Pentecost 8
John 6:1-15
Today’s reading is the story of the feeding of the five thousand. It is the fourth sign, or miracle story, included in John’s Gospel. And it is the only
miracle recorded in all four gospels. It is also one of several stories in John’s Gospel centred around a meal. And it’s a big one, the biggest sit-down meal described in the Bible.
Meals are important. We learn much by eating with others. It is around meals that people get to know each other, talk about important things, welcome one another. Bishop Robert, who is retiring the end of this month, has a theory that a congregation that is growing will eat often together. Whenever he hears of a congregation that is beginning to grow he asks how often they share meals. And when he hears of congregations that are struggling, he asks the same question. His informal findings over the past couple of years is that the more we eat together, the more people will see the love of Christ among us. I think John might have had a similarly high view of the importance of meals. So much of John’s Gospel revolves around meals. Five of the final chapters of John’s Gospel take place in the context of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. During his last resurrection appearance with his disciples John tells us that Jesus cooked them breakfast (fish and bread again!). Jesus’ first miracle, in which he showed he was creator by turning water into wine, took place in the context of a wedding feast. And in today’s text, we find the largest sit-down meal described in the New Testament, a meal in which everyone is fed ‘til they are filled, and with food left over.
But this story is not just a meal story. It is a miracle story.
As we have seen in our series on John’s Gospel, John does not include the things the other gospels have included. He focuses on stories and teaching that had not been told. John records only seven miracles, or signs, that Jesus performs. We have already seen the changing of water to wine, the healing of the official’s son at a distance, and the healing of the lame man on the Sabbath. And now sign number four: the miracle of the feeding of the multitude. But why include a well-known miracle that the other Gospel writers have already told us about?
A good place to start is to look at things John tells us about this story that Matthew, Mark and Luke have not. John, as usual, gives his telling very much the feel of an eyewitness account by including little details that only someone who was there would think to include. John, for instance, is the only one who mentions any of the disciples who were there by name. Philip, who was from that area, is asked where food might be found to feed such a large group. If there were anywhere nearby to purchase enough food for so many, then Philip would know about it. But Philip, rather than coming up with a solution, only adds to the difficulty of the problem that it would take almost a years wages to buy enough food to feed such a crowd.
And John also mentions Andrew, for it is Andrew who brings the boy with five loaves and two fish to Jesus. The other gospels do not explain where the bread and fish came from. Surely if they had asked around widely they would have found more food than this among so many. But likely this young boy, who had his simple packed lunch with him, must have heard the disciples talking about where to find food. So he approaches one of them, Andrew, with his generous but hopelessly naïve offer to share his lunch. And Andrew, who seems to show some spark of faith here, decides to bring the boy and his five loaves and two fish to Jesus. We can well imagine John, hearing the accounts of this event read from the first three gospels, and wishing people knew more of the story of where the bread and fish came from.
But surely there is more to John’s inclusion of the feeding of the multitude than his desire to add a few more interesting details. If this were his motivation, he would have included expanded versions of many other accounts that had been included in the other gospels.
John points us in the direction he is taking us when he tells us that this miracle takes place as the Passover is approaching and people are making their way to Jerusalem. This is a fact the other three gospels do not mention. It helps explain why there is such a large crown out and about on this side of the Sea of Galilee. Entire families will beginning their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. John’s reference to the Passover also reminds us of Moses. It sets up Jesus’ explanation later in this chapter that he is the true bread of life, and image which draws both upon the eucharistic symbolism of the Passover, and also the mana that came from heaven in the time of Moses.
A key new detail that John includes in found in verse 14. ‘When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is the prophet who is to come into the world.”’
Remember, each of the seven signs or miracles that John includes are signs pointing to who Jesus is. John includes this miracle, even though it is a story his readers are already well familiar with, because it points clearly to who Jesus is. John highlights this by telling us that as soon as the people had finished eating, they drew the conclusion that Jesus was the prophet, promised and predicted already by Moses. This is an allusion to Deuteronomy 18:15, where Moses says ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me …’ So references to ‘the prophet’ whom the people awaited is a reference to this promise from Moses, which marks the beginning and foundation of the Jewish expectation of a Messiah. So convinced were the people, in fact, that they were ready to take hold of Jesus then and there and declare him their king. So Jesus has to slip away. The point is that the people present immediately understood what this sign of feeding the multitude said about who Jesus was.
By why did the crowd respond in this way? Why did they see this miracle as a sign not just that Jesus was a prophet, but was the prophet?
In order to understand what the crowd was thinking when Jesus performed this miracle we need to recall the Old Testament reading from this morning. Elijah and Elisha were the classic prophets of Israel. The messianic expectation was that the coming messiah would be a prophet of this type and order – just as he was to be like Moses. Both Elijah and Elisha were well known for performing miracles of ‘extension’, that is, of extending food to meet the needs of those who were hungry. There was the instance of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and the oil and meal that did not run out for her, her son and the prophet during the famine (1 Kings 17:8-16); and Elisha and the widow’s oil that filled many vessels and allowed her to feed her son (2 Kings 4:1-7). But more important was the story of the miracle we heard read this morning in which Elisha fed one hundred people when he had only 20 loaves of barely bread and some ears of grain. And there was food left over!
John’s inclusion of the fact that the loaves of bread the boy had were barley bread, the bread of the poor, is important. It is meant to remind of the story of Elisha. The fact that there was food left over is also meant to recall this story.
So in the feeding of the multitude, Jesus is not only providing food to the people, as God did in the time of Moses with the mana from heaven, but he also replicates a miracle of one of the classic prophets, one of the prophets whose ministry pointed to that of the Messiah. But Jesus does more than simply emulate or match the miracle of Elisha.
A recent news story told of an Australian coming close to matching the record for hotdogs eaten in ten minutes. I believe the number was an incredible 54. Of course, records are made to be broken. And soon someone will eat one or two more than this. That is beating the existing record. But what if someone suddenly ate a 1,000 hot dogs? That would not even be in the same category of achievement.
Elisha feed one hundred people. That was the well known story. That was the ‘record’ so to speak for miracles of extension. Then Jesus comes along and feeds five thousand men. And the account in Matthew confirms that, according to the method of counting crowds and taken census at this time of counting adult males, this did not include women and children. The disciples were able to make a rough count of those present as they asked the people to divide themselves into groups of about 50 men, each with their families. So there would have been about 100 such groups. Now if the average family of that time included a man, his wife, and three children (a conservative estimate) that would give us about 25,000 people. So Elisha feeds 100 people (and is one of the greatest of all the prophets). And Jesus feeds 25,000. Now numbers are important in this story, as they are int eh story of Elisha. That is why the details are included in both the OT and the Gospel text. So just how much greater is Jesus’ miracle than Elisha’s based on these numbers? Anyone have it worked out? The disciples and other witnesses would certainly have noticed. Jesus’ miracle exceeds that of Elisha by a magnitude of 250.
But as they say in those late night commercials, ‘but wait, there’s more!’ Elisha fed 100 people with 20 loaves, but Jesus had only 5 loves to begin with. This means Jesus and only a quarter the amount of bread to work with as Elisha did. So when we take this additional ‘handicap’ into account, this extends Jesus’ miracle to something in the order of 1,000 times the magnitude of that of Elisha! Jesus is not simply meeting or surpassing what Elisha did. Jesus is in a category all of his own.
So what’s the point?
The point John is making is this. Jesus is not simply a great prophet in the order of Moses, or Elijah, or Elisha. Jesus is the prophet, the one that Moses first promised. Jesus surpasses the great prophets of Israel in the signs that he does by such a magnitude that they are not even in the same class.
Jesus is not just a great prophet. He is the promised Messiah. He is God come to us in human flesh. It is the same thing John has shown us in the previous three signs or miracles that he related.
As we said earlier, meals are important. In this meal story, through the sign of feeding so many with so little, Jesus again shows us who he is. In the breaking of bread, he reveals himself to us.
So next time you are enjoying a simple meal, perhaps even with a bit of bread and fish, remember that in just such a simple meal, Jesus revealed to us that he is the promised Messiah, God in human flesh, who has come among us to be our bread of life.
Amen.
Pastor Mark Worthing
Port Macquarie.