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Luke 9:12-17 (The Message)

As the day declined, the Twelve said, "Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the farms or villages around here and get a room for the night and a bite to eat. We're out in the middle of nowhere."

"You feed them," Jesus said.

They said, "We couldn't scrape up more than five loaves of bread and a couple of fish—unless, of course, you want us to go to town ourselves and buy food for everybody."

(There were more than five thousand people in the crowd.)

But he went ahead and directed his disciples, "Sit them down in groups of about fifty."

They did what he said, and soon had everyone seated.

He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread and fish to the disciples to hand out to the crowd.

After the people had all eaten their fill, twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered up.

"You feed them," Jesus said.

Wow.

Imagine him saying such a thing to us.

He does.

And our reaction is an awful lot like that of his disciples 2000 years ago...

"What? Us? We can't. Have you seen the need? Us? We can't do it."

And, of course, there's a sense in which that's absolutely true. We can't do the miraculous things that Jesus can, right? And so, the responsibility must fall to him, not us.

Except for scriptures like this:

"The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do." John 14:12-14 (The Message)

"You feed them," Jesus says.

Somehow, this process of learning and then doing reminds me of what it's like to teach a child.

First, you show them, then you do it with them, then they do it and you help...and eventually they can do it themselves.

We will never do "greater things" apart from Jesus.

But he does invite us to do them with him, and through his power. Perhaps that is one of the greatest lessons of discipleship.

God really does believe in us. And even when we don't believe in ourselves, his grace still abounds...with baskets full leftover.

What a privilege --- to participate in God's work of abundance!

Prayer: We imagine ourselves in the disciples' shoes: hearing Jesus words that call us to feed the people. The need seems overwhelming and the resources too few. We know that we do not have the power within us to meet the needs, and yet you have told us that we will do "even greater things than these" in Jesus' name. Teach us to learn to trust you, to be led by the Spirit, and to believe that all things are truly possible in you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.