Five loaves of bread and two fish feed 5,000

Dear friends: 

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This Sunday we find ourselves winding through Lent, and going through the Gospel narratives along with it.  Before you know it, it will be time for the excitement of Palm Sunday, the despair of Good Friday, and the absolute joy of Easter.

 

But before then the lectionary reading finds us in Galilee, alongside the Lake (John 6:4-15).  A crowd had heard Jesus speaking and teaching that whole day.  Now they were hungry, and didn't have anything to eat.  What was to be done?  No one had enough money to buy food for these 5,000 men, plus an undetermined number of women and children.  So Jesus took what He had:  five loaves of bread and two fish.  And He miraculously turned it into a feast for thousands.  The crowd was so excited by this turn of events that they tried to make Jesus King right then and there.  But obviously they didn't understand the way we do.  We know that Good Friday and Easter lie ahead, the only way to and through the Kingdom of God.

 

There is a lot going on here, and we'll discuss a couple of things on Sunday, but in preparation for Sunday let's make a quick observation.  John is very purposeful in telling this story in such a way that the reader thinks about Moses and the miracle of the manna in the Wilderness.  He tells us that the incident occurs at Passover (the feast that celebrates the Exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt).  Further, Jesus commands that all the scraps of bread be gathered so nothing is wasted.  If you remember, Moses also told the people, after they had complained of hunger and had received the manna from Heaven, that they were to gather any scraps for dispossal.  None of the manna would last into the next day. 

 

The Gospel writer is telling us that Jesus is the true bread of life.  The manna in the Wilderness held body together for a day.  But Jesus is the true bread:  with Him, we are given true life for eternity. 

 

Be sure to look over this passage for Sunday, because we are going to go on from here to discuss Holy Communion, and how our faith in Christ holds it all together!