A Devotion on John Chapter Six

A devotion by Katie Guerin

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
1Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”6He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
10Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”13So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
John 6:1-15 NIV

The story of Jesus feeding the five thousand is fairly well known. The first thing I notice is that the crowd of people were following Jesus "because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick". The people had not yet accepted him as the Messiah, but they were very interested in his miracles. We tend to do that too. Do we really believe in Jesus as our savior and Lord? or do we simply want to use him as a genie that might grant our wish to be healed, or have a bad situation fixed, or to find a relationship? 
Interestingly, Jesus knows this about the crowd of people and he does something surprising. He feeds them. He doesn't berate them or lecture them about their motives. He simply feeds them. 
That brings us to the next part of the passage; Jesus' disciples asking how in the world they're going to feed so many people! Five thousand men, plus their families. There were possibly over ten thousand people in the crowd! Even in our day and age, feeding over ten thousand people is a huge undertaking. 
In Jesus' time, people were fed according to their class. Men before women, rich before poor, healthy before ill. Jesus did something unprecedented and fed every single person at the same time, and they ate their fill. Then there was food left over! 
Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly. Jesus takes what we have and multiplies it. He uses our small talents and our small capacity for love or generosity or compassion and he multiplies it so that it can be used to feed thousands.
What's more, we aren't bound by a social class system or by what society thinks of us. We are given life by Jesus, and we are all seen as equals to him when we accept his free gift of salvation.