Mana From Heaven -- Jesus Feeding The Five Thousand Series

Moses recorded the sermon for me. The sermon ran for about 45 minutes. It was fiery and delivered with charisma and passion, but I couldn’t understand a word. Moses visited me to translate and explain what he had said in the recording. He explained it to me in considerably basic English. I had an epiphany, and I was deeply humbled to learn from him the lesson from the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Through his words, God opened my mind to understand the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand most profoundly. It didn’t really matter to me about the pedantic inquiries of the story, whether it was three or five thousand Jesus fed and whether or not the women and children were left uncounted, possibly because the disciples were chauvinistic.

With his heavy Gujarati accent, he said, "Father, Jesus feeding the five thousand is the most beautiful story Jesus’ four friends—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—have told us in the Bible." When I prayed and asked God to help me give a message to share with my people in the camp, God said, "The story of my son feeding the five thousand." Then, I read the same story in the four gospels and learnt what God wanted me to say.

Jesus’ first friend, Matthew (by which he meant the Gospel of Matthew) tells us that Jesus is the long-expected Messiah who has come to us. He tells everyone that in Jesus, all our hopes are fulfilled, even when we experience the world of suffering.

Jesus’ friend Mark (meaning the Gospel of Mark) had the hard task of waking everyone up to recognise Jesus, who has come from God. Only when Mark rings the wake-up bell (a Gujarati slang to mean when awakened from daydreaming or slumber), people recognised Jesus. Only then did the people say Jesus is the Son of God and that he was doing great things in their lives. At first, they thought the stars were smiling down on them, but really, it was Jesus who was blessing them.

Jesus’ friend Luke (meaning the Gospel of Luke) tells us that Jesus shares God’s blessings and goodness with everyone, not only his own people. He shared God’s blessings, even with the outcasts and the poor.

Jesus’ friend John (meaning the Gospel of John) tells people not to worry about not having one thing or another. He says to the people: the Jesus who is with you is the Creator of the world (meaning the Word through whom God created the world). If only you ask him, he can bless you with your needs. The Creator of the universe can feed not only five thousand but all the people in the world.

I was deeply moved by Moses' words. Only then did the penny drop for me. I recognised that all four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) present the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand to explain to us the ways God provides us with his blessings.

The four evangelists explain this to us from four perspectives. Matthew invites us to acknowledge the Messiah is here. Mark invites us to recognise that God in Jesus was present to us to meet our needs. Luke tells us that, in Jesus, God is generous to all His children. John tells us that the Creator of the world does create and provide everything we need (not want). This is how God feeds us daily, especially at times of scarcity, whether it might be the lack of food, livelihood, basic needs, or faith.