In the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, we see Jesus demonstrating compassion for a massive, hungry crowd. We also see Jesus teaching his disciples an ever-relevant lesson.
It begins with Jesus seeking a needed time of retreat for himself and his disciples. Matthew connects this to Jesus being in personal crisis, mourning the violent death of John the Baptist, his cousin and co-laborer (Matthew 14:1–21).
Mark emphasizes that the disciples were freshly returning from having gone out two by two (Mark 6:30–44). They were excited to report back to Jesus, having experienced the full joy of serving others. They’d also discovered how mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting ministry can be.
Both Jesus’s grief and the disciples’ need to debrief and rest led Jesus to make plans to get away with his inner circle to a quiet place for a time of retreat.
But the people kept coming.
Their needs were great. They’ve heard of Jesus’s miraculous power, and they seek him out en masse. He can’t help but react with a compassion that leads to a holistic response of healing and teaching.
Toward the end of a long day of assisting Jesus—a day that was supposed to be their retreat—the disciples began to show signs of compassion fatigue.
We can imagine them being tired, hungry, and worn out. They give Jesus the heads up: it’s time to shut things down for the day.
This compassion fatigue is something many of us are familiar with. Our team at Covenant World Relief and Development (CWRD) has the incredible honor of representing the Evangelical Covenant Church in global partnerships engaging in compassionate relief and transformational development. I view it as a sacred privilege to pick up the phone (or open email or WhatsApp) when our brothers and sisters around the world reach out in the face of disaster.
- Daniel in the West Bank warns me that air raid sirens might force him to seek shelter during our call.
- Patience, our partner in Cameroon, sends a message to share that her husband was injured in a shooting by rebels.
- Romi in Nepal emails that entire villages are being washed away by flash flooding.
- Juan leads the Covenant Church in Colombia in caring for people who are suffering after a devastating earthquake.
- My daily perusing of world news: Gaza resembling a parking lot. Bombs dropping in Lebanon and Iran. Mass graves in Sudan as another civil war looms. War in Ukraine continues. Ebola breaks out in DR Congo. Earthquakes. Wildfires. Flooding.
As I listen to stories of hurting people and am asked to respond, it’s easy to feel stretched thin, to cry out, “God, do something! These people are hungry and hurting.”
That’s what the disciples do. Essentially they say, “Jesus, do something. These people are hungry.”
In his calm manner, Jesus simply, even playfully, responds, “You give them something to eat.” To the disciples, this answer was anxiety-building. They were already fatigued and presumably empty-pocketed. What could they possibly do?
Taking Jesus at face value, they calculate the cost, literally doing the math: one meal × 5,000 men, women, children = 200 days’ wages worth of food. An impossible sum.
It’s easy to fall into this way of thinking, to focus on the gap between what we have and what is needed. But Jesus’s next words change the calculation and the perspective: “How many loaves do you have? Go and see” (Mark 6:38).
I imagine Jesus pausing for a beat between those two phrases. The first question would have added to the disciples’ consternation. They were already at their limit, feeling asked to do an impossible task. But “go and see” changes things.
In John’s telling of the story, the action the disciples take is not simply to check their own coffers. They go and see what the people have, and they discover a young boy with five loaves of bread and two fish (John 6:1–14).
The question had moved from “What do you (disciples) have?” to “What do you (collectively) have?”
What do we have, collectively? That includes the very people we are called to serve, for God is already among them/. “Go and see” is how we join what God has already begun.
This mindset was a game-changer for me. When my wife and I were in our twenties, we left for Mexico to serve as global personnel. I remember feeling the need to tell supporters about the solutions I would bring, how I would save the day. But I learned that it was never about what I would bring—God was already present and at work before we ever arrived.
When CWRD is asked to respond to a need, we have learned that the first step is to go and see. We look to our global partners—a network of more than thirty-five churches and Christian organizations—and ask, what do we collectively have? Our starting point isn’t an inventory of CWRD’s resources. It is to look first to our partners’ resources in a way that is both empowering and practical.
A wonderful example is in rural Honduras, where many communities still lack reasonable access to clean drinking water. Daily life includes long walks to haul back containers of questionable water. CWRD has partnered in water solutions here for more than a decade.
It would be overwhelming if we were asked to shoulder the responsibility of determining water rights, engineering gravity-fed systems, and organizing the community to action. But we take a step back, we take a deep breath, and we understand that we are not asked to provide all those things. We’re called to a “go and see” perspective that recognizes the skills and abilities of the community—the very people we are called to serve. Our partner organization, COCEPRADIL, is well equipped to handle the project’s many details, which means our role is to partner well with them. At its heart, this approach recognizes the strengths and assets already present in communities, building on what is there rather than focusing on what isn’t.
Another way we live into this approach is through regional partner consultations, where each partner brings knowledge to share with others, rather than us as outsiders bringing answers, teaching, and solutions. During a visit in Africa, two partners shared on related topics: the Society for Initiative in Rural Development and Environmental Protection in Cameroon (SIRDEP) has created a feedback loop to listen to its community, and Freely in Hope has designed a program that empowers survivors of sexual violence to move into leadership.
In the Gospel of John, the disciple Andrew is named as the one who finds a young boy willing to share his lunch. As Andrew presents the boy and his food to Jesus, his doubtful tone is undeniable: “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9)
Despite his doubt, Andrew recognized the boy’s gift and brought it to Jesus. It would have been easy to write off the child, saying, “Thanks, kid, but you keep your snack. We gotta find real food for this many people.” That story would have been tragic.
Returning to the example of COCEPRADIL, the strength of their model is that they, too, go and see, looking first to how each community can contribute to its water project. It is expected that they will be involved—able-bodied men and women install miles-long pipelines through rugged mountains, build concrete holding tanks, and erect washing stations (toilet, shower, wash basin) at each home. And like Andrew, COCEPRADIL seeks contributions from unexpected sources. Those who can’t engage in physical labor participate by preparing food for the ones who are doing the heavy labor or serve on the local water committee, guiding the community’s water usage.
It’s beautiful when everyone contributes what they are able! This model is what makes the water projects truly sustainable. The people gain the resources, knowledge, and motivation to keep water running to their village for generations.
It’s more than just about efficient sustainability. When every person participates in the transformation of their own community, sharing their own loaves and fish for the greater good, they reflect the truth that all are endowed with God-given skills and abilities. It embodies the dignity and agency of those we are called to serve as people already involved in what God is doing.
COCEPRADIL and other CWRD partners beautifully reflect God’s kingdom, following Jesus’s invitation to go and see with eyes that see beyond scarcity and seek God’s provision in unexpected places.
Regardless of how strong a development model this may be, it is ultimately Jesus’s miracle that feeds the people. Receiving the loaves and fish from the boy, Jesus blesses the small amount and multiplies it with extraordinary abundance. While we look for best practices in relief and development, true transformation is beyond our ability to recognize, gather, and employ human resources. It’s a miraculous gift of God.
As the church follows news of what is happening in our own cities, neighborhoods, and around the world, may we be determined to see with new eyes, gather the goodness, and ultimately trust God to multiply and bring blessing.
