Five Loaves And Two Fishes

"Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip; 'Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?'" (John 6:4-5)


As we enter into Holy week I thought I would share with you a story of an earlier Passover week. The context is that it was at the beginning of the feast of Passover and a great number of people were following Jesus because He was doing miracles and healing the sick. They were now away from home and were getting hungry.  Andrew finds a boy with five barley loaves and two fish and Jesus blesses this food and distributes it to the multitude. Everyone eats as much as they want and twelve baskets full of leftover fragments were gathered. 

 -

In a sense here is Jesus, who will become the true Passover Lamb for all when He dies on the cross, now sharing a meal during Passover time with 5000 representing the Jewish nation. Understand that in Jewish tradition a chair is left empty at the table during the Passover meal.  This is for Elijah, a great prophet of the past who was taken up to Heaven alive in a chariot of fire and was prophesied to one day return to the Jewish people. He would either proceed, or be, the Prophet Messiah who would deliver the Jewish people from their oppressors. The multitude could not yet understand Jesus as the Passover Lamb but the sign of the multiplication of loaves and fishes does lead them to believe that He is this promised Prophet and they want to seize Jesus and make Him their king.

-

Jesus escapes to the mountains alone and later that night walks on the water to the boat of His disciples and arrives at the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The multitude find Him there the next day and Jesus tells them; "you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you." The people ask Jesus to tell them what the works of God are, and He replies; "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

-

The people have seen Jesus heal the sick and feed the multitude. Their theology permits them to comprehend Jesus as a Prophet in the vein of Moses or Elijah but not as God come in the flesh. So they inform Jesus that Moses gave the nation bread out of heaven (the manna) to eat, that this was a sign that Moses was from God, and that Jesus should confirm to them that because of the sign of the multiplication of loaves He too was the Prophet that would deliver them.
-
Jesus answers them; "it is not Moses who has given you bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world . . . I am the bread of life; he who come to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." 

-

Jesus was telling the people that there was something much greater than Moses or Elijah here. Moses prayed to God in the wilderness after the people grumbled about being hungry and God provided manna as food everyday until they entered the promised land. The Son of the Father God that Moses prayed to was now in their midst.  He was more than a healer, provider, and political deliverer. In Him was eternal life. 

-

"No man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God . . . he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die . . the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh . . He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
-
God provided food for the people in the wilderness and yet death still came to their physical bodies. God now has provided Someone that would bring eternal life spiritually and which would physically lead to a resurrection on the last day uniting body with soul and spirit.  Jesus would give up His flesh on the cross for the sins of man. Our work, that effort we need to be justified before the Father, is simply to believe in Him whom He sent.

Jesus took five loaves and two little fishes and provided everything the people needed and much, much more.  Let him take your hand and lead you to a place where life is abundant, where joy overflows, where peace is unshaken.      

-

"It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." (John 6:63)