10th Sunday after Pentecost
II Kings 4: 42-44; John 6: 1-21
“The Miracle of the Loaves”
Elaine York, Commissioned Pastor
The Miracle of the Loaves
Good Morning,
It is wonderful to be back with all of you this morning. A lot has been happening here with your pastor search.
As usual you are ahead of St. John’s in seeking a new Pastor. We have just formed our Pastor Nominating Committee and will soon begin interviewing candidates. I have been on 3 PNC’s at St. John’s and appreciate the process. Please pray for us that we find just the right person to lead us in the future.
I spent a week doing the Bible Stories for St. John’s VBS. We had 35 kids and 10 kids came from the LDS church behind St. John’s which was a first and an awesome trend. Apparently, they do not do VBS and tried out ours. I believe we will have a larger number come back next year. The LDS parents and kids also came to our Worship Sunday after VBS to help us sing.
I will begin my tenth class at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in September studying the New Testament. Hopefully I will be better trained the next time we meet.
I like to begin my sermons with a bit of humor.
- Grandpa to Grandkid: Go hide your teacher is here because you skipped school today!
Grandkid: You go hide. I told her You passed away.
- Felt uncomfortable driving into the cemetery. The GPS blurted out you have reached your final destination.
- I don’t know why men go to bars to meet women. Go to Hobby Lobby. The female to male ratio is 10 to 1 and they are already looking for things they don’t need.
Let us pray: Almighty God, as we gather to receive Your word, we humbly seek Your guidance. Illuminate our hearts and minds with Your wisdom.
May your spirit be present in this moment, leading us in understanding and application. Amen
Now let us look at a few definitions of a Miracle. A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency:
A miracle is an extraordinary event that is considered a sign of divine intervention or a natural phenomenon that is extremely outstanding or unusual.
The biblical definition of a miracle would be something like this: “an event that involves the direct and powerful action of God, transcending the ordinary laws of nature and defying common expectations of behavior.” Miracles are extraordinary occurrences that can only be attributed to the supernatural work of God and demonstrate His involvement in human history. God employs miracles in the Bible to reveal Himself, His character, and His purposes to humans through phenomena that are not otherwise explainable (Exodus 3:1–6).
Do you believe in miracles? I hope so, I certainly do.
And now let us look at the meaning of bread in the bible:
Bread and Hospitality
The Threefold Purpose of Bread in the Bible
When God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, he said that Adam would work and sweat for bread. That pointed to the necessity of growing grain for food to survive. We need bread for sustenance. Our hunger also reminds us we depend on God who created food. Secondly, bread draws us together in fellowship. Abraham used bread for hospitality when he shared bread with his three visitors [Genesis 18] and enjoyed bread served to him by Melchizedek.
Genesis 14:17-24]. Jewish tradition includes breaking bread at the beginning of a meal with the words “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth. ”Jesus gave thanks and broke bread several times in the New Testament and the disciples carried on the breaking of bread in communion. Relationships develop when we care for one another. Hospitality focusing on serving and caring for another person. In restaurants we are served bread first as a sign of welcoming and generosity or bounty. Abraham not only offered bread, but he instructed his wife to use the finest flour to make the bread [Genesis 18:6]. He offered his guests the best food.
In our first scripture for today: we meet Elisha. Who is Elisha? He is a disciple and protégé of Elijah, and after Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind, Elisha received a double portion of his power and he was accepted as the leader of the sons of the prophets. Elisha then went on to perform twice as many miracles as Elijah. In a sermon by Mark Barber, the context seems to indicate that the 100 men belonged to the School of the Prophets. This was a sort of seminary for young ministers who first followed the prophet Elijah and then Elisha after Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. In other words, they were disciples of Elisha who came to learn about the ways of the LORD through him.
The text says that a man from a small village named Baal-Shalita came to offer the first fruits of his barley harvest in fulfillment of the LORD’s law on first fruits. This consisted of twenty-five loaves of barley bread plus some fresh grain. This feast happened on the Sunday after Passover, the Christian Easter.
When we see twenty-five loaves of bread, we must not think of the large loaves we find at the supermarket. Rather they were small loaves the size of a pancake or Pita bread. They would not provide much nourishment for a hungry company of men. Barley was a tough course bread, and the fact that these loaves would have been unleavened as the Feast of Unleavened Bread had just been observed. There would have not been enough time for the yeast to regenerate. So not only was this a small amount of bread for such a large company, it would not have been very appetizing either.
Elisha then asked that the bread be given to these hungry disciples to eat. But the servant responded negatively, indicating this was not enough bread for everyone to eat. But Elisha repeated his command. “Give them to the people to eat.” This time he adds the words from the LORD which promised that there would not just be enough to satisfy the hunger of everyone. There would be leftovers as well.
We can see that there are a lot of similarities between this text and the four Gospel accounts of the Feeding of the Five Thousand other than the scope of the miracle was smaller. Only 100 men were fed. We see a similarity between the man who had brought the loaves and grain to the little boy who brought the loaves and fishes. We see the complaint from the server and the disciples of Jesus that there was not enough to satisfy everyone. Elisha like Jesus tells the servers to serve the food anyway. There was enough for all with abundant leftovers.
Our second scripture for today recounts the feeding of the 5,000 by Jesus. According to Bill Lobbs: After these things Jesus went over to the sea of Galilee. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover of the Jews was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he said unto Philip, Where, shall we buy bread, that these may eat?
And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennies worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said unto him. There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So, the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down: and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost. Therefore, they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the crumbs and pieces of the five barley loaves, which remained.
I want us to look at a very special day in the life of Jesus where two important things took place that the disciples were witness to. First – Jesus fed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. Second – Jesus walked on water.
The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of the Lord that is recorded in all four gospels. This is really unusual when you think of all the miracles that Jesus performed in three and one-half years of ministry. The miracle is recorded in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and John 6. Each of the gospel writers has something to say about this miracle feeding that perhaps the others might have omitted in their telling of the story. When they are all put together, an interesting story begins to unfold before us.
I want us to consider the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand as being more than just a demonstration of the power of God by Jesus. It’s more than the Lord Jesus looking upon a group of people who had followed him all day listening to his teaching and were now tired and hungry and he was going to feed them miraculously. There’s much more to be discovered in this than that.
The first lesson that Jesus was going to teach his disciples. Never Assess A Difficulty In The Light Of Your Own Resources. Simply put, this means–Never look at a problem and then try to work it out depending entirely upon your own resources.
Lesson #2 is a solid Biblical fact and it is simply this: Little Is Much If God Is In It.
Lesson #3– Only Jesus Can Satisfy
Lesson #4 is this: Every difficulty is allowed or given by God to enrich and enlarge us. God uses
every difficulty that comes into our life for our benefit. God uses them to develop us.
Lesson #5 What is over our head is under His feet.
I pray that we believe that miracles still exist and that we have the resources of our precious Lord Jesus to turn to for help. Amen.
