Friday, 4/8/16
The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle that
John shares with the other three Gospels. He has five other miraculous “signs” he
did not share with them.
It has been pointed out to us that just as God in the Old
Testament broke the people away from slavery, leading them through the desert
years, and into the Promised Land, so Jesus breaks us away from sin, through
our lives, and into our promised land.
John. In his version of the exodus, marks those three phrases
by three times telling us, “The Passover of the Jews was near.”
Might you wonder how come Andrew knew about the boy with the
two fish and the five barely loaves? A relative, or a stranger?
All three Gospels used the same three verbs: “he took, he blessed, he gave” to record
what Jesus did with the bread. People say the four Gospels recorded it that way
because that is how it was said at Mass every Sunday in the time of the
Apostles.
Sixty-five years ago when I made a poster of this scene for
by bulletin board in Korea I pictured my houseboy holding a big straw basket, stepping
down to carry the loaves to the crowds below.
There is plentiful grass for feeding rich cattle in that
place across the Jordan in the springtime.
When people said Jesus must be the prophet they were
referring to Chapter Eighteen, verse 15 where Moses in Deuteronomy warned the
people against listening to soothsayers. “A
prophet like me will the Lord, your God raise up for you from among your own
kinsmen, to him you shall listen.”
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