Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then 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. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
Jesus is feeing the 5,000. That is a lot of people. There are very few churches in each state that have 5,000 in attendance each Sunday. This is a remarkable miracle. But there are several aspects that might go unnoticed.
1. Philip brings the boy with the small fishes and loaves to Jesus. Jesus had to put into Philips memory that he saw the boy and knew what he had in his nap-sack. Philip had to have some conversation with the boy, his guardian for the day, to know what he was carrying.
2. Where did Jesus get the twelve baskets? Someone had to bring baskets to the worship service. What was in them first? It certainly wasn’t food, other wise Jesus could have used that food.
3. How did Jesus get them so organized to sit down and wait to be served by 12 disciples. That is over 400 people per disciple. That would take awhile to feed everyone.
4. The passage tells all were filled. If you take 50 people out to a restaurant and had a selection of the menu you might not get all 50 to be satisfied and/or filled. Yet, this small selection of fish and bread satisfied them.
5. Did they also have enough to drink?
6. How on earth do we get 12 baskets full of leftovers? Why were there leftovers? Was it just to let us know, today, that God can meet our needs and supply beyond our needs? The significance can’t go unnoticed since there were 12 disciples.
7. How did the boy get the meal? Did his mom make it and prepare him but not one of the other moms did for their boys?
When Jesus does a miracle we don’t always stand back to realize all He orchestrates to make it happen. Here we have a mom inspired to make a lunch who bumps into a disciple who discovers the meal. Then we have twelve empty baskets found and filled with leftovers. We have 5000 people acting orderly during a meal served by a mere 12. On top of all this the people were filled and satisfied. When God performs a miracle in our lives He does a lot for us to get to that point.
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