John 6:1-15

Relax, Read and Reflect
Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

¹Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ²and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. ³Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴The Jewish Passover Feast was near.

⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

⁷Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages^a]'> would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

⁸Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, ⁹"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

¹⁰Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. ¹¹Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

¹²When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." ¹³So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." ¹⁵Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

This is a miracle we have all heard of, in fact it is the only one mentioned in all four gospels. Let's look at this in a little different light.

When the people came and the service went long, what did Jesus do? First, he asked the disciples if they had bought enough food for everyone. That may seem kind of mean, obviously they had not, and they could never have. As Philip points out, "it would take six months wages to feed this many people. Why would Jesus ask this question when he knew the answer?

He wanted the followers to start looking at the big picture, (the cinema grande.) Jesus knew things were about to get wild, and his disciples needed to be able to think outside the box to keep up.

The boy who had some fish and bread was the hero, but Andrew could have easily keep the boys food secret to quench his own hunger. He turned over what had been given to him, and Jesus did the rest. The lunch was very basic, fish and barley loaves was a meal for poor common folks. The crowd was fed and there was enough left over to fill twelve baskets, one for each disciple.

When the crowd started to rush Jesus, we withdrew. He could have easily used these people as a military base and recruited, (with a few more miracles,) more than enough people to overthrow the Romans. That was not his goal, so he left.

Questions:

1. Do you think the Disciples were mad when Jesus asked if they had prepared for the crowd?

2. What does the fishes and loaves represent?

3. Why did Jesus leave?

Prayer- Lord, Help us remember that you will provide for us always. Help us keep faith in You so that we may think in a great vision. Go-Fight-Win. Amen