From the Daily Lectionary for Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent
John 6:1-15
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
This, of course, is a famous episode from the life and ministry of Jesus. It appears in all four Gospels. This story apparently had wide commerce among the faithful in the early church. The story is in keeping with John’s metaphorical premise that Jesus is bread, nurture, come down from heaven; that in following the way of Jesus we too become nurture for the starved of our world, both literally and figuratively.
As I have noted many times, Jesus is the archetype for the community, the archetype for our true humanity; that we are born for sacrifice for the good of our neighbor. But perhaps the point is better made as represented by the boy who has the fives loaves and two fish, and offers them for the good of the whole fellowship gathered on the mountainside.
The mention of being gathered on a mountainside is a typological device to say that the ground of this gathering is holy. One is closer to God on a mountain. It strikes me that the boy is the protagonist of this tale, offering what he has for the good of many. The point of the story is that even our meager offerings have exponential ramifications. One small act of sacrifice can be used by God for dramatic ends. Perhaps we are closer to God when sharing what we have than on a mountaintop.
We, brothers and sisters, are that boy with the five loaves and two fish. Our vocation is to offer what we have, even our very lives, for the good of the many. We are about the means of sacrifice. The ends, as dramatic as God would have them be, are in God’s hands. Ours is to simply offer.
A Prayer of the Incarnation (BCP p. 200)
O God, who did wonderfully create, and yet more wonderfully restore, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
