Five Loaves, Two Fish, One Boy

Wanna know what one of my all-time favorite stories from the Bible is?

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand.

I've read this story a gazillion times. As a child, I colored pictures of it in Sunday school. As an adult, I've written and taught about it. I've heard dozens of sermons preached on it. Yet, despite its sweet familiarity, there is mystery about this amazing event. In fact, I think the older I get, the more mystery there is. When you really study the scriptures and try to imagine the reality of the events of that day, it's kinda hard to wrap your mind around the details.

The story of Jesus feeding the five thousand is found in all four gospels (Matthew 14, Mark 6 and Luke 9), but for this post I'm going to use the one from John 6:1-15. Why? Because this is the only book that tells us where the fish and loaves came from.

"...Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee and a great crowd of people followed him..." v. 1-2

That crowd wasn't just a couple hundred people. It is estimated there were 5,000 men, plus women and children, bringing the total to between 10,000 - 20,000 people. They'd all heard about Jesus and were following him. Some believed he was the Messiah. Others were simply curious, while still others were out-and-out doubters. But there they all were, way out in the country, because of Jesus.

In the crowd that day was a boy (v.9). I'm going to imagine he was 9 or 10 years old. I remember my own boys at that age. Rambunctious. Happy. Adventurous. I think the boy in our story was having a blast running around with his friends that day. His parents were probably in the crowd of onlookers, but he was too busy to really pay attention to what this guy Jesus was saying. In fact, he was so busy having a good time he forgot to eat the lunch his mom packed for him.

By afternoon, our boy starts to get curious about Jesus. He's heard his parents talk about the miracles Jesus did, and he'd like to see one. He inches closer to where Jesus is sitting with his disciples and overhears this conversation:

"Send the crowd away so they can go find food and lodging," the disciples said to Jesus. 

"Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" Jesus asked Phillip. He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

"Eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Phillip replied. 

"You give them something to eat," Jesus tells the disciples.

I image the disciples turned to one another with "What in the world are we gonna do now!?" looks on their faces. They probably had a couple bucks between them. How could they possibly buy enough food to feed everyone?

This is when the boy might have tugged on Andrew's cloak, sneaking a peak at Jesus. "I have some fish and bread you can have."

I can almost imagine Jesus winking at the boy and the boy grinning broadly.

"Have the people sit down," Jesus said.

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. 

Amazing!

Five-thousand-plus people ate their fill, with 12 baskets of leftovers! Don't you know that boy's life changed that day! He had a front-row seat to one of the most awesome, miraculous events to ever take place. Out of a crowd of 20,000 people, God saw that kid, whose name we will never know, and said, "I'm going to use him for My glory, for My purpose."

There are so many lessons in this story. Here are some I've been pondering lately:

• When God created those 2 small fish, he knew he would feed a multitude with them. 
• When the boy's mother baked the 5 loaves, she had no idea God would use them in a miracle. 
• The boy chose to give his lunch to Jesus. 
• Other people in the crowd most likely had food, but they chose not to give it to Jesus. 
• There were sinners in the crowd, yet Jesus fed them. 
• I can't feed the 5,000 on my own. I just have to bring my loaves and fish to Jesus and let him do the rest. 
• God sees you. He already knows. Trust him.

Blessings,

~Michelle