. Jesus told the disciples to bring what they had to offer, He blessed it, He handed it back to them, and He told them to go out and feed the people.
In the same way, maybe you feel the crushing weight of inadequacy to minister to those around you. Maybe it's your family, a suffering friend, a small group you lead, or a church you pastor. The good news from this story is that your inadequacy isn't a barrier to your ministry. It's a prerequisite.
Do any of these statements ever swirl around your head?
What if they ask me a question I don't know how to answer?
I don't have any theological education. How could I be qualified to disciple someone?
My kids are beginning to face problems that I don't have a clue how to address. After all, I didn't have a smartphone when I was fifteen!
How do I pastor a family who has been left jobless in the wake of the pandemic? How do I speak to a man who suddenly lost his father and his job in the same week?
Jesus invites you to come to Him with your inadequacy. He stands ready to use us—who have so little—to do much.
The disciples didn't feed the multitudes because they were great organizers and planners. They met the needs of the crowds because they came in faith to the One who is endlessly sufficient to meet any and every need.
Jesus has more compassion for both you and the people you minister to than you could ever imagine. He has more power to save and redeem the direst situation than you could possibly expect. He has more at His disposal to sustain those who come to Him than we could account for.
So what does this mean for inadequate people like us?
It means that we can limp on in our ministries—vocational or not—while constantly looking to the Lord Jesus in faith that He will bring forth exponentially more fruit than our tiny sowing efforts might suggest.
It means that whether we get up in the pulpit on Sunday, crack open a Bible with a group of people in our living room, offer a loving word to a friend who is suffering, or try to feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, we can press on because Christ will bless what we have, give us what we need, and send us out to do His work.