Give them something to eat

Jesus Christ sent His disciples on a mission… a tour, and on returning were to report all that they had done and taught. When they returned they quietly stepped aside to a desert place, and privately separated themselves from the busy life, an escape temporarily, a need to get away from the crushing, pressing crowds. There were many among the gathering crowd that was sick, diseased, troubled, pushing, following, crying out, with desperate and challenging questions. Not long after the Divine Teacher’s brief rest, the maddening, yet earnest and yearning crowd began to intrude on His presence.

Jesus Christ was no doubt humanly tired, his face being pale, body weak, but most importantly not impatient. Jesus lovingly received them. Never was there anything else like this huge crowd ever. But no matter whether it be just one soul like Nicodemus, or a crowd of five thousand, a multitude, the Saviour would be teaching all day long.

The concerned disciples noticed that the Lord was tired, and that the multitudes were being abundantly fed spiritually, but that they did not receive physical food all day. There was now a real need to get away to a quiet place with the Master. No doubt they were saying, “Master, if you can’t do it for your sake… do it for the sake of the people. Send away for lodging and food.

They’re tired, you are tired, we are tired. They were fed spiritual food… now send away for physical food.
True, the multitudes were fed precious spiritual food, and the unwary disciples thought that was enough. But, Jesus Christ rebuked them for their narrow-mindedness, saying, “Give ye them to eat.” Saying further, “You are my disciples, my representatives. When I am gone, take just as much interest in looking after my spiritual needs, as well as the well-being of fallen humanity.”

This clearly and emphatically calls into question… our faith, trust, and confidence in Jesus Christ, and His willingness to provide for us physically. But, why should the disciples, the faithful ones, doubt His ability to provide for them? The disciples had not learned the lesson that their daily bread was a daily miracle! Somehow, it had not occurred to them in a vivid manner, that their Master who had fed them spiritual truths for so long was also He who gave them their physical food! They gloomily said, yet, “Master we cannot feed this multitude…!

“If you require only of us to give them spiritual food, we can do that in a measure. But, we are not able to feed the multitude, food of this world.” Now when we turn to John 6:5-12, we can see from this point that the story becomes clearer from here on. When Jesus lifted up His eyes and saw the great multitude, and said unto Philip…

“Whence shall ye buy bread, that these may eat?” The Lord said this to test, to prove Philip. Philip was from the village of Bethseida, the only village nearby. The Lord knew what to do and what he would do. Philip answered that, “two hundred pennyweight would not be sufficient, that everyone would take a little.”

This amount is eight month’s salary or wages! It’s still too little to feed the multitudes. The treasury is too far away and there’s too little time. Then one of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, “There is a lad here with five barley loaves (buns, or show-buns)… the poor man’s food… fisherman’s food…. and two small fishes. But, what are they for so many?”

Jesus then said, “Make the men sit down on the grass (Jesus wants men to be comfortable); it was springtime… and the men sat down in groups and ranks, and in order (Jesus wants things done in order and a decent manner). It was a magnificent sight… like a rolling hillside adorned with flowerbeds.

Jesus then took the loaves and distributed them to His disciples, and likewise the fishes, to the five thousand men sitting down! It mentions here only men… no women and children! This might add to a total multitude of ten thousand!

Nevertheless, they were all filled… more than they wished for, a superabundance… bread and fish. In surprising contrast, the well-meaning Philip estimated in his own frail human wisdom, that it would be… “too little”.

The Lord then ordered his disciples to “gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost”(a Lord of economy, frugal… an example for us… not to waste). The fragments were gathered in twelve baskets. They were large, of course, but a little smaller than the one Paul escaped in as he was lowered from the window in Damascus. We can learn further here that God’s gifts are not to be wasted or wantonly squandered. Perhaps the people took some fragments of bread home with them and witnessed, extolling and proclaiming to others of the miraculous words they heard and the astounding events that followed. No doubt a magnificent miracle was performed. The people actually saw it; they were impressed by it, and all benefited.

They saw their benefactor as no ordinary person, and that He must be the expected Prophet and Messiah (Deut. 18:18). Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John mentioned this as a miracle. But, John called it a SIGN. A sign points to something… The Messiah… The Son of God. Interestingly, of Jesus’ twenty-four miracles of healing only, no other miracle as this one is mentioned in all four gospels.

Let us return to Philip. This disciple was a man who always was afraid to get away from the side of Jesus, for fear he should lose something. He wasn’t in the habit of doing very much. Philip (although later became a great evangelist) is like many of us today of perhaps some missionary students. We lose the opportunity of saving a soul, by merely trying to study how to do it, or trying to do it the way someone else does it, or watching or hearing the way someone else does it. The way to learn how to do something is by doing it!

Never lose an opportunity to do a thing, by delaying in order to study how that thing is to be done… or work. That is why missionaries are never made without them doing missionary work. Philip was not in the habit of doing much missionary work. So, Jesus wanted, therefore, to give Philip a chance to exercise his faith. Why did Jesus ask Philip, and not John or Andrew or Paul? Every trial, every triumph, victory, every call that we experience has a divine object in it… a divine purpose.

Picture for a moment if you can the great multitude there… Christ holding a consultation, a meeting with the disciples. Then, Andrew, out in the multitude, hastily going from man to man, helping, . praying with this one, that one, explaining something to that one… then to another… when suddenly Jesus stops talking! Andrew, dazed by this comes up to find out the cause of silence.

Did you ever stop to think how it was that Andrew knew about the lad with the barley loaves and fish, while Philip did not? Andrew had been out in the multitude diligently doing personal work… one on one! Perhaps he had been working with the lad himself… and therefore knew all about the solitary lunch basket and its contents.

The disciples were about to learn a great lesson, perhaps the greatest. The same Master who could multiply their spiritual food was now to show His chosen twelve that the same divine power could provide physical food… and all our vital needs. Jesus tells His people to sit down. Jesus is going to teach His disciples a dynamic truth, and that is, when God says to you and me, whether it pertains to the physical or spiritual needs of humanity, “Give ye them to eat,” the power to perform the thing is conveyed in the command!

In John, the supernatural acts are one more proof of Jesus Christ’s unique nature. Jesus refused to perform miracles as magic to dazzle the crowds, but used instead as object lessons to teach about Himself. Not everyone believed He was God. Many, today, isn’t that true, believe He was only a “good man”. In John 8:53, we read, “Who do you think you are?” The doubters had him killed for claiming He was God.

What was the cycle of the people’s response to Jesus Christ? At first the multitude was excited at the “feeding miracle”. They clamored for force, they wanted a majestic, crowning, King to come and solve their economic and military problems of the nation. It was really a sensation seeking crowd; many curious, almost unruly, and maybe many or all turned away from Jesus, some five to ten thousand. Jesus escaped but first rebuked many then and later, saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and fish and were filled.” (John 6:26). Many were merely looking to the “bread and the fish”, and not to Jesus. Many are looking to prosperity, fame and to the world, today and not to Jesus. Many today are merely coming to the truth… the church… for the bread and fish.

For some, or many, miracles, signs, and wonders, and the words from the mouth of God are difficult to accept… or hear. The disciples were disappointed often, but sadly at some point, from hearing the words of Jesus, divine messages of love and truth… words that were “too hard to swallow,” a “hard saying.” “Who can hear it?” “Who can accept it?” For them and many others, then and today, (John 6:60), a “hard teaching.”

The people demanded a sign from Jesus as a basis of faith in him, even though they have seen a miracle. Jesus charged them with not seeing, not looking beyond the external aspect. Their interests were only in physical concerns, not spiritual truth.

They saw only material things, and felt satisfied, content. Jesus used the miracle feeding to give an important lesson on the Bread of Life. Jesus contrasted food that perishes with food that lasts into eternity… eternal life. Even the food that Jesus provided was perishable. What He gave was the significant bread of eternal life.

Jesus finally identified Himself with the Bread of Life. (John 6:35). Not only does He have life in Himself but can give life to others. But this bread is not something external, something separate from Him. One must COME to HIM, which is the same as BELIEVING in HIM. For those who COME to HIM, spiritual hunger will be forever banished. You will never need to turn from Christ to another for satisfaction.
AMEN

John Theodorou
Greece