Reflection: The boy and the miraculous meal Further reading: John 6:1-15
When Jesus sat down by the Sea of Galilee on this day, he knew what was going to happen. He saw the crowds gathering, he knew they’d be hungry, and he knew there wasn’t physically enough food available to feed them all. I can’t help but imagine Jesus enjoying himself in these moments. When the disciples pointed out the obvious, ‘we can’t afford to feed all these people’, it was a small boy who stepped forward with food for the crowd. Was the boy familiar with the Passover story, of God’s miraculous provision of food in the wilderness? Did he have a sense that he was about to take part in a miracle? Or was he simply willing to be generous with what he had in his hands?
It’s interesting to wonder about these things. In the boy’s offering, we see faithfulness, generosity, and a joyful courage. He didn’t hesitate to bring what he had: he was unafraid of the likely unbelief of the adults.
I confess my children have often demonstrated a willingness to try unlikely solutions to challenges they face, only to be met with my response of, ‘I don’t think that will work’. But what if we paused instead and encouraged them to take what they have to Jesus and see what he will do with it? What if we trusted that God could take the willing offering of a child with very little and turn it into a miraculous meal for many? In ‘The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity’, Walter Brueggemann refers to this as a mindset of abundance, where, by God’s provision, everyone has enough. The disciples were stuck in a mindset of scarcity, ‘there isn’t enough’. But then a young boy said, ‘I have enough to share,’ and from this generous act a miracle takes place.
By now, we know it’s not a coincidence that it’s a child who teaches us this truth about God’s abundant provision.
‘The gifts of life are indeed given by a generous God,’ Brueggemann wrote. ‘It’s a wonder, it’s a miracle, it’s an embarrassment, it’s irrational, but God’s abundance transcends the market economy.’
Question: What might you have done when you saw this boy step forward in a hungry crowd with his bread? When have you seen children being generous with what they had? What happened?
Prayer: Lord God, you are our generous provider. We thank you that, in you, there is always enough. Help us to see what we have in our hands that we could share. Thank you that you invite us all to take part in the miracle of your provision for people in need around the world, because of Jesus. Amen.