Today's readings are Genesis 21.1-21 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+21.1-21 ) and Mark 6.35-56 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+6.35-56 ).
See how in Mark 6.35-44 the disciples, in a "desolate place" with small surrounding villages but not major metropolitan area, with very little food on hand and presumably very little money are faced with an impossible task. How can they feed this large crowd of people who have come to hear from Jesus? Food is necessary. Yet feeding a large crowd requires considerable resources. Even in today's American cities, if we were to suddenly take on the task of feeding several thousand people at a church function, we would run into trouble. Just go into a local grocery store and try to get literally a ton of potatoes on a moment's notice. Or 10,000 dinner rolls? How about 10,000 hot dogs? Now take the task and try to accomplish it at a small village where there may or may not be a "professional" bakery. The disciples, in estimating 200 denarii, probably made a realistic estimate of what it would cost, if supplies were available. These are people who have left their careers to follow Jesus. There are various other followers who are dedicated to Christ, and apparently some of them were people of considerable means. But it would seem rather unlikely that they would be able to come up with a year's wages in a rural location at a moment's notice.
The disciples are faced with an impossible job. Yet, like the good disciples they are, like the good disciples we are, they try to come up with a solution. Maybe if I take a year's wages and drive around all afternoon and into the evening I can find lunch for this crowd of people. Never mind that lunch time will have long since passed, the people will be fainting due to low blood sugar, and will have long since started wandering home. I can come up with their lunch if I have unlimited resources and time stops!
How often we are like that. We see what we think would be in God's will for our local church, for our community, for our country. We try to come up with a solution using the resources and wisdom we have. And while our solutions are sometimes effective, at least in some measure, we find in this passage that the Lord has his own solution which he gives when we realize that we must depend on him.
Jesus assigns the disciples a task they can do. Organize the people and figure out how to deliver his provision to the crowd. Jesus makes the provision and the disciples distribute it. And, typical for Jesus, the provision is far exceeding the need. Observe that the people did have a subsistence meal. They didn't have just a little bit which would tide them over. They all ate and were satisfied. On top of that, there were leftovers. One wonders where the disciples obtained the baskets to pick up the leftovers.
Jesus' physical provision for the people points to his greatness, his abundance. Yet we must remember that the reason people should come to Jesus is not for the physical provision but for his provision of life - living a perfect life of obedience, then dying for our sins and rising again for our justification. As Jesus teaches the people, he is telling about how the Kingdom of God has come in his life and how it will be applied to those who believe in his death. He is showing that while he is able to provide food that perishes, he himself is the eternal food which does not perish. And he is abundantly able to provide for the needs of his people.
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