The Boy With the Bread

I think the story of the feeding of the 5000 is pretty cool. Not even just because of the story itself. It is one of the few events that is in all four gospels. Not even Christmas can say that. So you have to wonder, why is this story so important? Jesus did a lot of miracles. And many of them were arguably more impressive than this. Like curing blindness and bringing Lazarus back to life.

One of the reasons for its inclusion could be simply that everyone knew about it. By the time Jesus performed this miracle, he was already very widely known. People were more likely to be telling stories about him because he had become something of a celebrity, or in some cases, someone to keep an eye on. Also this miracle had a huge audience. Five thousand men were there. And that doesn’t even count the women and children. Most of Jesus’ other miracles had much smaller audiences and he was also known to specifically tell people not to mention what he had done. If everyone knew about it, the story would be more likely to appear in early writings and songs of the followers of Jesus. These would get passed down to the writers of the gospels who would then feel that it is important to include this story because it keeps showing up.

That is the best historical answer I could come up with. It makes sense, but doesn’t really account for divine inspiration. And, without that, where’s the fun?

Looking from a “why would God want this in here” perspective, I start to see the Old Testament parallels. The gospel writers love these because they really want to make sure we get the whole Jesus is God thing. First off, the crowd is off in a deserted place. So the desert. And the people don’t have anything to eat. So Jesus (God, in case you forgot) gives them bread. Or manna. Feeding people is an important symbol throughout the Bible. We are taught that God will provide for us if we trust in Him. So it isn’t really about the loaves multiplying. It is more about the fact that Jesus was so easily able to feed the people both spiritually, with His words, and physically with the bread.

Because we have them, I really like looking at the different versions of this story to see the different things that they emphasize. My favorite is the one given in John 6:1-14. The first reason is that I think it is kind of funny that Jesus is just messing with Philip. He turns to him and asks where are we gonna buy bread for all of these people. I imagine Philip’s eyes getting wide because he and no clue. Even worse John said that Jesus knew exactly what he was doing and he was just testing Philip.

The other reason I like John’s version is that it is the only one that says where the fish and the loaves came from. The disciples didn’t bring the food; it was a boy in the crowd. I think that this says a few really great things. First is that this boy was willing to give up what he had on faith. The food he had brought would have been plenty for him, but reason would tell him that he would be lucky to get a single bite if it was shared with everyone. Also, this boy was by no means an important member of the crowd. He would not have even been counted among the 5000. And lastly, Jesus could have made enough food for everyone appear just as easily as He multiplied what the boy gave Him.

Based on those three things, we can take an important message from this story. Yes, God can do amazing things. But He calls on us to meet Him halfway. He wants to work through us to accomplish His will, even though He doesn’t need to. And when He says He wants us, He means all of us; even the least among the group. So we just have to answer the call and be freely giving of what we have. Because we can trust that God will make use of our talents and possessions in a greater way than we could ever imagine.