TRUE Response
by Alyssa Esparaz
It’s never easy to be confronted with the needs of the world. But it seems that’s all we’re faced with lately—need.
The needs of our healthcare systems. The needs of our neighbours who lost their jobs. The need for racial justice. The needs of the global poor, who are being pushed deeper into poverty because of this pandemic. Our own needs.
When my heart was first stirred by the needs of people and particularly children living in extreme poverty, I was in high school. I had the bubbling optimism of a kid with a cause—but it admittedly simmered as I was faced with the global realities of extreme poverty.
It can be immensely overwhelming to be faced with such need. It almost seems unfair.
I imagine that’s how Jesus’ disciples felt, faced with a crowd of 5,000 hungry men and their families, as told to us in Mark 6:34-44.
Practical as they are, the disciples try to get ahead of the problem. “Send the crowds away,” they tell Jesus. If we do so now, there will be enough time for this to be someone else’s problem. Out of sight, out of mind.
Jesus’ response is astounding: “You feed them.”
I can imagine the disciples’ thoughts because I’ve had them myself. How could he possibly expect me to…? That’s exactly what they say: “With what? We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”
That’s what I mean when I say it almost seems unfair. It seems like an unfair request, doesn’t it, for Jesus to ask these regular, everyday men to feed a crowd of thousands?
So often, it feels unfair to be confronted with all the need in this world, as the words of Jesus echo in our minds: “I was hungry, and you fed me…” (Matthew 25:35)
I just completed a university degree in International Development Studies and graduated during a global pandemic. It was a strange, interesting and unconventional experience to say the least, but what was at the forefront of my mind through much of it was this: In so many ways, the world I’d spent the past five years studying no longer exists.
This year, we will lose progress in the fight against global poverty for the first time in decades. World Food Programme estimates that global hunger rates could double by the end of this year.
It’s a sobering time to work in poverty alleviation.
In the midst of all the complexity and the temptation to just let this be someone else’s problem, I hear Jesus’ simple command: “You feed them.”
With what?
How could we possibly respond meaningfully to this need that is unlike anything our generation has ever seen before?
But this is my favourite part of the story, and why this miracle of Jesus’ is my favourite. Jesus responds by asking: “What do you have?”
The answer to “With what?” is, “What you have in your hands.”
And Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish and multiplies it into abundance.
I believe we serve the same Jesus today, don’t you? The man who, in the face of overwhelming need, simply asks us to offer him what we have and leave the rest up to him.
I believe we serve the same Jesus today, don’t you?
Today, I have hope in the truth that Jesus does miracles when we faithfully offer Him what we have. When we’re tempted to ask, “With what?” in this world of overwhelming need, we can simply offer what we have and know that when God calls us to respond, he also equips us with enough to respond.
Alyssa Esparaz a communicator and advocate. She works as Content and Communications Specialist at Compassion Canada and is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto where she studied International Development. Some of Alyssa’s favourite things are Raptors basketball, travelling, and eating too much ice cream. Find her online at alyssaesparaz.ca, on Instagram @_godsgal4ever and Twitter @_godsgal4ever