2Kings 4:42-44;
Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15
In Cunnamulla last week an elderly gentleman with an old dog
stopped me in the street. He was sitting on a public bench and invited me to
sit beside him. He asked ‘Do you want to see a trick?’
I sat down and he took from his pocket a piece of string
tied at both ends. This he threaded through a ring which he took from his
finger. Next I had to hold up my thumbs in such a way that he could loop the
string over each thumb.
‘Do you think I can get the ring off the string without
taking the string off your thumbs?’ he asked. Obligingly, and sincerely, I
replied, ‘No way!’ Then, of course, he proceeded to manipulate the string in
such a way that suddenly the ring fell into his hand.
‘Very clever,’ I said with astonishment and asked, ‘How did
you do that?’
In today’s gospel Jesus’ question (Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?) sets Philip
up in much the same way as the one the old man asked me and of both we might say:
He himself knew exactly what he was going
to do.
But Jesus’ trick
and, of course, it was anything but a trick, causes us to ask not ‘how?’ but
‘who?’. Not ‘How did he do that?’ but ‘Who is this man?’
The old man was all about the trick; the miracle of the
loaves and fishes is all about Jesus. The miracle arises effortlessly out of
the identity of the one who: took the
loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready.
Took – gave thanks –
gave out. Did you spot the miracle? I didn’t. No hocus-pocus, no sleight of
hand, no smoke and mirrors; the miracle simply happens because Jesus is
present; because Jesus is God.
John makes it clear that this miracle is a sign. In other words, it points beyond itself to a higher reality. The
people, of course, do not yet understand this. They are still at the level of
having had their hunger satisfied in a way that cost them nothing.
When they crossed over in their boats to look for Jesus he
told them plainly: I tell you most
solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but
because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Indeed, the very hunger of the people for bread is a sign
pointing beyond itself to a higher, or should we say, deeper hunger. It is
Jesus’ great desire to lead them to understand this hunger as one only God can
satisfy. He wants to bring them to understand that their hunger is more for him than for bread.
The impulsive readiness of the people to make Jesus their
king suggests they sensed, albeit dimly, that the ‘who’ of this man was worth
claiming for themselves and they want him to be their ‘king’. However, Jesus is
not about to let them settle for such a limited and one-sided relationship. He
is much more than a provider of earthly food – Man does not live on bread alone….
John takes care to tell us ‘it was shortly before the Jewish
feast of the Passover.’ This is very important. The multiplication of the
loaves and fishes takes place in the shadow of this great Jewish feast which released
them from slavery, destroyed their enemies and brought them into freedom.
The miracle of the feeding of the multitude is a sign whose
meaning is realized at the Last Supper (the Eucharist) and which will be fully
realised only in the heavenly banquet at which Jesus will feed us with the food
of angels - his own presence.
