Ephesians 3.14-21; John 6.1-21

Ephesians 3.14-21; John 6.1-21

The gospel account of Jesus feeding a crowd of 5000 is one of only a few events from Jesus’ life told in all four gospels. That’s curious, because each gospel writer—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—brings a unique perspective on Jesus’ life; and that perspective shapes what each gospel includes or leaves out. The only other stories found in all four gospels are the key stories of Jesus’ baptism and of his death and resurrection. That must mean that if all four gospels include Jesus feeding great crowds, this event is equally important to his life and ministry—top three.

In this miracle, what Jesus says about the good news of the kingdom of God is expressed by what he does to make God present in people’s lives: he feeds a hungry crowd. Bodies matter; bodies are not mere shells; Jesus gives physical bread for physical people; food for the hungry is central to Jesus. So is care for the soul and spirit. In the stilling of a storm, Jesus gives peace to overwhelmed and frightened disciples; Christ is with us in our fears to comfort, encourage, and calm us. Because Jesus cares for both human bodies and the human spirit, we can entrust all our life to the One who gives himself to us. His life and compassion are for the depth of human need.

From the start of today’s gospel reading, you can sense that need. “A large crowd kept following Jesus because they saw the signs he was doing for the sick.” Now caring for a crowd is one thing but it’s complicated by a complete lack of resources at hand. Barley loaves are peasant loaves; five of them would scarcely be enough to make a decent lunch for Jesus and the twelve. And you can be sure those two fish aren’t 100-pound salmon, either.

Five loaves, two fish? Philip and Andrew size up the crowd and ask, “What are they among so many people?” It’s easy to get inside that question because we know how easy it is for us to be overwhelmed when needs confront us and we’re not sure we’ve got the resources to make a change, when the size of human problems seems weightier on the scale of reality than the presence of the Living Lord. The fear of not having enough—not enough food, money, friends, love, peace, personal value and more—touches us all, at one time or another. Philip and Andrew bring their need to Jesus. So can we.

Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for bread, daily bread. Now, at one level, this is a prayer about physical food for physical bodies—daily bread. Yet this petition is about more than bread that comes out of the oven. When the Israelites lived in the wilderness for 40 years, they depended on God each day for manna. Manna was a flaky, seed-like substance that looked like frost on the ground. People gathered it, ground it, and formed it into loaves. Unusual as that might sound, Moses told them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” Daily bread. Yet manna was not only physical food, it was also a sign that pointed to something else, something more—a sign of daily human dependence on God. Manna was not meant to be hoarded, stored, or kept. It was given fresh by God each day as a sign that we depend on God each day.

Jesus describes something similar in the Sermon on the Mount. There, we hear one of our Lord’s greatest challenges to people who are habitual worriers. “Do not be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow will look after itself.” Instead, look to God who feeds the birds and cares for them; this same God cares for you. When we pray for daily bread, we acknowledge our dependence on God for food, to be sure—physical bread for physical bodies. And it is impossible, when we pray this prayer or see Jesus feed a hungry crowd, not to be aware of people around us who need real food to eat. Yet in Jesus, daily human needs also point as a sign to something more than bread that comes out of the oven. Jesus cares for both human bodies and the human spirit. Jesus himself directs our attention to this when he says that we do not live by physical bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God; or, in another place, not to devote ourselves to food that is perishable, but the food of eternal life. Jesus’ life and compassion are for the depth of human need, body and spirit. And when Jesus is present, there is hope in those needs.

In today’s second reading, St Paul wants us to know the breadth and length, the height and depth, of Christ’s love for us. “God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.” This theme is repeated throughout Ephesians. There are no circumstances beyond the love of God; no nation, no family, no person beyond that same love. Paul tells the Ephesians that he is praying that they would know the riches of God’s grace. And these words are for us, too, that we would know and trust God at work in our lives when we are prone to worry about what we lack, or what the people around us need, or when our attempts to live faithfully falter, fall short, and leave us empty-handed. The young person in today’s gospel with the two loaves and five fish shows us where and how God is at work. Five loaves and two fish? What are they among so many people? But the scope of human need is never weightier on the scale of reality than the presence of the Living Lord. When offered to Jesus? “God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.”

In the gospel, Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks, and distributes the bread among the crowd. Takes, gives thanks, distributes. Now if those words call to mind for you another meal of Jesus, then you have picked up on a clue that John’s Gospel, and all other gospels that tell this story, must want us to know. Jesus’ meal with the hungry multitude is a sign pointing to the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, the Bread of Heaven and Cup of Salvation.

This will become clear over the next Sundays as the appointed gospel readings take us on a weeks-long exploration of John 6 and themes of bread, of Jesus as the Bread of Life, and how Jesus as bread—unlike manna or loaves from the oven—is the food of eternal life. Here today, in Jesus and for you, is a taste of God’s abundant grace for your need. Hungry for daily bread in all its forms, Christ gives himself to you. Overwhelmed and unable to make the changes you want for your life, you can bring your need to Jesus’ attention, offer your emptiness to be filled by God’s grace. Jesus takes, blesses, and gives himself to you in physical bread as spiritual food—his very body, soul, and life given for you.

Each time we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we confess our dependence on God. On our own, we come up short—our lives as inadequate as five loaves and two fish to meet all the needs at hand. Yet as we entrust our lives to Jesus who gives himself to us, he satisfies our hunger with his very life. He meets real needs, feeds the hungry with an abundance of bread and fish. Grace. And he does not stop there but meets the needs of the hungry human spirit. Grace upon grace. As he cares for us, body and spirit, the life he gives to us is meant to be shared through us: physical bread given for the physical needs of the poor and hungry; together with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and forgiveness—the fruit of the Spirit in us that a multitude of people also hunger for in their lives. God provides not only bread, but the Bread of Life that endures to eternal life.

And as for this Holy Eucharist with a little bit of bread and mere taste of wine—what is that among such great need? Yet what Jesus personally gives, is who he personally is: the Bread of Life for you. “To the One who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.”