To many of us, this is a familiar story. Perhaps too familiar. And so, I challenge myself with the Spirit’s question, “Child, what do you see?”

Amazingly, it is the only miracle that appears in all four gospels.

John tells us that it is getting close to Passover, which is one of the most important feasts for the Jewish people. Passover is a time for them to remember. To remember how God had saved them from the harsh slavery of Egypt. From a Pharoah who had ignored 9 awful plagues that Moses had warned him were coming. The tenth plague came with instructions for the Israelites. They were to take the blood from an unblemished lamb and paint it on the doorposts of their homes. In Exodus 12, we read how the Israelite boys were passed over in these marked homes, but the Egyptian people were not protected by this near perfect sacrifice and Pharoah was forced to face agonizing sorrow when he lost his son to this last plague.  Pharoah at last ordered all the Israelites to leave Egypt. Led by Moses, they left as fast as they could. Running from Egypt to the desert wilderness. It is here that God met them, giving them 10 rules and rhythms for life. He led them as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. He miraculously fed them with His own food source. Manna sent by God and collected to feed them each day, yet they grumbled…this is the backdrop John is reminding us about as relates the story.

The way Jesus provided bread in this isolated place reminded the people of the way God had used Moses to provide manna in their wilderness. Moses had told the people of a prophet to come. We read Moses’ address to the people in Deuteronomy 18: 15

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”

If the coming Prophet was to be like Moses, it made sense that he would also feed the people miraculously as Moses did. But a miraculous meal is where the similarity ends.

John mentions that it is barley loaves that are offered, this is the food of the poor. Grown, harvested, processed, kneaded, and baked together, most often in communal ovens. It represents the hard work of the community as a whole. A communal meal with a communal food. The barley loaves and fish presented by the young boy are both described as small, but Jesus takes what the world sees as small and insignificant and uses it for the good of the people and His glory.

Jesus gives instructions for the people to sit, on the grass of which there is plenty, unlike the desert sand of their forefathers. He takes this precious gift, gives thanks to the LORD and begins to distribute the multiplied gift. Broken and given to thousands, a foreshadowing of what was to come. What He had come to do for them and for all of us.

Five small loaves and two small fish feed 5000 men, but in your mind’s eye, picture families. With women and children, it is more likely that the number was more like 15,000. They ate until they were full. All 4 gospels make that clear.

When the people celebrated Passover, they did so with unleavened bread, no yeast, a sign of their trust in God as they left quickly with no time to waste for letting bread rise. Jesus however, had the people sit. There was no hurry, no rushing about, no fussing. People would relax and enjoy an unhurried meal. The Manna God had sent the Israelites in the wilderness was good for one day, a sign of God’s grace and their need to depend on Him every day to provide. The bread Jesus provided not only satisfied at that meal, but there were 12 baskets of leftovers. Abundantly more than they could have asked for or imagined. In the presence of the Son of God, there was true rest, comfort, full Bellies, and peace as He worked on their behalf.

¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

When the crowds realized the miraculous work Jesus had accomplished, they recognized that he was a great prophet. They were right. But Jesus knew their intention was to make Him King, thinking Him to be a Messiah to save them from Rome, not themselves. He slips away,

The story continues with this crowd looking for more food the very next day. They have followed him because they are getting hungry, but Jesus is going to take this from the physical to the spiritual. What they want and what they truly need are different and yet the same.

²⁶ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. ²⁷ But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

²⁸ They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

²⁹ Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

³⁰ They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? ³¹ After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. ³³ The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

³⁵ Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Both Mark and Luke record that Jesus had been teaching the people all day before food became an issue. The spiritual bread was the first to be offered, the physical He had no trouble providing.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Hadn’t Jesus made this promise early in His ministry? The problem was the hunger, these people wanted to fill their stomachs. The bread Jesus offers is Himself. He wants to fill their hearts. It is the ONLY thing that lasts and the ONLY thing that will satisfy. He promises that they will never be hungry again. They are looking for manna for the hunger of that day when they are being offered the answer to eternal hunger. The answer to sin and death. To those who believe, to those who accept, to those who proclaim Jesus as the true bread of life, we navigate this life with the presence of God living inside us. His constant presence nourishes our souls. His grace is what we need daily to be sustained. Rich and abundant, in this bread, there is no lack.

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus would later tell them in John 10:10

But the people are myopic.

I am myopic.

This is where I lost my sight.

Do you remember the question I brought to God at the beginning of this part of my journey?

Father, could you show me that the things that broke my heart were not done TO me, but FOR me?

His answer was clear. “You spend far too much time worrying about what people have done to you, when you could be resting in the things I have done FOR you.”

What He is offering me is clear: Worry or Rest.

It is made even clearer one communion Sunday when I read the words of Paul who had been Saul but had met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. He too had lost his sight, his physically, and when his vision was finally restored, lived a life completely devoted to proclaiming Jesus.

In 1 Thessalonians 5 he implores us

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

And in Colossians 3

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

This is a man who was kidnapped, beaten, threatened, arrested, ridiculed, interrogated, imprisoned, shipwrecked and bitten by a snake.

But in two places in Paul’s letters to actual historical churches, he exhorts his readers to “be thankful.” In Colossians 3:15 and in this letter to the church in Thessalonica, the word Paul uses in both contexts is eucharisteō, which is where we get the word eucharist that some in church use for the Lord’s Supper. Another much more common word in Paul’s vocabulary in the “gratitude” category is charis, which is where we get the word “charismatic” (that is, “filled with he gifts of the Spirit”), but its root is “Chara” or joy

But why does Paul commend or, maybe more correctly, command thankfulness in these contexts? I see three reasons for this:

1. We are forgiven and bound together as one in Jesus.
2. In Jesus, God’s will is to sanctify or help us move forward in the process to make us holy.
3. It leads to joy!

Paul knew what Neuroscientists have been studying for decades, our ability to endure is linked to our ability to be thankful. Not just survive but thrive! Why? So, we can be Christ’s ambassadors, modelling for this broken world a different way, a life-giving way. How would Paul have known this? In the same way we do. Jesus modelled it, for us and those around Him, who modelled it to those around them. Paul models it for those around him and the churches he is so heavily invested in for the sake of Christ and for us, who then model it to everyone around us. Faith says thanks in the middle of the story and trusts God with the outcome. We hear it in the communion reading at the beginning of every month.