Sometimes a meal is more than a meal!

           As I walk thru what it means to be a man, by looking at the life of Jesus, I feel the next topic to talk about is food. For those of you that know me, you know that I am a plump fellow, and that most of my activities involve food. It goes back to the fact that as a child we always had meals together and it was often be the only times we were together. My father has been feeding people my whole life. I cannot count the number of times our family of five swelled to ten plus after church as my father took us to eat. To this day when we meet him it is often over a meal and he always grabs the check. I used to argue with him about that, but have come to realize it is his way of still taking care of me even though I am grown. He allows the funds he saves his boys by paying to be used for other needs. It is his way of helping us out.

Imagine my surprise when I realized this was something Jesus did too. In John 6:1-14 or Matthew 14:13-21, Jesus fed a large group of people. There are people who argue the numbers but we will say it was a lot of people. They had come to hear him speak and they had come unprepared. Jesus met the needs of the people by feeding them. Let’s remove all symbolism and all the churchy stuff. 

Jesus had a chance to speak to people, they needed to hear, but if he didn’t feed them, he would have to send them away to find food as they were unprepared to stay. As men we need to learn from this, as Christians we need to learn from this. Not everyone has the means and abilities to do all the things and take advantage of all opportunities. Church camp is great but for the family that a meal is too costly, then camp is not an option. What if we could alleviate that one small blessing at a time? When we see a need and we have the means to we help fill that need we should. It does not have to be some great big thing. Sometimes it can simply be buy a meal for a family God has laid on your heart. Like my father when you feed someone you free those funds up for other uses and you get the joy of fellowship and a meal. Nothing is more New Testament Church than that: Acts 2:46 “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts”

Real men of God will feed others out of love; this is a lesson from the life of Jesus.