Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, November 12, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This story prefigures Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. Elisha feeds 100 men with 20 loaves of bread. Jesus, being so much more than a prophet, multiplies that 50 times over with even less food to work with. It’s another story of simple items—this time bread (and later fish)—being catalysts for God to show up and work miracles in the world. Jesus is God, fully embodied in the world, so his miracle results in almost ridiculous abundance.
In either case, we hear the truth once again that God is present in the mundane things of life, and that when we let God work through us, our impact on the people around us, our communities, the environment, and all of creation is multiplied beyond what we could have imagined by just looking at what little we thought we had to offer.
This is not an excuse to do less than we can, of course. Remember that the man in this story had 20 loaves and gave them all to Elisha to be shared among the men. The boy in the gospel story had five loaves and two fish and gave all of it to Jesus to share among the crowd. Neither provider held any back for themselves just in case the miracle didn’t work. They were willing to go all in for the sake of others. The results were breathtaking. And so they are when we go all in for the sake of others—to the best of our ability and capacity.
When have I felt I’ve given to a high level, holding nothing back from God? What was the result?
