|
24. Jesus feeds
several thousand People with little Food.
Like his Father in
heaven, Jesus also thought about people's need for food. ‘I will bless
their food and give their poor enough bread.’ When the Lord had his
disciples with him again - he must have felt like a father when he had
his children back - he went with them into a ship to take them to a
lonely place to rest for a while. For there were always many people
gathered around him, who brought him their sick and were eager to hear
his teachings, and even though many of them gradually left, just as many
came back. There was also a road overland to the same place where Jesus
was going, as if he had thought that he did not want to make it
impossible for people to come to him; he wanted to be found if anyone
cared enough to follow him such a long way. So the people followed him
and took others with them and came before him. Five thousand men
gathered around him, not counting the women and children, as he stepped
onto the shore.
The sight of these people touched Jesus' heart anew. In this remote area,
they seemed to him like lost sheep without a shepherd. He had now rested
a little. He began to teach them anew and to occupy himself with them
until evening. In the evening the disciples said to him: ‘The place is
desolate and the day has come to an end. Let the people go from you into
the villages and buy food, for they have nothing to eat.’ Jesus said,
‘It is not necessary for them to go; give them something to eat,’ as if
it were a small matter to feed so many people when you have not provided
for them. ‘Where do you think,’ he said to Philip, ’we can buy bread for
them to eat?’ He said this kindly, suggesting, as it were, that he
already knew what the disciples would say. They might well have said,
‘Lord, where you are and want to help, there is no need.’ But they were
still simple-minded. Andrew said that there were five barley loaves and
one boy had two small fish. ‘But what is this,’ they said, ’among so
many?’ Jesus then immediately ordered the people to sit down in rows of
fifties and hundreds, so that everything would be done in order and
nothing would be overlooked. Order facilitates all business, especially
when much is to be done with little. Then Jesus took the five loaves and
the two fish and, looking up to heaven, prayed and gave thanks, broke
them and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. The
people all ate and were filled, and could not marvel enough that the
heavenly blessing would not end and that at last there was still much
left.
At another time Jesus also fed four thousand men in the same way. On
this occasion he gave another fine example of thrift and appreciation of
divine gifts. Although he was so rich in blessings, he commanded his
disciples to gather the rest so that nothing would perish. They gathered
several more baskets full, just as God's blessing in some things becomes
greater and greater the more it is used, the more gratefully it is
enjoyed and the more the superfluous is counted.
Does not God also nourish from year to year from a small sowing many
thousands of people and many thousands of parents' children without the
countless creatures who do not sow and do not reap, and when all have
eaten and lived, is there not also in the great household of God much
more left over each year than was sown at the beginning? No mortal man
is able to fathom the divine mystery and wonder that from a grain of
wheat in the fertile earth a beautiful, tall stalk and an ear full of
new grains can grow and multiply again and again ad infinitum, that the
blessing that is in a single grain of wheat can grow and multiply again
and again ad infinitum.
Once, when the Jews would not tolerate Jesus calling himself the Son of
God, he said to them: ‘If I do not do the works of my Father, do not
believe me!’
|