Thursday - The Feeding of the 5,000

When the French colonised Africa they introduced the Africans to the long French loaves – baguettes.  The Africans have developed such a taste for this bread that since independence they measure their economic state as to whether they can afford bread – such that some African governments now feel obliged to subsidise this alien food which all has to be imported.  In fact in our generation, bread has become a universal food – not everyone eats it, but they all know about it.  So it is with Jesus Christ.

In the fourth of the seven miracles in the Gospel of John, Jesus works perhaps his best-known miracle, the Feeding of the 5,000 – where Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and supernaturally creates from them enough bread to feed a vast crowd of his followers.

Like the turning of water to vast quantities of wine at the Wedding at Cana, here Jesus creates vast quantities of bread such that everyone had eaten all they could and there was a lot left over.  It was so abundantly given some even ended up scattered on the ground.  No need for rationing here.  There was sufficient for everyone. 

Jesus’ life and work is sufficient to meet all our needs no-one need miss out.  You see Jesus is not just the bringer of the bread, he IS the Bread.  And Jesus promises that when you eat this bread you will live forever. No this is not about communion or the mass – this is about eternal life.  The old saying that bread is the staff of life rings true.  In September 1977 I ate bread – I believed that Jesus is the Son of God and that he laid down his life for me, and I began my eternal life.  We need no longer yelp for more and more bread – we have received sufficient for all our needs once and for all when we believed in Jesus Christ.