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Every one of the four gospels tells the story. Out in some deserted spot far from town, a big crowd shows up to see Jesus. Jesus tells his disciples to give the people something to eat, but all they can come up with is five loaves of bread and two fishes. Jesus takes the food, offers thanks, breaks the bread and shares it – and all have enough to eat and more.
Today, near the site where Jesus is said to have placed those loaves of bread for the hungry people, sits the rebuilt Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, with a famous mosaic of loaves and fishes.
Some people suggest that the mosaic artist didn’t know the story very well: There are only four loaves of bread in the basket, where each gospel says there were five. Where’s the other one, the one that made it possible to feed all those hungry people? I think the artist knew the story more than we’d guess. Jesus is the other one – the bread that came down from heaven, the bread given for the life of the world.
This message is excerpted from “You give them something to eat” by Audrey Novak Riley from the August 10, 2017, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today is the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost.