No. No. No. It had been that kind of day for Amelia. Did she want peanut butter and jelly? No. Would she like oatmeal? No. Turkey and cheese? Yogurt? Cheese pizza? No. No. No. We were both tired and she needed to eat dinner, but true to what her mom and dad told me before they left for their trip, she’d refused almost everything I offered her to eat. We were swinging outside when she spied the boat. Would you like to go for a boat ride when Poppy gets home? Lolly will make you a meatloaf sandwich and you can take it on the boat. Yes, and even please.
The meatloaf was leftover from her dinner the night before and she’d refused even a taste, but she stood at the counter on her step stool as I reheated her plate and scooped the already cut bites onto the bread, just as many as I could pack in. We wrapped it in plastic and she headed toward the back porch with her water bottle in one hand and the meatloaf sandwich in a vice like grip in the other. Only when we reached the tall brick stairs leading to the yard did she offer me the sandwich to carry so she could hold my hand.
As soon as she was buckled into her little life vest, she was ready to eat. She sat in her chair for the first few bites, then wandered around the deck, steadily munching. When all that was left was a hollow shell of crusts, we broke them apart and tossed them to the fishies. She watched intently as they floated past and began to sink before tossing in another piece, her own belly full.
Jesus told his very first followers that He would make them fish for men, and he showed them how to use a crust of bread for bait more than once. (Mark 1:17) When He was tired and hungry, Jesus used the cues of His own humanity to open the eyes of those who followed Him to their true need and the needs of those around them. If he had asked them if they were lacking, they, like us when we pray, would have jumped to material needs, temporal things that we feel would cause us contentment, but Jesus would have none of it. He often met physical needs, but consistently highlighted the spiritual lack that only He can supply.
”Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone.
But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them.
Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”
But Jesus said, “You feed them.”
“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”
“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”
They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”
Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.
Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share.
They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish.
A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.“
Mark 6:31-44 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.6.31-44.NLT
We’ve memorialized a young boy whose lunch became a feast for the masses. My mind goes back to stories my dad told me about our fishing escapades. The only fish I remember were the sardines in the tins packed for our lunch. My daddy would tease me about talking too much and scaring all the fish away. I remember one time not realizing a fish was on my line swimming lazily along the bank enjoying my bait- either crickets or worms- while I daydreamed, no doubt. Fast forward a few decades and I’m outrunning a thunder cloud on the lake in a rented pontoon, my dad at the helm, my youngest in his lap attempting donuts in a no wake lake, exactly where the disciples found themselves the night after Jesus fed five thousand. (Mark 6:45-52) They were young and naive, disciples of the living God in human flesh, still unsure about so many things, yet somehow sticking with Jesus come what may.
”The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them.
Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him.
They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.
But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food.
Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”
Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.
And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.
For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”“
John 6:22-40 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.6.22-39.NLT
Purposefully obtuse. My sons know this phrase well. I used it when they refused to understand me. It wasn’t that they couldn’t. They wouldn’t. Their eyes spoke recognition while their mouths, either through words or silence, refused to budge. It’s the same attitude Jesus was constantly addressing with the Pharisees. It’s why Peter and James and John and Paul wrote about faith and works, mercy and judgement, warning those with ears to hear that God spoke in their day through Jesus as He had spoken through the prophets of old, and He will surely finish what He started.
”Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.
So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”
”Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.
But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!
I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.
When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.“
John 15:4-7, 9-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.15.4-10.NLT
I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me.
I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”
”I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.“
John 17:21, 23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.17.21-23.NLT
Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”
Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? (Acts 1:9-11)
The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and he knew who would betray him.)
Then he said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”
At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.
Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”
Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”“
John 6:41-43, 48-58, 60-69 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.6.41-69.NLT
”Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so.
Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”“
John 17:24-26 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.17.24-26.NLT
”Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”“
Mark 4:23 NLT
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