By Bread AloneSample

Feeding the 5,000

Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” . . . [Andrew said,] “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus 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. Then 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. (NRSV)

Today, once again, we find God providing a miraculous volume of bread. Do you see any similarities from our reading yesterday?

I’m struck by Philip’s response to Jesus’ question about buying food: “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little!”

I can just imagine Philip responding to Jesus with some desperation in his voice. Maybe a bit of sweat breaking out across his brow. He knows it’s a massive volume of bread. He knows it’s an expensive volume of bread. He knows it would require an intense amount of labor to produce enough loaves, bring them to the gathering, and distribute them among the people.

But Jesus wasn’t worried. He took what they had and blessed it and broke it, and as he distributed it . . . it just kept going. I like to think of the woman in the parable of leaven here too. She mixes just a tiny amount of yeast into a huge batch of dough—around 60 pounds of flour, more than 100 pounds of dough. And the leaven just keeps growing and growing until it leavens the whole batch.

Jesus’ loaves just keep growing and growing until they fill the whole crowd.

In yesterday’s story, we noted how the Israelites had to trust day after day that God would continue to provide—if they attempted to keep any leftovers, the manna would rot overnight. In today’s story, though, the leftovers are part of the point! God provided, and then some.

Once again, we see God’s provision of bread with respite from the curse in Genesis 3—a taste of God’s abundance and blessing, as well as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ actions to come.