The only miracle of Jesus that all four Gospel writers record is the one we call the Feeding of the 5,000 (Matthew 14:15-21; Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:5-14). While the miracle has many aspects of truth that we can apply to our life and relationship with Jesus, I will mention only two or three.
Within the huge multitude of people that day, Jesus’ disciples found a small boy who had brought five loaves of bread and two fish to eat. When they gave that small quantity of food to Jesus, He multiplied it so that there was enough to feed 5,000 men plus women and children. This was a great miracle.
The most obvious application of this event is that we must bring what we have to Jesus and let Him take it and transform it and multiply it to meet the needs that arise. Within that particular application of the miracle, we should recognize that He could have fed the multitude without the boy’s bread and fish. After all, He created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing. However, He wants us to trust Him enough to give Him what we have and allow Him to use it for His glory.
That’s how we operate at Siloam Missionary Homes. We know that we can’t do the work without Him. We don’t have enough resources ourselves, but Jesus takes what people give and multiplies it and transforms it to supply the needs of the missionary families who come to us for housing. We ask people to give what they can to Jesus for Him to do the work at Siloam, which He has been doing for over 19 years.
Like feeding the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, the need sometimes seems impossible to meet, but over and over we see at Siloam how God continues to do what to us seems impossible. If left up to us, many things are impossible. The Word of God, however, reminds us “all things are possible with God” (Matthew 19:26).
The miracle emphasizes that we must not look only for human resources to provide solutions. We must not look only at the problem, but at the Problem Solver. Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), is the One who provided yesterday and today. He will continue to provide, many times in miraculous ways, from unexpected sources and resources day by day and at just the right time.
H. Milton Wilder
Missionary Pastoral Care