THE hand of the Lord feeds us and He answers all our needs; He is near to all who call on Him (Psalm 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18). Jesus took the loaves and blessed them and distributed them, and all had their fill (John 6:1-15).
You give them food in due season
Psalm 145 is a hymn of praise of God’s greatness. Our verses speaking directly to God start off by inviting all of God’s works to give thanks to Him and His faithful people to bless Him. All the wonders of the created world fashioned by God, as well as everything God has done give testimony to the magnificence of the Creator. They can all discourse on the might of the Lord. But above all, His faithful ones can speak of His marvelous deeds on their behalf: How He has freed them from bondage, established them as His people, provided for them in their need, and promised them a secure future. These covenant partners of God are summoned to bless and honor God in awe and reverence.
The glory (kabod) of God is revealed in His dominion; His loving rule is everlasting, as well as universal. In His divine providence, He provides all living beings with food. All of life stands trusting before Him, confident of His generosity. The goodness and greatness of the Lord is finally manifested by His justice (sedek) and His loving kindness (hesed), the basis of His covenant magnanimity. God is righteous and kind in all His dealings with His creatures. His faithful ones can rely on His provident care: He responds with kindness and salvation to all who call upon Him and relate to Him in love. He cares especially for the weak and the needy. God watches over all who love Him; He is always there for them.
The crowd followed Him
The miraculous healings done by Jesus had a mesmerizing effect on the crowds. They followed Him around, across the lake and up the mountain. It could be less out of faith and more out of a hope to see Him perform some of His marvelous deeds and perhaps be benefited themselves. But the miracles of Jesus are signs, not to be merely looked at, but to be seen through and meditated upon. So now, seated in the position of a teacher and his disciples around Him, Jesus proceeded to teach once more everyone. They were on a mountain, where people ascend and God descends; Jesus was where the human and the divine meet.
The large crowd of people meant one thing for the shepherd who directed to have them recline on the grass in the area: they would be hungry and need food. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures…. He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:1-3). The particular time near the feast of Passover and of the Unleavened Bread set the tone: Everyone was conscious of God’s saving action in the past and of the anticipation for the final age of fulfillment. Jesus with His feeding of the crowd would lead them to a meditative experience of the coming of the messianic age with the appearance of the long-awaited prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 15:18), making available heavenly nourishment.
Jesus took loaves and blessed them
Faith is necessary to see through a sign. Beyond physical hunger and material bread, Jesus started to incite the faith of His disciples by bringing out the physical impossibility of feeding there and then such a large crowd. As Philip pointed out, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough.” Andrew’s comment after finding a boy with five barley loaves and two fish simply underlined the impossible situation: “What good are these for so many?” But neither money nor a big supply of bread were necessary for the miracle Jesus would do, so that they could experience the saving presence of God through the eating of bread coming from His hands.
In the face of human scarcity and want is the invitation to receive from the divine abundance. The prophet awaited has come with that end-time abundance. The barley man harvests can provide only so much loaves; the bread from the hands of God’s servant can fill all and as much as they want. The fragments left over filling 12 wicker baskets say it clearly: Where this comes from, there is enough for all, to satisfy the need of all of God’s people. But the crowd still did not understand Jesus; they wanted Him king for their physical hunger and material needs. The truth Jesus handed to His disciples was still too much for the crowd’s insufficient faith. He withdrew again to the mountain to be alone with His heavenly Father.
Alálaong bagá, the spiritual teaching of Jesus is more difficult to digest than the excitement of the miraculous. The life we receive from God’s kindness and generosity is full life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www.dwiz882.com.