Text:  John 6:1-15                                                                                           10^th Sunday after Pentecost

Enough for Everyone

In the name of Jesus, dear friends in Christ:  The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is one of the few events in the earthly ministry of Jesus that is recorded by all four of the Gospel writers.  Other than his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection – which, of course are the very heart of the Gospel message – there are very few episodes in the life of Jesus that all four writers included in common.  Obviously, they each thought that this miracle was a defining moment in our Lord’s ministry; and by telling us about it four times, it would seem that the Holy Spirit who inspired the evangelists wants us to sit up and take notice.

And that’s okay because for most Christians, this story is one of the favorites. And if we combine the information each evangelist gives us, we have an especially clear picture of what’s going on here.  We know that prior to this, Jesus has been going around the region of Galilee teaching, healing, and casting out demons.  He’s at the peak of his popularity, and wherever he goes folks turn out in droves to see him.  And in addition to these local crowds, there is also a devoted throng that follows him everywhere:  thousands who have seen his power and wondrous signs and can’t seem to get their fill.  They keep after him because they want to see more miracles.

In last week’s Gospel lesson, we heard how Jesus and disciples were physically exhausted from dealing with this crowd day and night, and how Jesus pulled the disciples aside into a remote place to get some much-needed rest.  But it didn’t work:  the crowd saw them go and followed.  But rather than send them away, Jesus, seeing how lost and hopeless they were, “like sheep without a shepherd”, set aside his own very real needs to help them with theirs.

It is more or less this same crowd we find walking along the lakeshore this morning.  They are keeping their eyes on Jesus who is in a boat with his disciples crossing the lake in another fruitless attempt to get some time away for themselves. Slightly ahead of the crowd, they pull ashore on a deserted beach not far from the village of Bethsaida.  Jesus has only enough time to walk up a hillside and a select a suitable place to sit down with his disciples so that he can teach and minister to the needs of these people when they arrive.  There are a lot of them.  We know there are five thousand men; but assuming that there are also women and children present, there are easily twenty thousand or more in this group.

From the other gospel accounts, we know that Jesus will spend the whole day teaching them about the kingdom of God.  It’s not until evening that the miracle actually occurs.  But it’s interesting that Jesus asks Philip about where to buy bread already as he sees the crowd approaching.  Apparently he wants to give him time to think about it.  Philip is the natural choice to ask, since he is from Bethsaida and knows the area.  It seems though that Philip does not take the question too seriously. In typical human fashion he jumps right over the Lord’s question of where to buy bread to feed these people so that he can get to the bottom line:  how much it would cost.  “There’s no way!  Two hundred denari – eight month’s wages wouldn’t do it!”  Jesus must be joking.

 Well again, from the other accounts of this story, we know that when it gets late the disciples start to get a little uncomfortable.  They want Jesus to send the people away so they can go find food for themselves.  Now, the disciples must know that’s not very practical.  Imagine some twenty thousand hungry people showing up unannounced at a small village, and all expecting to eat.  It would be like the RAGBRAI coming to overnight in Bedford and Bedford being completely unaware of it.  Food enough for everyone?  It’s not going to happen.  The disciples know that; but they just want the problem to go away – they don’t want to deal with it.  Jesus’ earlier remark about feeding all of them is beginning to concern them. “What if he was serious?  What a disaster this is going to be!”

Their worst fears are confirmed when he tells them, “Oh, they don’t need to go away.  You give them something to eat.”  It’s Andrew who comes forward, “Look, Jesus, we don’t have any food. And I’ve done a little scouting around and all I’ve found a little boy whose mother packed him a lunch:  five barley loaves and two small fish.  That’s it.  There isn’t any more.”  And just so you know what we’re talking about, that’s five little round pita loaves and a couple of herring sized fish preserved in salt and oil.  At best it’s a meal for one, or a snack for two or three. The very pragmatic Andrew asks, “What are these among so many?”

Not even a drop in the bucket, it would seem.  But in the hands of Jesus it becomes a feast for a multitude.  Giving thanks, he divides it among his disciples for distribution to the crowd.  They start handing it out.  But no matter how many times they put their hands into the baskets they carry, there’s always more there.  The supply is inexhaustible.  Everyone eats his fill.  And though the original amount of food would have barely covered the bottom of a single basket, the gathered leftovers fill twelve.  It’s astonishing.

And that’s why we like this episode so much.  It has all the best elements of a miracle story:  there’s the building tension and surprise conclusion, the worry of the disciples and the confidence of Jesus, and there’s the irony of all these supposedly responsible adults being fed by the lunch of a little boy.  Over it all is the presentation of Jesus as the compassionate one who provides for of all our earthly needs.  We take comfort in that.  And when it comes time to make application of the story to our own lives, we walk away with something like, “Jesus cares about me, and he is going to take care of my physical needs” or “Jesus fed the hungry, therefore so should we.”  The fact that the little boy surrenders his whole lunch is sometimes the basis of a lesson on giving all you have to Jesus. I’ve even heard the fact that Jesus orders the leftovers gathered up serve as a departure point for a lesson on conservation – how we shouldn’t waste the resources God gives us. 

All of which are possible applications, I suppose; but I have to ask, is that really what it’s about?  It’s interesting to me that St. John never uses the word “miracle” when describing one of the powerful works of Jesus.  He always calls them “signs”.  That is to John, the works of Jesus are never just demonstrations of divine power; they mean something.  There’s always a message in a miracle.  But you have to be able to read the sign.

And that can be a little tricky because not everyone who reads a sign understands it the way it’s intended.  I think I’ve mentioned my Uncle Ole before.  He’s the one who used to live up in northern Minnesota.  And there’s no way to say this tactfully, but he just isn’t very bright, even by Minnesota standards.  When he was younger they used to give him a terrible time about it. Then he moved to a small town in central Missouri – where everyone thinks he’s a genius.  Anyway, the other day he was over an hour late for an appointment in Kansas City.  When they asked him why, he explained that on the way he passed a sign on the highway that said, “Ole Towne Pump.  Stop In, Please.  Clean Restrooms.”   So he did. (Clean the restrooms.)  It gets worse:  he’s got a brother in law from Warsaw who thought his wife was trying to kill him because he found in her purse a bottle of “Polish” Remover.  My point is that it’s possible to read a sign and miss its message.

That’s what happened to the crowd that ate that day:  they misread the sign.  They were following Jesus looking for miracles, and they got one.  They saw the bread multiplied, and that was good enough. “Free food for hungry people” was the message they got; and so they said, “Let’s put him in charge so we don’t have to work any more!”  Jesus retreated from their interpretation of the event.

Now, not wanting to be like the miracle-seeking crowd who missed the message, and recognizing that something all four evangelists decided to tell us about must be pretty important, we have to ask, “What is Jesus saying to us in this sign?”

And here the interchange between Jesus and his disciples is key.  The question he puts before them is where are they going to find what they need to feed all these people?  It is the same question he puts before you and me today. And it’s vital that we recognize that the Church of Christ’s disciples is not primarily a food distribution center; its purpose is to feed souls.  When Jesus later said to St. Peter, “Feed my lambs”, he didn’t mean, “Make sure everyone has enough food to eat.”  He was speaking of spiritual feeding.  Though, certainly we should never let people go hungry if it’s in our power to prevent it, Jesus’ focus is on spiritual food and where to find it.

So what is he telling us in this sign?  Well, I think the numbers in the story are significant – they provide us important clues.  You probably know that certain numbers in the Bible are loaded with symbolic meaning.  Three, for example, is the number of God.  You know, the Trinity and all.  Four is the number of the creation:  the four corners of the earth, the four winds of heaven, and so on.  Now, ask any first century Jew what five stood for, and he’d tell you, “The Torah, of course!  The five books of Moses.”  Five was the number that meant the written Word of God.  We heard about Moses writing parts of it in today’s Old Testament lesson.  The five books of Moses stood at head of the Old Testament Bible not unlike the four Gospels in the New Testament.  They had primary importance, and so, in a symbolic way, they stood for the whole of God’s Word.

And here in the sign Jesus gives us are five loaves of barley bread.  And you know that there is a close scriptural connection between God’s Word and bread.  “Man does not live on bread alone”, Moses wrote (and later Jesus quoted), “but on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  God’s Word is the bread of life, it’s our spiritual food. And the two fish?  Well, let’s see … flesh and blood companions of God’s Word … that would be the Sacraments, of course.  In Baptism we become part of part of the body of Christ, united with him in his death burial and resurrection.  In the Lord’s Supper, we receive his true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sin.  The Sacraments are the soul nourishing, “fleshly” compliments to the Word.

So, what’s the message?  Jesus sends out his disciples, and later his pastors and teachers (and all of his church) with what appears to be nothing more than a boy’s lunch:  a Bible – a collection of ancient stories, some water, and little bread and wine.  With it we are to feed the souls of multitudes.  It seems impossible.  We look at what’s available and think, “What are these among so many?”  “Sure”, we’re likely to think, “there’s some nourishment there; but there’s no way it’s going to take care of everyone.”  And left in our own hands, we’d be right.  Because all we’d ever see are old stories, water, and bread and wine.  But in the hands of Jesus, that is, when he becomes the content of the Word and Sacraments, there is no limit to them.  Then the nourishment they provide for souls cannot be exhausted. 

This is true in two ways.  First, by spreading from person to person each one can take as much as he needs or wants, and it never detracts from the source.  No matter how many times you hand out God’s truth, no matter how many are baptized or receive the Sacrament of the altar, you never lose them. Secondly, and this is the one we’re more likely to forget, is that they are an endless source of spiritual fulfillment for each person individually.  That’s why you can read the same Bible story again and again, and if you place it in the hands of Jesus, it will always give you something more – something you didn’t see or understand before.  Likewise, each time we revisit our Baptisms in Confession and Absolution, we are assured of God’s forgiveness through Christ; each time we come to Communion, we share in the fellowship of the saints, and are spiritually fed and strengthened.

And we want to keep doing these things.  That’s what Paul is talking about in today’s Epistle lesson: continuing in the faith and growing in our knowledge of the Lord.  We are to set our sights on spiritual maturity that comes of a steady diet of God’s Word and Sacraments over the long haul.  We’re not to think, “Oh, I know all about that story, why do I need to hear it again?” or “I communed last month, isn’t that enough?”  That’s sort of like saying, “I ate yesterday.  Do I really have to eat again today?”  The goal is to keep growing up in the faith.

Paul writes, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves” or, I might add, we won’t be like the spiritually underdeveloped crowd in this morning’s reading, who only followed Jesus to see miracles.  “Instead”, Paul says, “we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”  That’s the ultimate goal:  by continuing to feed upon his Word and Sacraments, to let him gather us up into himself so that we become more and more like him.

We even get a glimpse of this in the story.  Jesus orders the remaining food fragments gathered up, which just happens to fill twelve baskets.  And twelve is another one of those “loaded” numbers.  It’s the number of God’s people, as in the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 disciples.  It symbolically represents the sum total of those who receive the Word, believe it, and are saved by it.  The message given us in the sign is that the Word and Sacraments go out from Jesus through the hands of his disciples, they do their work, and they do not return to him void.  Instead, they do the work he assigned them:  namely, they gather a faithful people unto himself.

May he then give us the grace to recognize both our spiritual hunger and the endless supply of nourishment he has provided us in his Word and Sacraments. And making diligent use of them, may we all grow up in the faith until we attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  In his holy name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!