One of the challenges in life is people who present their problems without providing any solutions. They come with an empty hand and say fill it. Or their solution requires someone else to do what they themselves should be doing. They want other people’s money to solve their problem. They fail to earn enough to pay for their out of budget purchases and they want someone else to take away the natural pain of foolish living.
The disciples find themselves squeezed between the hungry crowd and their limited resources. We don’t know who started the “I’m hungry” discussion. It might have been one of the disciples’ hunger that was then projected onto the crowd. They might have not heard one peep out of the crowd about being hungry, but they were hungry.
Or maybe one of them was starting to think ahead, to plan for the future and he saw the crowd and realized that hunger would create a problem for their travel home. Jesus had, after all, brought them here to get away from the crowds for some rest. So the proposed solution was to release them early and let them fend for themselves. But think about it. Could a local economy handle 5000 extra meals on short notice? Remember, this is an economy with very few restaurants. There were some, but probably not enough to handle this.
Usually when people traveled they carried their own food, or stayed with Uncle Fred and his family along the way. And food preparation to a much larger portion of the day then than it does today. No refrigeration meant that if you were going to have any perishable items in your meal, it had to be purchased today. A run to the street market was a normal part of a day’s routine. And if you were traveling, you couldn’t rely on any of your own stock of food.
So the disciples come with a solution to Jesus. They look at their earthly resources and realize the only logical solution is to pass along the responsibility for the next meal to the people. They had no way of meeting the need, so they had better give them time to seek out food for themselves. They had looked at their tangible assets and realized there was no way they could meet the need.
I don’t know about you, but there have been many times in my life when my available resources could not satisfy the need. An unexpected repair, an emergency medical situation, an unexpected diagnosis, a natural disaster, or an extra child. These and many others situations can cause you to look at what you have at your disposal and realize that you can’t meet the need. You don’t have the power to heal. Your credit score is so low, bowlers would love it as their bowling score. Baseball players would love it as their ERA.
The disciples got one thing correct. They brought their problem and their solution to Jesus. They didn’t just drive ahead with their solution, they submitted it to Jesus for approval. AND they were willing to give it up when Jesus instructed them to do so. They weren’t so set on their way, that they missed His way.
The Arnold Journey 