Reflection on John 6:1-21

 

John 6:1-21

¹Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. ⁵When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” ⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ⁹“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” ¹⁰Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. ¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹²When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” ¹³So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. ¹⁴When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
 ¹⁵When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

 ¹⁶When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. ¹⁹When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. ²⁰But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” ²¹Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Reflection

Ah, the miracle of the loaves and fishes.  In my house of four children, this miracle is one of the most beloved stories in the entire Bible.  The miracle, as told by John, features a child’s lunch being multiplied to help others, and what child does not desire to be a part of something big that helps other people? 

The miracle, as told by John, features the famous green pastures of Psalm 23 where God’s people are restored, and that is just plain cool.  The miracle, as told by John, has Jesus himself feeding his people lots and lots of food with his own hands, and what child does not like lots and lots of food.  One of my children is a teen, need I say more. 

The miracle has that big number in it: five thousand.  I loved big numbers as a kid.  “They sat down, about five thousand in all,” the Bible says.  The number five, tipping us off that this story is going to be about God’s grace.  Five is the number of grace in the scriptures.  By the way, if you multiply five by five you get Twenty-Five, which in the Bible is “grace upon grace.”  Math is fun. 

Parents like the story too because the miracle, as told by John, has people obediently cleaning up after the meal, and what parent does not love help when cleaning up.  As I said, in my house, this is a beloved Bible story. 

But, what struck me the most about this famous miracle is that John is clear that what happened that day on the green pastures was not a miracle.  Rather, what Jesus did was a “sign.”  John 6:2 says, “A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing.”  And, again in verse 14 we hear, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’”  John wants us to know that this was not a miracle.  It was not a onetime event at which we all just get to marvel.  Rather, it was a sign.  It was something that point to an eternal truth.

Signs.  You know what signs are: a sign participates in the things to which it points.  This may seem like a pedantic definition from an English teacher who simply likes to torture you with overcomplicated grammatical information.  But, we intuitively understand signs and how they function.

Let us take a stop sign for example.  A stop sign definitely participates in the thing to which it points.  What does a stop sign mean?  It means, “stop” of course.  It points to the idea that stopping actually keeps people from crashing into each other and dying.  Stopping is a way of loving the neighbor.  So, how does the sign participate in this idea?  Obviously, people would not stop unless the sign was there to tell you to stop.  In other words, the sign literally participates in the act of stopping.  It tells you to stop, and people stop.  Signs participate in the things to which they point.

So, if this story is a sign, to what idea do the bread and the fish point?  The bread and the fish point to the fact that God/Jesus provides enough.  The bread and the fish point to the abundant grace of God as Jesus himself hands out food for the 5,000 people gathered there.  And, bread and fish are signs because they participate in it by actually being the food for the people.

When most of us think of the primary sign for Christianity, we think of the cross.  We wear them around our necks and adorn our churches with them.  But, the earliest followers of Jesus used the bread and the fish.  Mosaics within people’s homes using the bread and the fish would alert others that this was a safe place of abundant grace.  People drawing fish in the dirt would alert others that they are among people of grace and generosity. 

And, that makes me wonder about this last thing that Jesus says to his followers.  Jesus says, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”

What if you are a sign?  What if you participate in the thing to which you point?  What if you were created by God to be the image of God, the sign of God, right here and right now?  What if you were put here by God as a gift, as a sign that participates in the thing to which we point?

“Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”  It seems to me that, as Jesus’ people, we are given the gift of being the ones who gather all who Jesus has fed so that none are lost.  We are the clean-up crew!  Millions and millions of people are now a part of the clean-up crew.  See, I told you that parents love this story too!

We are the clean-up crew.  We gather together each and every person that Jesus has fed with grace, so that no one will be lost. 

We are signs.  We participate in the very thing to which we point.  We are signs.  We are grace and abundance with feet, grabbing by the hand all who Jesus loves so that none will be lost. 

You are a sign.  You participate in that thing to which you point.  You are God’s grace-filled clean-up crew.  You gather together all who Jesus loves, even if they appear to be leftovers, no, especially if they appear to be disregarded leftovers.  If they need cleaned up and cared for, you have been given as a gift, as a sign to them that though no one else cares, God still cares.  That is who we are, O people of the bread and the fish.

The dirty man was sitting on the side of the street, alone.  No one approached.  No one stopped, except for a little boy, whose mom was busy talking with a store owner just behind. 

The little boy did not know any better.  The little boy did not know that we do not connect with one such as this. 

The little boy stopped what he was doing, sat down, said “Hello.”  The little boy put his bag of gold fish in front of the dirty man.  “You can have some, mister,” he offered.  And, so, that day on the side of the street, a little boy was a sign of God’s abundance and grace, gathering up the leftovers so that no one might be lost.  He sounds like a little boy that I know, with bread and fish, from one of the best stories that my family knows in the Bible.