What does flourishing look like in the life of those that are in poverty? What does a community look like if it is flourishing? Now this in many ways will look different in every community. There will be times when you will need to nurture a fragile life simply to keep it alive because of bad weather. Survival is our starting point.
In John 6 Jesus looks out at a crowd of people who have stayed out with him for three days. Apparently few prepared for such an encounter and brought no food. There are reportedly 5000 men plus women and children. Jesus, the ultimate poverty fighter, looked at them and realized that if he were to dismiss them after three days with little to no food that some will faint along the way. Compassion filled the heart of our Savior. He saw the crisis and chose to care for those he saw before Him. Gathering His most trusted followers around Him, He asked them what they thought they should do. For the most part they were stumped. Some felt that the crowd should go fend for themselves in the closest village. One did some quick calculations and decided that there is no way that their meager means could not feed them. One though brought Jesus a sack lunch and trusted that Jesus could do something with it.
Jesus had the crowd sit in orderly groups and brought His followers in close. After giving thanks for what He had, he broke the bread and then the fish and His followers began passing them out to the hungry crowd. I also imagine that the followers were also hungry and participated in a little bit of food themselves. This crowd that was filled with men and women who had spent three days together were likely amazed at what they were seeing. My imagination sees them laughing and telling stories amongst each other as old friends.
I am confident that Jesus, himself, was filled with joy at what He was seeing. I also know that He had eyes to see and ears to hear. Those gathered before Him had deeper needs than food. Some were hurting, wounded by life and desperate for hope. For a moment, the food in their little groups brought them hope. While the food solved the emergency it did little for the bigger problems these men and women were experiencing.
Yes, for now they had full bellies but who would feed them tomorrow? Some had loved ones at home that were sick. When loved ones are sick, the healthy must do more. Others had loved ones that were imprisoned. Who would care for them? Today their thirst for Spiritual teaching was satisfied but who would teach them truth when they went home? The needs in this crowd were immense and knowing Jesus, He felt it all.
Yet Jesus gave thanks for the little things. There were no complaints about a limited menu or the limited amounts offered. In fact they picked up basket after basket. Jesus met the initial need but who would care for them into the future?
