For the next five weeks we step out of the continuous read of Mark’s Gospel and begin a slow and thorough read through the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. This chapter could be considered the most significant theological catechesis in the Gospels. However, unlike the other didactic sections in the Gospels, this chapter does not draw its focus on the demands of discipleship as much as it focuses on the explanation and symbolic meaning of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish that opens the chapter.
On the surface John’s account of the event of the multiplication of the loaves differs little from those of the Synoptic Gospels. Indeed this miracle, the most accounted miracle in the New Testament, is a defining moment in the ministry of Jesus. This is clearly evidenced by the reaction of the crowds at the end of the Gospel for this weekend.
We open with the account of the prophet Elisha feeding the prophets with a few loaves. The parallels drawn by John to the prophet’s miracle is made clear – the bread is barley loaves, there is an immediate sense of incredulity that there could be enough to feed a crowd, and there was more than ample food leftover after all had their fill.
The multiplication miracle is an event that demands the response of faith. This miracle, more than any of the others, brings an immediate response from the crowd. It is not because they are fed when they were hungry. This is also not just some trivial moment of a shared meal when Jesus acted in such a way as to evoke the crowd share their food with everyone.
This is the moment – repeated at least on one other occasion in his ministry – when Jesus gives in abundance to those in need, showing to them the majestic power of God to fulfill every one of his promises, and to bring to completion the covenant he has made with them.
The movement from doubt – the questioning of Philip and the dismissive comment of Andrew – to the enthusiastic faith response of the crowd, shows us the path to conversion.
We live in a world where there are too many seeming realistic voices that sound like Philip –“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little,” and the more dismissive and cynical response of Andrew: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”
When we aren’t open to the possibility of what seems to be impossible, we are lose sight of what God can – and does – complete in our midst. Those who today wonder why the God who fed Israelites in the desert, and a crowd of road-weary followers with a few loaves and fish, lets several billion people each day live on the verge of starvation, do indeed miss the meaning of the miracle, and lose sight of our own culpability of the historical moment.
While the feeding of the crowd is the context of the miracle, the miracle was not about feeding the crowd. None of them were really on the verge of starvation. All of them would have had reasonable access to food in due time.
The miracle was itself didactic – the people respond knowing that this was the sign from God that Jesus was the prophet – the messiah – as foretold in the Scriptures. Jesus does not have to announce that he is the messiah, the multiplication of the loaves and fish tells those who understand the scriptures what they need to know. What this crowd does not know, but they are about to find out – is what Jesus is really telling them in this moment.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.