God has always provided for God’s people. When, in the Second Book of Kings, the people of Israel are faced with a famine, the prophet Elisha knows that a meager offering of twenty barley loaves along with fresh grain in the ear will be enough. Give it to the people to eat, he tells his servant Gehazi, and when the servant protests that it can’t possibly be enough for a hundred people, Elisha shares God’s own words on the matter: You will eat and have some left over. The prophet knows that, as Psalm 145 reminds us, The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs. God will always give us food in due season, because God works to provide, no matter what barriers we might erect to stop him.
Jesus feeds a much larger crowd in John’s Gospel, but, while this miracle would surely have recalled to the people the work of the prophet Elisha, Jesus offers so much more than food to satisfy their physical hunger. Even the disciples see the situation as hopeless: There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many? Andrew asks. When Jesus provides more than enough food for the crowd, they immediately see in him the fulfillment of the ancient prophesies: This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world. Jesus’ ability to do what, to the human mind, is impossible causes them to want to come and carry him off to make him king. Jesus speaks to their hearts.
Like our Lord, we are called to be aware of others’ needs and to provide for them. This is integral to what it means to be church, as Paul reminds the Ephesians: in order to live in a manner worthy of the call we have received, we must bear with one another through love, allowing love to be what guides us in all of our relationships, that we might remain in union with Christ and in union with one another. We encounter Christ in Eucharist, of course, but we also encounter Christ in community, a unity that shares one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all. We can only provide for all if we are one in him, that we might be the hand of the Lord that feeds all through the power of his love.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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