Two and Five Equals What?

     John 6: 1-15

 

 

          How many times have you gone somewhere unprepared? You go for a walk and get caught in the rain. You go for a swim at the beach and you forgot a towel. You treat yourself to a nice meal, not noticing that the restaurant doesn’t accept your credit card and you have no cash. We all have many examples we could draw on to remind us to go prepared for more than just what we see. Situations change.

          A few weeks ago, we looked at the arithmetic of discipleship. Today, I want us to examine another math principle in the kingdom. Let’s take a look at God’s multiplication. The gospels tell of a miracle story that involves a meal. The story is usually known as the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It is the only miracle story that is recorded in all four gospels. It must be important for it to be in every gospel. The gospels were not written at the same time, so the story would have been known by the later writers, and yet they included it anyway. Each gospel says essentially the same thing, but only John mentions a boy, a boy who came prepared. He had packed his lunch, a lunch of five barley cakes and two fish.

          Let’s put this story into the twenty first century and let’s tell it through the eyes of the boy. Let’s give him a name. The boy in John’s gospel didn’t get a name. I think he should have, but John didn’t do that. He had his mind on what Jesus did, not what the boy did. But let’s give the boy a name. How about Toby? Our fictional Toby attends E. Rivers Elementary School (not fictional) in Atlanta. He was attending on January 29, 2014, the day that Atlanta’s highways shut down due to a three inch snow that fell at just the right time. All it took was a thin sheet of ice and a few wrecks to shut down the Interstates, helped by workers who went home at midday to beat the storm, but instead created gridlock on the roads just as the storm hit. The Interstates stayed that way for a day. And in that day, thousands of people’s lives were altered. Twenty Four hundred children stayed in their schools that night, unable to get home, with parents unable to get to them.  Unless, of course, you were Elizabeth, the daughter of   Mark, who walked six miles in the snow to spend the night with her and help out at their school. Fifty more children spent the night on their school bus trapped in the gridlock. Food was walked in to them. One lady had to deliver her child in her car, aided by state troopers. Many acts of kindness sprung up all up and down the Interstate. Some who were able to leave their cars walked to an open CVS drugstore, returning with treats for their neighboring motorists. It was a day when a plastic CVS bag was far more popular than any Gucci bag has ever been. Toby’s school bus got stuck on I-285, and he and sixty of his classmates rode in ambulances to a Kroger supermarket where they spent the night and were fed by the good folks at Kroger. Stores all along the highway opened their doors to thousands of stranded motorists. And when state and local officials were stymied as to how to handle the crisis, a woman named Jocelyn started a Facebook page called Snowed out Atlanta, which by the day’s end had over fifty thousand signups. The site coordinated help to thousands; over eight hundred homes were opened. There were literally thousands of random acts of kindness going on all over Atlanta.

          Doesn’t that sound a lot like the Feeding of the Five Thousand? Jesus is in the area. Jesus is like this snowstorm in Atlanta. Everywhere he goes, it causes a traffic jam. Here is Jesus on a mountain next to the Sea of Galilee. This should be a slightly populated area, but here on the mountain, there are five thousand men. There are also women and children, but they are not counted. This is a big crowd, and out on the mountain, no one is selling concessions. It’s time to eat, and no one came prepared. And here comes young Toby. He is probably local because he has food with him. He probably has come from nearby and brought a bag lunch.

          Jesus sees the crowd forming. He knows the situation. He turns to Philip to test his wits and his faith. He asks Philip where to buy bread. He knows that there is not only no place, but not enough money, to do this. Andrew comes up. Andrew is called the Bringer because it seems as if he is always bringing things or people to Jesus. He does it again. He has found Toby and Toby has offered to share his bag lunch.

          It’s a wonderful story. The people are seated on the mountain. Jesus gives thanks. The loaves are passed. The fish is passed. Everyone, EVERYONE, is filled! Ten thousand people or more are filled! When all have eaten, twelve baskets of food are left! The people call it a sign. They call Jesus the Prophet.

          Some say that this is easily explainable, that it is simply the generosity of the many caught up in the moment. If that was indeed the case, I have no problem with that. It is no less a miracle to get five thousand hungry people to share what little they have than it is for the Lord to snap his fingers and produce the harvest.

          Is that what happened in Atlanta that January day? Was it just the natural generosity of the many in a crisis? Reports are that for all the acts of kindness, there were plenty who would not lift a finger for fear of losing their place in the traffic line, so it’s something more than mob generosity.

          With the Feeding of the Five Thousand, you can just say that Jesus was there. His presence alone was reason enough. If you did, you would be only half right. Jesus was also present in Atlanta in 2014. He is always present through the Holy Spirit abiding in his people. He is always present beside the Father interceding for his brothers and sisters in the faith. Jesus lost nothing in his Ascension. We just gained a spiritual presence in us here and a divine advocate for us in heaven.

          Here’s the point. The story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand is in every gospel for a reason. The teaching of this story is that important. It is a tale of wholesale generosity. It is a tale of miraculous multiplication. It is a reminder that if we are to reach the lost, we had better be prepared to feed them if we want them to be able to hear us. Man does not live by bread alone, but man cannot live without it. And for John, who more than likely was the last to write his gospel and who therefore would have been familiar with the other three, chose to add the boy, the boy who brought his bag lunch to Jesus and handed it over to be used by the Master. I’m asking myself, what was it that John wants us to consider? Why the boy?

          There are any number of reasons that John wants the boy to be in the picture. Here are a few I see.  First, he was a boy, not an adult. John might be telling us that revelation does not have to come just from on high, not just from the pulpit or the learned commentarian. Revelation can come in simple ways, like those of a boy with his bag lunch. Second, the boy was prepared. He was in a position to help because he didn’t come out to the mountain empty-handed. It’s the same as bringing your gloves to a work day or having a shovel handy when a hole is to be dug. Things don’t happen unless someone shows us prepared.

           And then, there is that supernatural presence of God that is waiting to be activated. If we don’t turn things over to Jesus, then we are left to our own devices. But when we do, look out! Great things can and will happen. Just ask Atlantans about how to come together and use what is there. Just ask our friend Toby, the boy with the bag lunch. If Toby were here to tell us about that day, he might say something like this? “It went from my hands to the Master’s hands. When you let things pass from your hands to the Master’s hands…they get multiplied.”

          So two plus five can equal thousands with Jesus. Whether its food, or clothing, or disaster relief, or people, or even souls, put it in the Master’s hands. And then, expect a miracle!