Imagine: No One Left Out

It’s no fun being left out.

I distinctly remember some Friday nights in my younger years, wondering what my friends were doing—and when I called, all their answers were vague variations of “Oh, I need to stay home tonight.”

And then I’d hear about the thing they all went out and experienced together.

Ouch.

Being left out stings.

More recently, I’ve been experiencing that “left out” feeling on Sunday nights.

After our 5pm service, we throw a party every week. There’s hot food in the lobby for everyone…

Except, you gotta get in line quickly. If you don’t, as I’ve learned from experience, you get left out.

No more food.

So I drive home tired and hungry on Sunday nights.

It’s no big deal. Really, I’d rather everyone else got plenty of food because I don’t have a food shortage. I have food at home. Honestly, I’m that American who could use to miss a few meals on a regular basis.

I’m sure you have your own “left out” stories too.

One of the most famous miracles of Jesus is the feeding of the 5,000.

The food supply was desperately lacking. Willing to help, a young boy offered Jesus his personal supply of five barley loaves and two fish.

How would you divvy that up?

It seems like it’d be enough to at least give the 12 disciples a little afternoon snack.

Instead of splitting the food 12 or 13 ways, Jesus decided to leave no one out.

“Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. The men alone numbered about 5,000. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people… —John 6.10-13

Jesus decided to leave no one out.

It’s interesting to me that we call this the feeding of the 5,000—but a careful reading of the story indicates that more than 5,000 people were fed that day by Jesus.

Let’s be honest, this event happened in a patriarchal, chauvinistic, male-dominated society…

One where women and children didn’t count.

Thus, we have the “feeding of the 5,000.”

And yet, Jesus didn’t leave the uncounted out. He counted them in—because to Him, they matter.

That’s the point: people matter to God.

Not male people. Not one race of people. Not a particular type of people.

Just people. People matter to God.

I love the image the book of Revelation gives us of a future day of worship…

I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. —Revelation 7.9

Jesus took what a little boy offered (a drop in the bucket amount of food), and He did something extraordinary with it. He fed everyone.

Trying to imagine a world where no one is left out, where everyone is fed, where everyone is cared for, where everyone is loved, where everyone is given worth and dignity…

It seems so, well, impossible.

But then again, Jesus does His most famous work in the arena of the impossible, doesn’t He?

Let your imagination run wild (like the imagination of a young boy with five barley loaves and two fish). Dare to believe that who you are and what you have—although small, insufficient, and insignificant—in the hands of Jesus, can make a huge difference in the world today. Imagine: no one left out.