The Superabundant Grace in the Leftovers

We have a ritual that we go through every week in our house. Heather and I go through the refrigerator and throw away all the leftovers that we kept for the week, the things that we brought home from the restaurant because we didn’t eat it all and we didn’t want to be wasteful and throw it away there, so we brought it home to throw it away here. The casserole from Sunday lunch, or sometimes just the things we thought we needed and so we bought them, only to never use them and have to throw them away. Then of course there are the things our kids have stuck in the fridge and forgot about.

The story in Matthew chapter 14 of Jesus feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish is a great illustration of the grace that can be seen in the leftovers.

If there’s anything I know for certain right now about the world we are living in, is that there is a lot of uncertainty. When will our kids go back to school? What exactly will that look like? When can we come back to in person worship? What will that look like? When can we sing in public again? When will we be able to just hug someone again? When will there be a vaccine? When will this end? Like many of the psalms, we ask, “How long, O Lord?”

Today I invite you to read Matthew 14:13-21. It’s a familiar story that if you’ve been around church much you’ve probably heard before. It’s a favorite in our Sunday school classes and when more people than we anticipated show up for a potluck so we pray for Jesus to multiply our fishes and loaves as our counters are full of meatloaf and macaroni and cheese.

But at the heart of the story, there is a dilemma. There is a problem that arises.

It is the uncertainty of scarcity. It’s about not having enough, or at least feeling like we don’t.  When survival determines our mindset we lose sight of God. Gregory Jones, the Dean of Duke Divinity School, says this is when we “become practical athiests rather than Spirit-inspired people of hope”.

I think we live in a culture of not-enough.

Have you ever said there’s just not enough money? How many of you didn’t get enough sleep last night? Or felt like you didn’t get enough done this past week? Have you ever thought you didn’t have enough time to do what was needed? Or maybe that you don’t have enough skills to do it anyway? Or as we get older have you thought that there just isn’t enough time in general?

The mindset of not-enough will lead us to a mindset of uncertainty because of the scarcity we see, but the reality is that there is a certainty—and we can see it in the abundance of the leftovers.

I don’t think God shows up in amazing ways when we have too much. Maybe because that’s when we are more focused on our own security, but I have seen God show up many times in amazing ways in times of shortage.

Jesus is showing the need to recognize the responsibility to meet the needs of those around him, those around us.

And then Jesus invites his disciples into the work of distribution, as he gave to the disciples and then the disciples gave to the people.  And over 5000 were fed. And not just fed, did you catch that word in verse 20?

They were “satisfied”. It’s the same word Matthew used in describing the beginning to the sermon on the Mount in chapter 5, what we call the beatitudes.  There in verse 6 Jesus says “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled…or, satisfied.

Filled to brim, stuffed, over-flowing.

With 12 basketfull left over!

Some biblical commentators say there was 12 baskets to represent the 12 tribes of Israel, and lots of books have been written on meaning of the leftovers.

But I see this as an example of the greatness of the miracle, thousands of people fed because Jesus took care of them with what others brought to him.

I see in this an example of what Sam Wells, called “superabundance”. This extravagant generous grace of God to not just provide the bare minimum of what is needed, but to be so divinely generous that our uncertainty of scarcity is replaced with the certainty that Jesus will provide.

Or as Paul put it in to the Philippians, “my God shall abundantly satisfy all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Because of his compassion, Jesus did something that the people could not do on their own.

Because of his compassion, Jesus continues doing something that the people could not do on our own.

God’s superabundant grace is extended to us as well, and we are invited to come hungry, and to be filled…to be satisfied.

            Today I pray that you see this superabundant grace of God in your life as well. God will provide your needs, and God will ask you to participate in the distribution to help provide the needs of others as well.