The Bread of Life
Second, we learn from this that he can use a very small thing if it is committed to him. It has been said: “God must delight in using ordinary people with ordinary gifts because he made so many of us!”
Consider Gideon, an unknown young man from the “least” family in his tribe (his own word). But God only used this ordinary man after he taught him not to depend upon human power (Judges 7). In the New Testament Paul gave voice to the truth that God does not need the extraordinary when he said:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.… For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10)
Paul also explained why God delights to use us in our ordinariness and weakness: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
God uses common clay jars like us so that there will be no mistake as to where the power comes from. We so often think he wants and needs our strengths, and he does use them when they are committed to him. But what about our barley loaves, our ordinariness, our weaknesses? The truth is, these are harder to give to God. If you are eloquent, it is easy to say, “God, here is my eloquence. Take and use it.” If you are a good business person, it is simple to say, “God, you can have my administrative ability.” But it is another thing to give God your weaknesses. Elizabeth Elliot expresses the idea this way:
If the only thing you have to offer is a broken heart, you offer a broken heart. So in a time of grief, the recognition that this is material for sacrifice has been a very great strength for me. Realizing that nothing I have, nothing I am will be refused on the part of Christ I simply give it to Him as the little boy gave Jesus his five loaves and two fishes—with the same feeling of the disciples when they said, “What is the good of that for such a crowd?” Naturally in almost anything I offer to Christ, my reaction would be, “What is the good of that?” The point is, the use He makes of it is His blessing.
One final point: Jesus only worked when the loaves were put into his hands in willing consecration. We are only required to bring what we have. Will you give? This is the way the Bread of Life goes out to the world.
John’s account of this miracle says that “The Jewish Passover Feast was near” (6:4). In addition, the mention of “green grass” in Mark 6:39 verifies the season. Thus, many among the crowd were Passover pilgrims. It was just after Israel celebrated its first Passover in the Promised Land with Joshua that the miraculous manna ceased (Joshua 5:10–12). Now, just before Passover, the Lord miraculously supplied bread. These associations were certainly in Jesus’ mind.
The vocabulary in this miracle passage had a purposeful resemblance with that used at the Lord’s Table in Mark 14, where many virtually identical terms and phrases were used. John’s account of the miracle was followed by Jesus walking on water (6:16–24), and then Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse in which Jesus identified himself as the “Bread of life … the bread that comes down from heaven” (6:25–53, especially vv. 48–50).
The feeding of the 5,000 was meant to instruct us as to the meaning of Communion. The cup and the bread tell us that Christ’s life was given as an atonement for our sins. It is from his death and resurrection that we have life. But the feeding of the 5,000 also tells us that he truly feels for us with compassionate mercy; that he omnipotently provides for us through his creative power; that he fully satisfies us with his bread; and finally that he calls us to give what we have to him, that he might share the Bread of Life with the multitudes who are like sheep without a shepherd.