Matthew 14 contains one of my favorite and well-known stories of the Bible. I’m guessing you’ve heard it. Jesus had just received word about the horrific death of his cousin and friend, John the Baptist, at the hands of Herod. We pick up in verse 13:

“¹³ When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

¹⁵ As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

¹⁶ Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

¹⁸ “Bring them here to me,” he said. ¹⁹ And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.²⁰ They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ²¹ The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

See, I told you you’d probably heard it. The famous “loaves and fishes” story or, as it’s labeled in my Bible, “Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand.” It’s pretty well-known (so much so that a prominent Christian production company is even known as ‘Loaves and Fishes.’)

But one of the things I love about Scripture is that, no matter how familiar a story might be to us, no matter how often we hear it, God can still reveal something new. And that’s precisely what He did during my last reading.

Take a closer look at verses sixteen through eighteen:

¹⁶ Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

¹⁸ “Bring them here to me,” he said.”

This three innocent verses are easy to overlook. After all, they take place right before Jesus performs one of His great, exciting, and very public miracle. It’s natural to breeze past them on the way to the good stuff. But pause with me here for a moment and notice something.

Jesus notices a need (the crowd was hungry), and He tells His disciples to meet it (“You give them something to eat”). The disciples, as I think we all would, counter with their lack (“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish”). And how does Jesus respond? “Bring them here to me.”

He was the one who was going to do a miracle. He was the one who was going to turn scarcity into surplus, shortage into excess, lack into abundance. And yet He had told the disciples to do the work. To “give them something to eat.”

Why?

Because the disciples had a role to play in this miracle too.

They had to bring their loaves and fishes to Jesus.

Then and only then did He perform the miracle at hand.

Could He have done it without their meager offering? Of course. But, as I’ve talked about so often before, He was including the disciples in this Kingdom work, not only blessing the 5,000 but also teaching His closest companions a wonderful lesson.

He will do the work, the impossible, the feeding of the 5,000.

But we have to bring Him our loaves and fishes first.

What does that look like for us? I don’t normally carry around loaves and fishes in my bag, but I do have unique talents, gifts, and abilities, given to me by God, at my disposal (and so do you!) What would it look like if I (0r we!) handed all of those over to God? What if, every time I felt the call to obedience, I didn’t worry so much about what I lacked, about what the outcome would be, about how impossible the task seemed…and simply handed Him my proverbial loaves and fishes, letting Him take care of the rest?

I’m guessing we’d all have a lot more of that peace Jesus offers so freely. And I bet we’d all witness miracles beyond our wildest imagination.

So what loaves and fishes are you holding onto that you could readily press into Jesus’s outstretched hands?

As we seek to live lives of continuous obedience, let us not focus on our lack, but on the things we do have, no matter how seemingly meager. For God has equipped us with all we need to do the things He has called us to. We don’t have to perform miracles, change hearts, save lives. We only have to bring what we have.

It’s His job to feed the five thousand.

It’s ours to bring Him our loaves and fishes.