This is the sixth in a series of posts discussing themes raised in The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. In chapter 24, Stearns says, “God’s image and identity are… slandered by poverty, by injustice, by corruption, by disease and by human exploitation and suffering. And God’s name is defiled when His people willingly accept the status quo, lacking the vision to lift up God’s holiness, goodness and justice in a crumbling world.”
Stearns talks about the boy who gave five loaves and two fishes, and how Jesus made that into enough to feed five thousand. The hunger of the crowds seemed to be too big a problem, incapable of solution, but it was solved when someone stepped forward and offered all he had. If poverty, injustice, corruption, etc, are issues which are close to God’s heart, they should also be close to ours, but there are very few people lining up to offer all they have to help with the solution.
Instead, people who have tens of thousands of dollars and significant business and entrepreneurial skills, on the odd occasions when they are touched by the needs of the world’s poor, offer just five loaves and two fishes, and then turn their backs on the needs. Jesus does not intervene and change the course of history when people throw him the occasional tip; the big miracles occur when people offer him all they have. Jesus has no use for your money, but he can use your life.