This Scripture passage is one of those stories I remember hearing in Sunday School growing up, typically using some object lesson of Goldfish and Ritz Crackers. The miracle Jesus performed always read to me like a party trick. My brain at the time couldn’t understand how any of it was possible. Looking back as an adult, the how of the miracle is still challenging, but the question is different. It’s less about “How did Jesus actually do this?” and more about “How do I participate in this?”
As a self-proclaimed control freak, I have always found surrender difficult. I want to be involved in the process and accurately predict the outcome. The tough part about that, though, is that God rarely works that way. Faith requires us to move before we know where we’re going.
What we know about this crowd is that they’ve been following Jesus because they’ve seen him do miracles. They have faith because they have the evidence. So when this dilemma arises, I’d suggest they’re not skeptical that Jesus can perform another miracle.
I bet the kid who gave Jesus his lunch wasn’t thinking far enough ahead to predict the miracle. Yet, he gave Jesus what he had and let him control the outcome. This boy’s fish and bread were necessary for the miracle, but he couldn’t have multiplied them on his own. I think this boy somehow knew that his food was better off in Jesus’ hands than in his own. Surrender isn’t about return on investment; it’s about acknowledging that everything is better in God’s hands, not ours. This scene teaches us a few valuable lessons about what surrender in the Christian life actually looks like.
The outcomes are not ours — We have to allow Jesus to work without also trying to control the outcome.
Surrender isn’t complacent — The boy had to physically give up what was his in order for Jesus to multiply it.
Surrender often feels like loss — Before seeing or experiencing the abundance, we have to sit in the loss. The gifts we have now are most often a loan.
What would it look like if we loosened our grip on what we believe is ours? What would it look like if we surrendered our futures, jobs, finances, relationships, and families and let God do the rest?
Kassie Lowe
Young Adults Lead