But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they asked Him, “Should we go and buy bread for two hundred denarii and give it to them to eat?”
Christ’s answer, “You give them something to eat,” directly includes the disciples in the miracle. He places them between their inability and His power. They are required to do something that they cannot do by their own strength. Yet through commands like this the Lord teaches that a person’s ministry must depend not on the resources he has, but on God’s ability. The disciples immediately calculate the money and see the size of the problem. Two hundred denarii was a large sum, and even that was not enough for such a crowd. This is human calculation, which is correct within its limits, but it does not include Christ’s almighty hand. When the Lord commands us to do something that is beyond our abilities, it often means that He is about to show His power against the backdrop of our weakness, and at that moment what is required of us is a step of obedience, trusting Him even when the solution is not yet visible.