Satisfying Hunger: Unveiling Miracles - John 6:1-21 (Proper 12B)

We are starting an adventure today, also known as my first preaching series! We will be taking a deep dive into the Gospel of John chapter 6 to see how food and faith intersect to bring us closer together as a community. I hope you came here today hungry for ice cream, but most importantly, JESUS!

We will be checking out the first 21 verses for this first week. Here they are, in the Contemporary English Version: 

“Jesus crossed Lake Galilee, which was also known as Lake Tiberias. A large crowd had seen him work miracles to heal the sick, and those people went with him. It was almost time for the Jewish festival of Passover, and Jesus went up on a mountain with his disciples and sat down. When Jesus saw the large crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?” He said this to test Philip since he already knew what he was going to do. Philip answered, “Don’t you know that it would take almost a year’s wages just to buy only a little bread for each of these people?” Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the disciples. He spoke up and said, “There is a boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?” The ground was covered with grass, and Jesus told his disciples to tell everyone to sit down. About 5,000 men were in the crowd. Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he passed the bread to the people, and he did the same with the fish until everyone had plenty to eat. The people ate all they wanted, and Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftovers so that nothing would be wasted. The disciples gathered them up and filled twelve large baskets with what was left over from the five barley loaves. After the people had seen Jesus work this miracle, they began saying, “This must be the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Jesus realized that they would try to force him to be their king. So he went up to a mountain where he could be alone. That evening, Jesus’ disciples went down to the lake. They got into a boat and started across for Capernaum. Later that evening, Jesus still had not come to them, and a strong wind was making the water rough. When the disciples had rowed for five or six kilometers, they saw Jesus walking on the water. He kept coming closer to the boat, and they were terrified. But he said, “I am Jesus! Don’t be afraid!” The disciples wanted to take him into the boat, but suddenly, the boat reached the shore where they were headed.” 

Jesus’ Followers vs Social Media Followers

Our passage is hopefully familiar, as it appears in the other three gospels as well. Jesus is in the middle days of his ministry and has developed quite a following. Today, having “followers” is just a number on a screen, but for Jesus, having followers meant that all the people were tagging along with him wherever He went. Now, that is a much more significant commitment! Social media allows us to “follow” all kinds of people and interests, but imagine if you only got to choose 1: one page, one person, one way of life. You’d have to be much more careful who you are physically following, but maybe that’s leading into a whole different sermon…

Food Insecurity in the United States 

Anyway, first, I want to talk about food. Many in our country are food insecure. Food insecurity means needing access to quality, affordable, and nutritious food. The COVID pandemic exacerbated food insecurity across this nation, especially for our children. While teachers were trying to figure out how to have school virtually, administrators and parents were scrambling to figure out how to feed the millions of children on free or reduced-cost lunches through school programs. Many schools opened up to allow all children in their community to pick up meals once a week. While I am sure this helped, it was also no substitute for the consistent meals children would have gotten every morning and afternoon if they were in school. 

But food insecurity affects everyone. Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization. Through a network of food banks, pantries, and meal programs, it serves 40 million people. According to Feeding America, before the pandemic, 14.3 million American households were food insecure. In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, more than 54 million people experienced food insecurity. While some families may receive government assistance like SNAP (food stamps), many households that experience food insecurity do not qualify for government assistance and rely on their local food banks.

Food insecurity impacts everyone – seniors, children, rural communities, urban communities, across racial and ethnic lines. And it has long-lasting effects. Many people who are food insecure also face health illnesses.

How many people do you think are food insecure in Allen County? In 2019, which is the last year, there are statistics that over 43,000 people, or about 12% of the total population, were food insecure in this county alone. Are you surprised by that? I know I am. 

How might we address this issue with faithfulness and grace? Let’s see how Jesus might handle it. Getting into our example follows a pattern that is consistent among Jesus’ other miracles. There is some buildup, which ends up presenting a problem. Jesus offers the miraculous solution and then the aftermath. Let’s see if we can break down this pattern. The buildup starts with Jesus traveling across the Sea of Galilee after the events of the previous chapter. As a quick reminder, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of blasphemy after healing on the Sabbath. He is getting attention for his miracles, but it’s not all positive. 

Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand

With this crowd approaching Jesus, this is where the problem is presented. This group of followers has been trailing them for several days, so food is getting to be relatively scarce. Jesus recognizes the issue of his followers’ physical hunger and wants to help relieve them of it. 

Regardless of what happened next, the disciples probably could see three options: Get everyone to leave (which hurts the mission) and doesn’t solve the problem. The Gospel of Mark and Matthew have some discussion of this option. 

Secondly, raise money! So Jesus turned to Philip and asked what they could do. Philip seems to be too involved in his surroundings, so he’s trying to think logically about fixing it. His assessment? We don’t have enough resources, and even if we had enough, people would not be satisfied. It would take us more than six months to work and provide for this large of a crowd. And imagine how much hungrier they will be by then? His answer is led by his eyes and the concept of scarcity. It shows a lack of faith, but it is an entirely valid and human response. The scripture says that Jesus was testing Philip, but why? Essentially, Jesus was testing Philip to reveal his own heart, not to reveal Philip to Jesus. It’s so that Philip could understand who Jesus is and what he came for. 

Next, Andrew speaks up and has been scratching his head about this problem. He notices a boy who has a lunch of barley loaves and dried fish. He sees the food and wants to divide it among the multitude, which numbers about 5000. Andrew is known for bringing people to Jesus, and this is no exception. Thankfully enough, the boy was willing to sacrifice his lunch for the betterment of the group watching. Being a fly on the wall for this conversation would have been something. So, the disciples have five small loaves and two fish, and there is a stadium full of people. How are we going to manage this? Answer: By giving it to Jesus. 

The fourth option, which may have been less apparent to the disciples until it happened, is that Jesus took the bread and fish, blessed it, and gave it away. It was able to satisfy the whole crowd! There is the miracle!

And, the aftermath - let’s read verses 14 & 15, “After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

What is the simple takeaway here? When in a crisis, give all you have to Jesus. It may not make sense, but the blessing helped the multitude there who were also in trouble. Jesus MAKES IT ENOUGH. You will find satisfaction in handing over control and expectations. That’s where the miracle happened; The disciples couldn’t do anything with the sacrifice, but Jesus made sure our needs were taken care of. 

Let’s get a little deeper here. So, the text says there were about 5000 at this gathering. Counters at the time would have only been counting the men, so to include the women and children who were there, a more reasonable total headcount is between ten & twenty thousand. That’s more than the Coliseum can hold! And all we have are two fish and some barley loaves? No wonder they needed Jesus!. 

Philip’s response to Jesus is pretty common even for us in our modern age and location in the world. What can we do to solve this unimaginable suffering? Raise money! And money is excellent. Great things can come from spending money, but I feel like it can be a barrier to relationships outside of our comfort zone. Relationships that can be transforming - like Jesus wants us to be! Instead of just raising money, they went to the community outside of their own group and met someone with a few resources willing to help. That relationship helped change the circumstances for all those who were present. 

The question from Jesus, “Where are we going to find bread for these people to eat?” seems absurd, but Andrew’s response to Jesus’ question seems just as ridiculous. “hey Jesus - ha ha ha - this kid has some fish and barley loaves, how bout we try that… ha ha ha”. The little gift from a child who wasn’t even in the number counted couldn’t have been the thing that gave the crowd comfort and satisfaction!

I think this child, who identified his gifts, which Andrew confirmed, was called to be an apostle at the moment by presenting those gifts to Jesus, who then could bless and multiply those gifts. The child had faith that Jesus could use - faith that saw beyond the scarcity of the situation. The disciples could have dismissed him - too young, too inexperienced, a fool, etc. How often have we ignored ideas, or others dismissed OUR ideas because faith and imagination didn’t lead others to the point where we were? Jesus didn’t need a ten-point plan to map out how implementation happened. We just had five loaves and two fish - and Jesus said it was enough. 

The miraculous story of feeding the five thousand reminds us that Jesus was aware of our physical needs. He knew we could be tired, hungry, and impatient, and he wanted to help alleviate that suffering. In the great mystery of faith, the impossible became possible because of Jesus! The apostles doubted because they still saw through the lens of scarcity and physical limitations. When we give all we have to Jesus, who blesses it, it can multiply to feed a whole community!

Finding Satisfaction in Jesus

Many churches focus just on proselytizing or just on providing physical needs. Jesus calls us to both; Jesus knows that we have physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. If people’s basic needs are unmet, the pursuit of other things fails. Have you ever tried to focus when you are hungry? It’s hard!

Well, the next question that I’m sure is on your mind is, we are only a small church. What can we do about it? I’m glad you asked! There are several things we can do apart from helping supply the food pantries in our city. Even if it has been more challenging to do so through this COVID time, that is essential. As much as we want to have that connectional help to ease the suffering, what are some more significant ideas that can have systemic implications for relieving poverty, climate change, and hunger, among others?

In our industrialized world today, there are many ways we can push back against the tide of globalization. It may seem like a drop in the bucket, but as we see with the boy whose lunch filled an entire community. First, we can shop locally. There are many local options when looking to spend our money. They may not be the most readily available. We may have to go out of our way, but talking to the farmers who grew your produce or a store manager about stocking certain items builds relationships. Isn’t that something Jesus would want? In the last fifteen years, our city has bloomed with two fantastic farmers’ markets put on by nonprofits. Among other things, the products or other goods are handmade by the sellers who have intimate knowledge of the processes, versus going to a big box store that has put things on shelves because a manager told them.

Second, we can educate ourselves about the systems that continue to leave the world hungry, physically and spiritually. We can connect with others who want to help alleviate the struggle of poverty, ability restrictions, chronic health concerns, and more. We humbly serve these communities as we would our friends. Hopefully, we can educate others to support and encourage those minimized voices in the great marketplace of ideas. 

Third, we can look at our lifestyles and confront our sense of need and satisfaction. Tadj has been on a kick to lessen the abundance in our own house with the mantra, “Stuff is the enemy of clean.” If we have less stuff, the less we have to take care of and maintain, simplifying our lifestyle. There is peace in the satisfaction of enough. 

There are so many different perspectives on solving every overwhelming problem. But let’s not discount the work of Jesus. Let’s not shrink Jesus into a box where he can do the same things we do. Jesus was with us then and is still with us now. Maybe volunteering at a food bank stocking shelves doesn’t seem like much more than five loaves and two fish, but it helped feed a whole community. Maybe writing or calling political leaders seems like just the two fish, but identify what you have, give it to Jesus, and see how He uses it. Communities actively advocating for their hungry are faithful and obedient. Maybe biking or walking instead of driving seems like five loaves and two fish, but who knows what you might encounter that could be a blessing to you or someone you don’t even know? All we do is what we can do, knowing it is enough. Hope springs from our faithfulness - it inspires and plants seeds for others to at least ask questions for faith to bloom.

The question is not when we will be satisfied individually but when our community will be wholly satisfied. As the rich get richer and blast themselves into space to escape? Or knowing that there is enough food for everyone to have access to? Why are we worthy of being satisfied but not our neighbor? How can we know what our neighbor is hungry for if we don’t even have a relationship?

Jesus knew his power. He showed us that he was satisfied with it. Hopefully, you know his power and have seen the multiplication of your faith. May we lead others to find that satisfaction in the love of Jesus.