Reading Luke 9:10-17 ESV
10 And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 11 But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. 12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”
13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand men.
Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were [a]filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. – Luke 9:10-17 ESV
1997 Syracuse, New York
30 AD Bethsaida, Galilee
11 When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. – Luke 9:11 ESV
Jesus Welcomes Us
11 When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. – Luke 9:11 ESV
Jesus Heals Us
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” – Luke 5:29-32 ESV
Jesus Commissions Us
13 “But he said to them you give them something to eat.” – Luke 9:13 ESV
5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. – Romans 15:5-7 ESV
42 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” – Acts 2:42 ESV
Jesus Satisfies Us
17 “And they all ate and were satisfied.” – Luke 9:17 ESV
1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. – Luke 14:1-2 ESV
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. – John 6:35 ESV
2024 Sherman, Texas
“Nothing about that night unfolded according to my confident script. Nothing happened in the way I expected. Not that night or the year after or the hundreds of meals or the long nights of psalms, singing and prayer as other believers from the church and university walked through the doors of this house, as if no door was there. Nothing prepared me for this openness and truth. Nothing prepared me for the unstoppable gospel, and for the love of Jesus made manifest by the daily practices of hospitality undertaken in this one simple Christian home. Long before I ever walked through the doors of the church the Smith home was the place where I wrestled with the Bible with the reality that Jesus is who he says he is, and eventually came face-to-face with him on the glittering knives edge of my choice, sexual sin. The threshold to their life was like none other. The threshold to their life brought me to the foot of the cross.” – Rossaria Butterfield