A Meditation on John 6

 

The story of the feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels, hence its importance to the church. I will focus on John’s version today.

I

            They were at the Sea of Galilee. A multitude had followed Jesus there because of the miracles he had performed. They sat down on the side of the mountain to hear him. It was the time of Passover, John adds, which means the season of miracles or hope for them.

When Jesus saw the great crowd gathering he grew concerned about their hunger. He asked Phillip, “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

Phillip answered: “Eight months wages would not be enough for each to have a little.”

Then Andrew spoke up: “Here is a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish, but how far can they go?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down on the grass.” They did and numbered 5,000 people.

Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks began to distribute the bread, then the fish.

Miraculously all have enough to eat. Jesus then said, “Gather up the fragments left over so nothing will be lost.” They did and filled up 12 baskets-full of leftovers.

When the people saw the miracle they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

II

            It was an astounding miracle. Jesus came as a healer and worker of miracles: all to meet people’s needs. He treated our needs as holy—whether the need was new sight or bread for the stomach. He came with spiritual bread too, for our famished souls.

So here’s the first message of the miracle: God wants people’s needs met. God cares about our most basic needs whether we are sick or lost or hungry.

Post-Enlightenment liberal biblical scholars dismissed the supernatural element of the miracles of Jesus and sought non-supernatural explanations. So here is how some interpreted this miracle this way: when the boy came with the five loaves and two fish, his example inspired or shamed, as the case may be, people to open their knapsacks and begin to share with those around them until all were fed. A miracle of generous sharing, no small miracle. I am not fond of this interpretation. But its message is consistent with Jesus’ mission: to stir up a contagion of compassion and inspire all to give from our abundance into the needs of others.

This is the economy of the kingdom of God: from our fullness others are fed; from other’s fullness we are fed. Whatever our fullness is we give from our abundance another’s need. And as we do we received from others’ abundance into our need. In the kingdom of God one person’s abundance is always becoming blessing to another.

This is why we are here today: to give from our fullness into another’s need as we support the ministries of Fifth Street. It is surely an outpost of the kingdom of God, where the kingdom is present.

Ghandhi said it well: “There’s enough in this world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

III

            Then there’s the message about the leftovers! After the people were fed Jesus instructed the disciples to gather the leftover which filled twelve baskets.

This detail emphasizes the miraculous nature of the miracle, the super-abundance of the kingdom of God. And it underlines this: that people of faith live by a mindset of abundance rather than a mindset of scarcity.

A mindset of scarcity sees the world as having just so much and we having just so much, so that every act of giving means loss and threat.

A mindset of abundance sees the world ruled by the abundance of God. There will always be more than our human calculations. We are moved from arithmetic into love. We are set free to give—and to receive. Clutched hands open in gratitude and generosity. There is always more leftover.

There’s a parable-like story of a man who dies and visits hell. He sees a large banquet hall with banquet tables overflowing with the most sumptuous food. But all the people in the room are starving to death because all their arms are in splints and they can’t get their hands to their mouths to take in the food.

Then the man visits heaven. There is again a banquet all with tables overflowing with food. And all the people there have their arms in splints. But in heaven all the people are enjoying the feast because they are feeding each other.

This is the way of the kingdom of God. Thy kingdom come, we pray, on earth as it is in heaven.

IV

            I began by saying that this miracle was the only one recorded in all four gospels. And all four accounts point to another feast table: the Lord’s table. The actions of Jesus are the same:

He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it and gave it to the disciples and to us.

We need both the kitchen table and the Lord’s table, the table where we receive the nourishment of God in the bread and cup of Jesus. Here is where the abundant Spirit of God is poured into our emptiness and we are fed. Thanks be to God.