This is the Artist’s Note (John August Swanson)…For many years, I sketched and tried to work out in my imagination, how I could paint Loaves and Fishes, with its multitude of people. In addition to telling the familiar story, I wanted this image to honor native peoples in many parts of the world; those who work the land for their livelihood and have lived for generations in small communities or villages.
28/7/24
Trinity 9
Psalm 14
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
Over the next few weeks we will be spending some extended time in John 6. Every 3 years, the lectionary provides an opportunity for a deep dive into one of the most important chapters in John’s Gospel. There are some major themes to unpack as Jesus said and did significant things. If you are looking for some summer, may I recommend John 6 to you.
To set up the stall: Verse 1: after this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. ‘After this’ refers to Jesus’ being in Jerusalem for a festival where he healed a man on the sabbath at the pool. This gets the attention of and angers the Jews as Jesus begins to refer to God as ‘My Father’. Jesus and the disciples leave Jerusalem for the Sea of Galilee with a large crowd following them.
The reference to the Passover is also significant to John 6. Passover was part of the exodus when God liberated the people of Israel from Egypt and led them through the wilderness to the promised land. In preparation to leave, the Israelites had to prepare a special meal and then put lamb’s blood around the doorposts of their homes. That night God would pass over the houses with the blood and the Israelites children would be spared death.
God then instructed the Israelites to keep that day as a memorial for all that had been done for them. They were never to forget what God has done for them. Part of Passover and the Exodus was the provision of manna from heaven. Every morning God would rain down bread from heaven enough for the day ahead. This event is detailed in Exodus chapters 1-16 if you need more reading!
For thousands of years and to this day, Passover is celebrated by Jewish people the world over. In John 6, Jesus is coming as the new passover; He is interrupting an old festival with the new.
The exodus Jews were being taken into the wilderness. Jesus has led the crowd into the wilderness away from towns and villages where food could likely be found. Many of us like to know where our next meal is coming from, I wonder if the crowd did? The disciples were about to be put to the test as Jesus asked Philip ‘where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’
The disciples were thinking in economic terms: how much money and where would it come from. Not bad questions to ask. Andrew had found a young boy with some lunch. Five barley loaves and two fish. Hardly enough for the massive crowd and Andrew is aware of this.
I wonder if that was embarrassing for Andrew to do? He is in front of Jesus and his fellow disciples and offers up something so small compared to the great need in front of him. However small, Andrew brought what he had found, the boy and his lunch, to Jesus. Jesus takes this small offering, has the people sit down, gives thanks for it and distributes it.
The people were given as much as they wanted with leftovers. The 12 leftover baskets were clearly a sign to the 12 disciples about the power and authority of Jesus.
The crowd that was following Jesus that day had different ideas about who Jesus was. At the beginning of the day they saw the signs of what Jesus was doing for the sick and they were following him back and forth across Galilee. By the end of the day and after a big lunch the ripple through the crowd is that ‘this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’
Jesus withdrew to the mountain by himself as he realised the crowd was about to come and take him by force to make him king. Remember the Jewish people wanted a human king who would wipe out the Romans and restore their honour.
A strictly human king could not multiply five barley loaves and two fish to feed 5000 men plus women and children. The stories of Jesus feeding huge crowds of people had a profound effect on the early church; there are six accounts in the four gospels of Jesus taking food, giving thanks and multiplying it to feed thousands of people.
Jesus is using bread to feed people which is a very practical thing to do. Hungry people need feeding. Jesus is reminding this mainly Jewish crowd about God’s long history of feeding them the bread of heaven. Thirdly Jesus is using the bread to say something about His authority; this will be new information for the crowd.
Jesus is turning over the natural order of things with the authority given to him. This authority is displayed again only to the disciples as Jesus walks on water. What do you think would surprise you more? The multiplication of the loaves or the walking on water? Faith takes some imagination!
The passover link here refers to God parting the Red Sea so the Israelites could pass through the waters. In this new passover, Jesus is walking on the water and controlling the storm. Although some of the disciples were experienced fishermen, the Jews are not a seafaring race. The sea has always been associated with chaos, evil and untamable forces within nature and the spiritual world.
Jesus tells his disciples not to be afraid as he was with them in the boat. Jesus is still in the boat with us. John does not write if the storm stopped or not. It might not have mattered that much once Jesus was in the boat.
What about us today?
We live in a time where bread is relatively cheap and easy to get. It is generally good for us – lots of vitamins and minerals, dietary fibre, it provides energy, it is affordable for most people to buy and there is a huge selection.
As bread is so easy to come by it may lose its significance for us when we read the stories of Jesus feeding the thousands with bread. Jesus was feeding people who were impoverished, literally starving. He not only physically fed them He spiritually fed them by his teaching and healing.
Most of us here can satisfy our physical hunger quite easily by an abundance of bread in the shops and money in hand. Yet many of us are spiritually hungry. This is a hunger much harder to satisfy as we cannot do it ourselves. There is no shop selling ‘spiritual food’ for us to buy that will fill us up.
Our hunger will only be satisfied by Jesus. I hope we all know this but when we bring to him what little we have; he will bless it and multiply it. It will be more than enough!
If we need some encouragement Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is a good place to start!
V16-19: 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Let us remember today that we are loved by the God of abundance. He blesses what we bring to him and multiplies it however small or insignificant we might think the offering is. It is in God’s power to do exactly this.
He has fed us in the past like the Jewish people with manna from heaven, He feeds us now and will continue to feed us forever. His love and abundance are wide and long, high and deep and will always be more than enough for us.
