This Sunday, pastor Andrew preached on the feeding of the five thousand and used this miracle to push back on the modern mantra: you are enough. The disciples were never going to be able to afford to feed the people gathered. They were not going to get very far with 5 loaves and 2 fish. When Jesus tells them to feed the people, He knows that they are unable. He knows they are not enough, but He wants them to know. He puts them in this situation where they feel their inadequacy.
At first, this seems a bit pessimistic. Why focus on what we are not? Why would Jesus make them face this? The reason is: because this is the beginning of the gospel. There is a reason why the Bible follows up the creation narrative with the Fall: it shows us the reason why Jesus needed to come. Romans 3:23 states it succinctly:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
This helps us to acknowledge that we have made ourselves enemies of God and deserve punishment from Him. Anything good that we get from Him, then, is mercy. Admitting that we have fallen short and are not enough is a prerequisite to accepting the free gift of grace. It helps us to see that in our need, God provides what we need.
Andrew wrote a song about this that we sometimes sing, called: ENOUGH. The song helps us to see that admitting that we are not enough opens the door for us to find joy in the gospel. The first verse of the song says:
Use my weakness and tears
Take my anxieties and fears
Take them all upon the cross
Love me Lord despite the cost
Because I am not-enough
Weakness, anxieties, and fears are all expressions of ways that we are not the people we were created to be. In the Fall, we experience a separation from God and a brokenness that leads us to experience a life that is less than what God intends. At the cross, Jesus gives Himself to redeem us and to heal what has been broken. Our inability does not have the last word. The song goes on in verse two:
Take All the wrongs I have done
All the times I failed everyone
Show me today what I must do
Help me Lord to lean on you
Because You are enough
Once again we see wrongs and failures, but they are simply markers pointing us toward hope. Once we stop looking to ourselves to be good enough, we can lift our eyes to heaven and see the God who offers Himself on our behalf. This is not a natural reflex for us. We have to learn to lean on Him. We need God to give us the very faith to trust Him. When we do, our life is transformed, verse three describes this:
may my lips bring you praise
may my eyes see better days
let my desire be for you
let my words speak the truth
Because You are Enough
No longer are we trapped on the rollercoaster of performance. Instead, our lives become about worship, gratitude and God’s truth. He becomes the central point in our lives and we live out of the grace we have been given. This helps our eyes to see better days, not because the events of the days are necessarily better, but because we understand what we receive in relation to what we deserve. Not only that, but being connected to God means being connected to His triumphant ends, which is where the chorus goes:
More than I could ever Ask
Greater than my greatest Task
More than Enough!
More than I could ever choose
A Gift that I could never lose
More than Enough!
In the feeding of the five thousand in the gospel of John, we are given a further description of what this miracle means, as Jesus makes it clear that this feeding is a physical description of a spiritual matter. They are in need of something that they cannot provide for themselves, and Jesus is the one who will provide more than enough:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. | John 6:47–51
While the self help mantras want you to believe that being enough is what will bring you happiness, the truth is, it will only lead to despair. No matter how hard you try, you cannot give your life the meaning and purpose that it needs. You cannot bring yourself back into alignment with God; you cannot escape His wrath. The good news of the gospel is: you are not enough; Jesus is MORE than enough!