We Come up Short
Luke 9: 11b - 17
At
the beginning of Luke Chapter 9, Jesus “summoned the Twelve and gave them power
and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he
sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”
The
verse that immediate precedes today’s Gospel tells us that “when the apostles
returned, they explained to [Jesus] what they had done.” (v. 10)
Still,
there was now a great crowd of over five thousand people, who had come to
listen to Jesus and to receive his healing.
What the Twelve had done was not enough.
And just to feed the bodies of these thousands of people, the Twelve
realized, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have.”
Jesus
then “took” what the Twelve had, “and looking up to heaven, he said the
blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before
the crowd.”
“They
all ate and were satisfied.” And there
was still more.
Jesus
still does this for us. Of course, now
it is His Body and Blood.
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