The multiplication of the loaves in passover!

Today's Gospel reading is about the Multiplication of the Loaves, a miracle by our Lord Jesus Christ that all Christians know by heart. If you open your Bibles, you can read it on John 6:1-15.

1 Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee [of Tiberias]. 2 A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish feast of the Passover was near. 5 When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?

6 He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, "Two hundred day's wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little [bit]." 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, 9"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" 10 Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. 12 When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." 13 So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.

14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." 15 Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone."

All these years of hearing about the feeding of the five thousand or the multiplication of the loaves, I myself always thought that only our Lord Jesus Christ made this miracle. So you ask, "Why is it that despite this big miracle, the five thousand people who witnessed it still called Jesus the Prophet?" Well, if you read the Old Testament thoroughly, you will discover if you open in 2 Kings 4: 42 that the Prophet Elisha also did the same miracle, but on a smaller scale. Allow me to quote that passage word for word.

42 A man came from Balla-shalishah bringing the man of God twenty barley loaves made from the first-fruits, and fresh grain in the ear. "Give it to the people to eat." Elisha said, 43 But his servant objected, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha insisted. "For thus says the Lord, "They shall eat and there shall be some left over." 44 And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the Lord had said."

That the Prophet Elisha prefigured our Lord Jesus through the same miracles gives you the idea that the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament. The only difference between what the Prophet Elisha did compared to what our Lord Jesus did was that he only fed a hundred people, while Jesus fed five thousand people. I'm sure that you must have also noticed that Jesus did the Multiplication of the loaves during the Feast of the Passover?

If you read in the Old Testament in Exodus 12: 21, you will note that the Passover is Judaism's greatest feast as it was the time when the Angel of Death "Passed Over" the Hebrews who obeyed the command of Moses which God himself told to Moses that if they offered an unblemished lamp and ate its flesh and sprinkled its blood on their door sills with a hyssop branch, their first born would not die. Because they obeyed God's word, Pharaoh released the Hebrews from bondage.



When our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist during the Last Supper, it was also on the Jewish Feast of Passover. But in fulfillment of the Old Testament, instead of the unblemished Lamb... Jesus became that unblemished Lamb to be sacrificed for the salvation of souls. This is why we call him the Lamb of God and when we take him in the Holy Eucharist, we are released from the bondage of sin!

I hope you didn't forget the Gospel reading last Sunday... about Jesus being the Good Shepherd. Call it a contradiction... that the Lamb of God is also our Shepherd. Well, our Lord Jesus is full of contradictions. For instance, we call him the King of Kings or the Lord of Lords, yet he insist on being called a Servant Leader, which is a contradiction in itself as leaders are not supposed to be servants. Speaking of Elisha... if you didn't know... he too parted the waters of the Jordan River and crossed it dry, just like what Moses did in parting the Red Sea. Actually, the Prophet Elijah did it first and you can read that passage in 2 Kings 2: 8. But since Elisha succeeded Elijah and got a double portion of his spirit, Elisha also parted the Jordan River, which you can read in 2 Kings 2: 14. God Bless you!

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected].