Dear Edgeboro Friends & Family,

I had a church member ask me a very specific Bible question out of the blue recently. I could sense this was not meant to be a challenging “stump the pastor” type of question, but rather a genuine one – and those type of questions are ones that I’m always eager to explore. The question was: “When Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, did he actually multiply the food?”

I wanted to answer instinctually with, “Yes, how else would 5,000 men (plus women and children) be fed?” But I’m glad I didn’t, because there’s more to it than that.

The story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people is included in all four gospels – something that isn’t even true for famous passages like Jesus walking on water, the Sermon on the Mount, or even the Christmas story. In three accounts of this story, it says that Jesus looked up to the heavens, gave thanks, broke the bread, and that the people left full and were satisfied. In John, Jesus did less than that, he only gave thanks. The mind-blowing thing is that none of the gospel accounts actually say anything about Jesus doing anything like multiplying the original food or producing or procuring additional food. No such verb is included here.

I don’t think that means that things didn’t happen like that. There’s absolutely room for interpretation that Jesus miraculously multiplied the food. There’s also room for other interpretations–that Jesus’ shared food in a sacramental Communion-like way and that people were spiritually filled, or that the generosity of Jesus and the disciples shown in their willingness to share their own food inspired many others within the huge crowd to also share their food with others who needed it more.

None of the gospel authors included the verb we thought or wish was there, and I ultimately don’t know, but I can’t help but wonder if that was on purpose so that we wouldn’t lose focus on what is clear in this story: the amazing power of generous sharing and breaking of bread.

There’s something about Jesus and food that brings about holy moments-fellowship, generosity, conversation,
inclusion, connection, joy, love. We know this. We see it al over the gospels. We witness it firsthand at church breakfasts. (I’m writing this just a day after our most recent breakfast on January 28th.) And we will have more
opportunities to witness this during the upcoming season of Lent when we eat together and study scripture together each Wednesday night. Join us, and I look forward to witnessing this with you soon!

Sustained by the Bread of Life with You,
Pastor Dan