When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat." But he answered them, "You give them something to eat."
(Mark 6: 35-36)
The feeding of the 5000 is a wonderful and well-known story from scripture. I have absolutely no problem believing it as a miracle. Jesus, the Lord of creation, could easily have transformed five loaves and two fish into a bounteous feast, enough for everyone. Not an issue for me.
For others, well, this becomes a stumbling block for them in relating to Jesus. And I get it. I truly do. I've heard the following, alternative, interpretation of the story and I find it to be a welcome interpretation. Why? Because I believe it has something meaningful to say to us, perhaps even more than a miracle of Jesus will.
The reading says that disciples ask Jesus to send the folks away so that they can "buy something for themselves to eat." The assumption here is that everyone should go their own way and be responsible only for themselves and their food. Jesus, however, offers another possibility, one that powerfully models the purpose and power of the kingdom of God.
When Jesus says, "You give them something to eat" could it be that he was suggesting we use what we have to take care of each other, feed each other, and share with each other instead of just going our separate ways? Could it be that Jesus is inviting us to experience what life in the kingdom of God looks like?
What if the act of Jesus blessing and sharing the loaves and fishes was to model for his disciples and inspire everyone else to share their food with each other? By doing so, there was not only enough, but plenty leftover.
It could have simply been an awesome miracle. Or it could be another kind of miracle; one where we learn to share, to love each other, and to use what God has first given us to be blessings to others in our world. As we do what Jesus invites us to do, we will come to find that we not only enough for all of us, but in fact we have an abundance. This is what life in the kingdom of God can be!
God of abundance, work the miracle of faith and loving of neighbor in my life. Amen.
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