What will we do with all these people coming to us for help?
Nothing, is what. Send them away. We have nothing for them.
It’s absurd even for them to come. We don’t have anything like the resources to share with them.
No way.
“Here is a boy,” Andrew pipes up. A boy has popped up and offered what he had. Nothing is made of it in the story, but John’s the only gospel that includes it. In the other gospels, we get the sense that the loaves and fishes were the supplies the disciples had brought for themselves for their little retreat in the mountains. But in John, there’s this boy.
The greek really says “little boy” and barley was the first harvest, so no surprise around Passover, but also, barley bread was considered “poor people” bread in the ancient world. And the greek also says the fish were small. John is really emphasizing the pitiful smallness of the offering. Andrew says, “what are these for so many?’
That’s when Jesus says, basically, “hold my wine.” Of course, that’s not what he says.
So this nameless poverty-stricken kid was there, probably with his people, looking for healing for one of their sick. He hears Jesus ask about what to feed the people and he steps up. He doesn’t argue, doesn’t make wistful statements about how impossible it is, he just steps up. Jesus says, where will we get the money? And this poor little boy walks up and pours out everything he has.
Jesus can work with that.
What will we do for so many coming to us for help?
This disciple says “blah blah blah”; that disciples says “blah blah blah.”
The kid says: Here’s everything I have, Jesus.
All four gospels follows the same basic shape here: the feeding of the five thousand, followed by Jesus walking on the water. John gives us a clue about why when he mentions that the Passover was near.
This is how John understands communion, as a new passover. And just as God demonstrated his power over the waters in the Exodus, so Jesus does in following the manna he provides in the wilderness.
The feeding of the five thousand appears in all four gospels, the only miracle of Jesus that does, and in all four, it is misinterpreted by those who are present. It looks like a prophetic miracle a la Elisha in Second Kings. It looks like the periodic propaganda of the Roman king, who often settled down the rebellious poor by sending cartloads of bread to throw at them.
But Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand isn’t those things at all. It is the very presence of God in our midst. God provides all that we eat for free; he doesn’t do that as propaganda to earn our favor. He does it because he loves his creation. Elisha wasn’t God, but merely spoke and acted on God’s behalf.
Our lectionary pits the story of King David’s misuse of his power against the story of Jesus’ proper use of his. David uses his power to satisfy his lust for Bathsheba by sending her husband to the front lines to be abandoned by his fellow soldiers. Jesus uses his power to feed the hungry and the sick in the wilderness.
In Matthew and Mark, the other gospels that tell of Jesus walking on water, the disciples mistake Jesus for a ghost, one of the many misperceptions they will have for the rest of both of those gospels. But in John, there is no mistake. They recognize that it is Jesus.
But we don’t get the full power of Jesus’ words in our translation. The Greek says Ego eimi which means simply, “I am.” Given the many “I am” statements in John’s Gospel, I think it’s meant to tell us that Jesus is God, Yahweh, the great “I am”.
They know it’s Jesus, but they don’t know Jesus is God. They are simply terrified, and only when he tells them not to be afraid do they admit him to the boat, which suddenly arrives where it’s going despite the heavy winds against it.
It’s amazing to me how resistant I am to giving myself over to God, how hard and long I will strain at the oars against the headwinds of life, not letting the Lord into the boat with me, because why? Because I’m scared of the implications. What will happen to me if I give all of myself?
What will happen to me if I give up my little store of bread and fish? Will I have enough? What will happen to my vessel if I let God come on board? Will I get where I want to go?
The answer is hard to swallow: If I give my all, I will receive far more. If I give up the tiller of my vessel, I will be guided precisely where I’m meant to go.
Amen.
2 Samuel 11:1-15, Psalm 14, Ephesians 3:14-21, John 6:1-21
