The Caring Jesus

 

  Jn 6:1-15

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

6 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

We begin this week with the spectacular miracle of the loaves and fishes. Take a moment to imagine the size of the crowd: 5,000 men, not counting women and children! What could  five small loaves of bread and to fish do to feed all those people? Yet there was enough for all with twelve baskets of left-overs.  Pretty Amazing, but only a precursor to the next miracle Jesus would explain later in John 6: his own body becoming the Bread of Life. When we whine and worry about our petty problems, we need to join the crowd and visualize this miracle and find assurance that Jesus knows our needs and will take care of them either quietly or astoundingly. Our loving, caring Jesus is on top of things and in his good time and in his way, he will resolve the problem. Let us ask Jesus to turn our fretting into trust and confidence.

Bro. Rene

Dear Jesus, I place my,concerns, hungers and fears in your loving hands trusting that you will resolve them with the same compassion with which you fed the five thousand. Amen.