Patrick Comerford
Our Easter celebrations continue in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Second Sunday of Easter (Easter II). Easter is a 50-day season that continues until the Day of Pentecost.
The Church calendar today remembers Saint Athanasius (373), Bishop of Alexandria and Teacher of the Faith (2 May). Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 6: 1-15 (NRSVA):
1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 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?’ 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages[b] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10 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. 11 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. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 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.’
15 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.
Today’s Reflections:
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle – apart from the Resurrection – that is recorded in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 32-44; Luke 9: 10-17). The feeding of 4,000 is told by both Mark (Mark 8: 1-9) and Matthew (Matthew 15: 32-38), but by neither Luke nor John.
The story of the multiplication of the loaves and fish and the feeding of the 5,000 is told in a very similar way in all four Gospels, with only minor variations on the place of the miracle or the circumstances surrounding it.
Saint John alone tells us that the feeding and the teaching took place as the Feast of the Passover was drawing near, so both the action and the discourse are to be understood with those particular perspectives.
Some time has passed since the healing of the man by the pool in Jerusalem, the better part of a year perhaps, and we are now back in Galilee in the following spring for the second Passover narrative (see verse 4) in Saint John’s Gospel.
Commentators point to the shift from the Festival of the Booths in the previous chapter and to the significance of the second Passover. But sometimes I wonder are we in danger of missing one other point, no matter how insignificant it may seem at first reading?
There is a story about how the Puritans in New England worked themselves to death in the fields without getting much in return for their back-breaking efforts. So much so that they were in danger of starving to death until the wiser inhabitants of the land taught them a few home truths about living in harmony with the rhythms of the earth. There are times to plant. There are times to rest. There are times to work the soil. And there are times to let the soil rest.
Perhaps the gap between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 is part of the Hidden Years of Jesus … when he was an adult, when he was in harmony with the rhythms of the earth and the rhythms of life, and when he was preparing for the harvest that is gathered in in Chapter 6.
The story of the multiplication of the loaves as told in John 6 has a number of key details that are intended to remind the reader of the Eucharist, and the Eucharistic narrative resumes in verses 51-58. But the story is also full of Messianic hope and harvesting, and Eucharistic promise, for it recalls the story of King David. When David first fled from King Saul, he fed his small group of followers, those who acknowledged him as the rightful king, with the priest’s bread, asking the priest: ‘Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here’ (I Samuel 21: 3).
The ‘other side’ in verse 1 refers to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was named Tiberias after the city founded ca 20-26 CE by Herod Antipas and named after Tiberias Caesar. In this way, John places the last work done among the Galilean disciples in Gentile territory.
Here too the Galileans are following Jesus because of signs and miracles, and not because of faith (verse 2). Once again, we have the Johannine question about the link between seeing and believing, which we encountered dramatically in the Easter story of Thomas in last Sunday’s Gospel reading (John 20: 19-31).
Christ is seated on the top of the mountain (verse 3). What does this remind us of? The top of Mount Sinai? The mountain of the Transfiguration? The hill of Calvary outside Jerusalem?
This is the time approaching the second Passover (verse 4), so there is a build-up in the number of Passovers being recounted, bringing us towards an expectation of fulfilment at Passover.
Christ lifts up his eyes (verse 5). When the disciples rejoined Christ at the well in Sychar while he was talking with the Samaritan woman, he told them to ‘lift up their eyes’ (John 4: 35, translated in the NRSV as ‘look around you’) and to see the ‘harvest’ of the seed he had been sowing.
The introduction of Philip (verse 5) and Andrew (verse 8) as characters in the scene is typical of John’s style. They represent the disciples. Just as at Jacob’s Well, they have failed to buy or produce enough bread.
Philip’s faith is being tested (verse 6), and, by implication, the faith of all the disciples. Where the NRSV says ‘six months’ wages’ (verse 7), the original Greek says 200 denarii. A denarius was a day’s wage for an unskilled labourer.
John alone mentions the young boy or servant, and the barley loaves (verse 9). Barley loaves were the food of poor people and for animals, but strikingly, the barley loaves in this story remind us of the time when Elisha who fed 100 men with 20 loaves of bread (II Kings 4: 42-44), saying: ‘For thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left”.’ The feeding of the multitude therefore may be seen as a demonstrative prelude to Jesus’ words, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in will never be thirsty’ (John 6: 35).
The feeding with the fish is a prelude to, looks forward to another meal by the shores of Lake Tiberias. We read next Sunday about that breakfast with the disciples when Jesus feeds them with bread and fish (John 21: 1-19). The fish is an early Christian symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, capitalised as ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words, spelling out Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Christos Theou Huios, Sōtēr, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour).
Christ asks the disciples to make the people sit down – well, not so much to sit down as to recline (verse 10). They are asked to recline on the grass as they would at a banquet or a feast – just as he did with the disciples at the Last Supper.
Notice the Eucharistic actions in verse 11: Dom Gregory Dix identified the four-fold movement in the Eucharist as taking, blessing (giving thanks), breaking and giving.
John alone has Christ commanding the disciples to gather up the fragments lest they perish (verse 12). Gathering is an act of reverential economy towards the gifts of God. But we return later to the Eucharistic imagery here too. Meanwhile, the gathering also anticipates the gathering that takes place in connection with the work of the Son as he receives from the Father those who are given to him, ‘that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me …’ (John 6: 39; see also John 17: 12).
There are twelve baskets – one for each tribe of Israel and one for each of the twelve disciples (verse 13). Mark alone mentions fragments of fish being picked up too.
In Saint Mark’s Gospel, Christ forces his disciples to leave immediately (see Mark 6: 45). But only in Saint John’s Gospel (verse 15) are we given the reason for this: the people want to make Christ their earthly king (compare this with the reference to the test in verse 6). When they want to make him their king, they want to make him a political messiah, opposing Rome. But Jesus would not accept this way of being king or of being messiah (see John 18: 36).
In Saint John’s Gospel, the account of the Feeding of the Multitude is followed with the conversation Jesus has with the crowds who follow him to Capernaum. The main motif in the passage (verses 26-59) centres on Jesus saying: ‘I am that bread of life’ (verse 48). In this way, Jesus links the Feeding of the Multitude with the feeding of the people in the wilderness with manna and with the heavenly banquet and the coming of the kingdom (see John 6: 25-40).
In the Fourth Gospel, the preceding food miracle is at the Wedding in Cana, where Jesus turns the water into wine. Now we have a miracle with bread. The Eucharistic connection of bread and wine is obvious even to the first-time reader.
The story of the multiplication of the loaves as told here has a number of key details that intended to remind the reader of the Eucharist, and the Eucharistic narrative resumes in verses 51-58.
• In verse 10, the crowd is asked to recline on the grass, as if they were at a banquet, a Passover meal or a wedding feast, just as Christ and the 12 ate at the Last Supper.
• Once again, notice the Eucharistic actions in verse 11. Dom Gregory Dix identified the four-fold movement in the Eucharist as taking, blessing (giving thanks), breaking and giving.
• John alone uses εὐχαριστήσας (eucharistisas, verse 11), from the verb εὐχαριστέω (eucharisteo), ‘to give thanks,’ from which we derive the word Eucharist for the liturgy.
• John alone depicts Christ himself distributing the bread as he will do again at the Last Supper.
• John alone has Christ commanding the disciples to gather up the fragments lest they perish. The Greek word συνάγω (synago, to gather up) gives us the word συναγωγή (synagogue) for the assembly of faith, and the word σύναξις (synaxis) for the gathering or first part of the Liturgy. The Greek word for ‘fragments,’ κλάσμα (klasma), appears also in early Christian literature as the liturgical word for the host or the bread at the Eucharist.
Jesus puts no questions of belief to either the disciples or the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They did not believe in the Resurrection – it had yet to happen. But Jesus feeds them, and feeds them indiscriminately. The disciples wanted to send them away, but Jesus wants to count them in. Christ invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Friday 2 May 2025):
‘Become Like Children’ provides the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 2 May 2025) invites us to pray:
Father, bless USPG’s church partners who strive to protect children from harm such as the Church of North India’s antihuman trafficking work and mission hospitals across central and Eastern Africa.
The Collect:
Ever–living God,
whose servant Athanasius testified
to the mystery of the Word made flesh for our salvation:
help us, with all your saints,
to contend for the truth
and to grow into the likeness of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Athanasius to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
No comments:
Post a Comment