Embracing a prodigal God

A couple of weeks ago, I was re-reading Matthew’s gospel story of Jesus feeding the 4,000 (Mt. 15:32-39). I am guilty of flying over these parts, being so familiar with the details that I think I’ve gotten everything out of it – ha! As if you can ever get everything out of scripture! It is living and breathing and there is always always something new to be gained.

So, I was reading the verses and I got to the end and I started thinking about the scene, imagining it. Here is this huge crowd camped out on the hillside – thousands of people – listening and learning from Jesus for three days. Most of them had probably not thought they would be there for so long and had not packed enough food to carry them through. Maybe there were men lined up along the shore, casting lines or nets into the water. Maybe there were hundreds of small fires as women cooked small cakes of flour or heated water for tea. Jesus is concerned about their hunger, not wanting them to be too weary for the long walk home. He tells the disciples to find food for the crowd and feed them. Of course, the disciples are confused – how on earth are they going to get enough food in a matter of hours to feed this many people? (side note: I love watching Top Chef and Master Chef and have seen how experienced cooks with nearly every ingredient imaginable have freaked out when faced with the challenge of feeding only 100 people, so I can appreciate how the disciples must have felt facing such a major undertaking.)

The disciples, naturally, ask Jesus “Where are we going to get enough food?!” Many of them were fishermen – they know what it takes to catch a load of fish and how difficult that is. The sea, currently, is their only grocery store – they are in a desolate place.  I can see Jesus fixing his eyes on them, questioning, “Well, what do you have?” They respond, “seven loaves and a few small fish.” It’s not mentioned, but it seems an amount that would be just enough for themselves and Jesus to have dinner that evening. The disciples had prepared – they had taken care of finding food for themselves, of making sure that their little clan was provided for. But, they trust Jesus and submit to Him, so they hand over their meager meal.

Jesus takes the bread and breaks it, blesses the fish, then puts the small pieces into baskets and instructs the disciples to hand out the food. We all know the end of the story – these seven loaves and few fish feed the entire crowd and there is even some left over! That in itself is a miracle – an astonishing one! a familiar one – Jesus taking something small and insignificant and magnifying it beyond all expectation.

But the thing that struck me this time was the part where they collected all the leftovers. Seven baskets worth. In the feeding of the 5,000, they collected twelve baskets. We ooh and aah at this part and recognize it as part of the miracle, but I love what it says about God.

There was too much. He did not provide just enough, but He gave far more than what the people could eat.

I think about these disciples, all the things they may have had to carry. A blanket to sleep on, maybe an extra set of clothing, fishing gear… Were they really going to carry around seven or twelve extra baskets of bread as they hiked all over those hills? Did they then make a second round, offering the remaining food to the men and women, begging them to please take more? Were there families leaving bread behind because they were simply so stuffed from the meal? Was the hillside littered with abandoned bread crumbs and slabs of fish?

A while back I was introduced to the Bible scholar N.T. Wright (aka. Tom). I listened to an interview of his on Youtube where he discussed the Prodigal Son. Until then, I honestly thought that “prodigal” meant leaving. That’s how we use it and explain it, right? The prodigal son left and wasted his inheritance. It had never crossed my mind to look up the definition. In the interview, Wright makes a comment that “prodigal” means recklessly extravagant, or wildly wasteful – spending without thought, throwing money around freely. I picture someone throwing hundred dollar bills into the wind, not caring where they might end up. Or, perhaps, God raining manna from the sky, or sowing seed on every type of ground, or shining his sun on the righteous and the unrighteous.

In our current culture, minimalism and frugality are viewed far more favorably than being prodigal, and with good reason. WE don’t want to be reckless and irresponsible with our resources, because WE are limited, WE are finite. But our God? He can spend His creativity, His gifts, His resources recklessly, wastefully, freely, wildly… He can be as extravagant as He wants!

Our God is a prodigal God because He is the creator of ALL things! He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; He IS the ultimate supply of everything!

I love the scene in 2 Kings 4:1-7 where Elisha meets the widow. She is in need and Elisha asks, “What do you want me to do? What do you have?” She replies, “I have nothing but a jar of oil.” He then tells her to go get every jar she can possibly find – gather them from everywhere, ask all the neighbors. So, her sons go around and soon there is a steady stream of jars being brought into the house. She shuts the door and, miraculously, the small container of oil she originally had multiples to fill up all the jars. But listen closely, “Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel. And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased.”

Do you see it?

“So the oil ceased…” The oil was still multiplying, there was more oil left in her jar. God did not provide just enough to fill the available jars, He, again, provided too much. 

All of this made me wonder anew – what is my expectation of God? What do I believe about Him? Too often, I believe He is a God of just enough. That His grace will just barely get me through a tough day; that His mercy will just cover all of my failings.

But what would my faith be like if I really embraced Him as the God of reckless extravagance? The God of too much? What if I believed that there was so much grace that He would fill me with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding; that I would bear fruit in every good work and be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might? (Colossians 1:9-14). What if I truly believed that there was so much mercy that He would cast my sins as far as possible – as far as the east is from the west? What if I prayed, believing that God was able to do immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine?

In these examples – and many more in scripture – I get the impression that God doesn’t want to be considered a God of just enough. He is capable of doing so much more in our lives if we will come to Him in faith, handing over whatever we have. However small and insignificant it may seem to us, God has proven time and time again that He can multiply it beyond our expectations, reminding us that He is everything and He is always more than enough.