More Than A Miracle

I want to remind you of the fact that Matthew records no response to this miracle, and in the beginning we said that he does this because this miracle is about more than the miracle itself. What we meant by this was that this miracle was about Jesus, the One who stood behind it all, and not about the people or their hunger or the bread they ate.

We should pay careful attention to this strange final verse in our reading, this apparent non-response to the miracle that was just performed. In verse 22 we read, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.” Now in preparations during the week this verse struck me as odd, not only because it fails to record a response, but also because Jesus is said to have “dismissed the crowd”... what was this dismissal? Was it a simple wave goodbye? Was it a prayer for their safe travel home? Or was it a final word that was meant to teach the crowd the meaning of this miracle and draw their minds to a higher interpretation of it?

I think it may well be the latter. And I think what Jesus may have been teaching the crowd in this dismissal could have been something along the lines of; “You were hungry today, and naturally so, because it was a long and hard day. But your hunger should serve to remind you of a more desperate need you have – that being for true life. Not the sort of life that needs to be sustained by the regular consumption food, but the sort of life that will never leave you hungry. Life in me, life eternal that only I can give you.”

Now before you brand me presumptuous, at best, and heretical, at worst, for inserting these words into the mouth of Jesus when, according to Matthew, he said no such thing. Let me remind you also that in the beginning we said that this same miracle is recorded for us in each of the four gospels – it is in John’s Gospel, chapter six that we hear Jesus speaking very similar words to what I’ve just imagined he might have. In verse 26 & 27 of John 6, shortly after performing this miracle and being searched out by certain people in the crowd, Jesus says the following words: “I tell you the truth; you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which [I] will give you...”

Could it be that Matthew’s dismissal is the speech given in John? Perhaps, it is likely... and if it is then we would do well to heed these words and realize that at a deeper level this miracle is not so much about satisfying a crowd’s temporal hunger as it is about revealing the true hunger that gnaws away at each one of us on a more permanent scale – the hunger for life, full, true and eternal life and that, dear friends, is a life that only Jesus, the Compassionate one that stands behind this miracle can give, and what a wonderful life it is that we will find in Christ if we would only let him satisfy our true hunger for it.