Loaves and fishes revisited

Mark 6:30-44

          There is a miracle in this passage that is not always mentioned for fear that it might minimize the effect of the true multiplication of loaves and fishes. It is no different than any other of the miracles that our Lord chose to perform on our behalf or on behalf of some poor sick yet faithful person.

          As with any scripture passage, it always helps to understand the context, history, geography, style of writing and the myriad practical things that influence the writer and the reader. Perhaps more importantly, the reader. The life of this ancient civilization is based on a nomadic people. Wandering, forced into slavery, living in hostile terrain and territory. These kinds of facts leave clues. For example food purity rituals for a people living in the sandy desert would seem like a no brainer so they became laws.  It was simply practical.

          In a hostile enviornment you would tend to hold onto every bit of food you had, especially when you did not know perhaps where or when your next meal was coming from. It is in this context that we see yet another miracle unfold in the loaves and the fishes. Is it perhaps possible that a large group of people who might necessarily be strongly attached to their food supply could be convinced to share it with everyone else?  This would leave them quite vulnerable in that hostile enviornment in which they lived. And yet this could easily be the miracle, a change of heart. A willingness to put everyone else first. The needs of all, greater than the needs of the one (the ones with the food).

           The change of heart can be the biggest and most profound miracle. Common literature, movies of every variety tell of changed hearts. Is there any better than Dickens' A Christmas Carol?  Are you aware of one of the gay community's staunches enemies with regard to marriage equality recently made a 180 degree turn and now supports marriage equality? A change of heart is one of the biggest miracles we can encounter and one that we can experience ourself.

              When an angel of the Lord told the wise men to return to their home via another route do we realize the implications? Once we meet Jesus (as a babe or otherwise), our hearts are forever changed and we can never go on living the same way. We proceed in life via another route.

               A miracle, thee miracle, of our own changed hearts comes from meeting Jesus in a personal way and seeing that he is in fact in all those around us. When we put others first, we discover a new loving heart  within us. Again, the miracle of the changed heart - our own.

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.