If I were to ask you what 5 + 2+ 1 equalled, most of you would say 8.  And most of the time you would be correct.  But what if I said that the answer was 5,000 plus?  That equation brings us to the only miracle of Jesus that is recorded in each of the four gospels.  That must mean that the miracle we know as the "feeding of the 5000" was pretty important.  This story - found in John 6 - is familiar to each one of us, yet there are many new things which we can learn about ourselves and about the Lord from studying it in a different light.  I find within this miracle account some very interesting people and also some very interesting needs which our Lord met.

We are living in a "need-oriented" society and people all around us have needs that must be met.  How thankful I am that our Lord still delights in doing the miraculous to meet our every need.  We still have that promise from Him that He will supply our every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  Let's focus upon three "needs" I see in this text.

First, there is the need for communion with God.  There were times when Jesus desired to withdraw from the crowds of men.  He was under constant strain and needed rest just like any human does.  He needed time also for prayer.  We could say that He needed some "R and R".  Jesus needed time away from the crowds.  He needed time just to instruct His disciples.  The coming months would be difficult for them...they needed encouraged...and He needed to be encouraged by them.  So, verse 3 states that Jesus and His disciples crossed the Sea and climbed up a mountainside.  Friends, there are times in our lives when we just need to get away.  Whether it is on a vacation or just a weekend.  We need those times of refreshment that come from escaping from the world of responsibilities and accountabilities.  We need those times when we can rediscover who we are in the Lord.  As a pastor, I needed that day-off.  Today, I need that Sunday-rest.  So, this great miracle begins with a craving for God. 

Second, there is the need for food.  Now while searching through some background materials on this text, that there was a spiritual side to eating for the Jews.  Eating was one of the blessings which God had promised them as they entered into the Promised Land (read Deuteronomy 8:15 and 11:15).  Eating was promised as a reward for obeying God (read Isaiah 1:19 and Leviticus 26:23-26).  Finally, eating was a figure of prosperity (read Ecclesiastes 3:13 and 5:18 and 8:15).  These people not only had a physical hunger, but they also had a spiritual hunger.  As they would discover, Jesus could satisfy both.

John reports the events leading up to this miracle differently than do the other three gospel writers.  They tell us that the disciples came to Jesus and requested that the crowd be dispersed so they could go and get their own food in the nearby villages.  Instead, Jesus instructs the disciples to obtain food.  It was a large crowd and it would take a lot of money to feed them.  But John tells us that Jesus knew what He was going to do (verse 6).  What a statement of His omniscience.  While Philip is questioning the obtaining of supplies, Andrew comes with important news.  He has been doing a little reconnaissance among the crowd.  He has found some food...it is not much, but it is more than other had found.  He brings to Jesus a little boy whose mother had fixed him a small lunch...just the right size for a growing boy.  It was two small fish and five loaves of barley bread.  (Note: barley was the cheapest of all grains to obtain; it was the food of the very poor).  Andrew, himself, questioned how these food items would help, but I believe he knew Jesus would do something with them.  The unnamed little boy gave his lunch to Jesus.  Friends, that is all that Jesus demands from any of us...He just wants our all.  It might be as small as two little fish or five little cracker-type loaves of barley bread.  Whatever it is, Jesus just asks us to surrender it to Him. How we need to remember that "little is always much when it is in the hands of Jesus."  And you know the rest of the story.  Jesus feed 5,000 men, plus women and children (some guess the crowd numbered in excess of 15-20,000).  And everyone was filled.  I am sure none of them had eaten so well in a long time.  Perhaps, for many, it was the first time they could remember when they were actually filled.  And, there was enough left to feed each of the disciples. 

But, I see one more need in this passage.  It is found in verses 14 and 15.  It is the need for discernment.  After seeing the miracle, or should I say, after eating the miracle, the people wanted to make Jesus king.  At that moment Jesus could have bowed to public zeal and brought in the kingdom.  But He did not.  Why?  Because the type of king the people wanted was not the type of king that Jesus came to be.  Oh He will become that someday, but first He had do die.  Jesus discerned the intentions of the people, and He discerned the time.  And He declined by walking away, alone, to another mountain to be encouraged by God.  And so we come full-circle in this story.  It began with Jesus upon a mountain seeking communion with God, and it ends that way. 

So, what does 5 + 2 + 1 equal?  If you are with Jesus, it can lead to a miracle. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.  (David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel)