By Steve Hall
A bountiful meal of rich wines and juicy meats became a commonly recalled image of the coming of the messiah, the establishment of the Kingdom, and the final act in which slavery would be abolished. It comes as no surprise, then, that the multiplication of the loaves and fish would recall that image.
Tuesday after Epiphany
I John 4:7-10
Mark 6:34-44
The multiplication of the loaves and fish is one of the few miracles recorded in all four Gospels. Its significance was first intimated several hundred years earlier in the land of Egypt. It was from there that the Lord rescued his people from slavery, and within that context, we learn of a meal that would, in time, be called the Passover. As directed by the Lord himself, a lamb was slaughtered, and its blood was sprinkled on the doorposts of the people’s homes. In recalling the account, it is not uncommon for emphasis to be placed on the blood of the lamb being spread at a home’s entrance, for that was the sign to the “Angel of death” that this home’s occupants should be spared the death that was coming to the Egyptians. But inside each home, a meal was being eaten, and that, too, was integral to the salvation that was to come.
In time, a bountiful meal of rich wines and juicy meats became a commonly recalled image of the coming of the messiah, the establishment of the Kingdom, and the final act in which slavery would be abolished. It comes as no surprise, then, that the multiplication of the loaves and fish would recall that image. John’s account tells us that, upon seeing this miracle, the people recognized Jesus as the Messiah and sought to make him King. But their kingly expectations were too human, and it was not yet the right time.
The connection between the Kingdom and the Eucharist is firmly established in John’s chapter 6. It is there that Jesus points out that the people’s royal expectations are tied to their full bellies, and that life can only be found in the eating of the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood. In that teaching, the elements of man’s salvation are all brought to the fore. The sacrificial lamb of the first Passover. The blood of the lamb by which life was affirmed. The multiplication of loaves, anticipating the coming Kingdom. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God made possible the fullness of freedom. The necessity of again eating the Lamb of sacrifice. The surrender of blood/life to the Father.
From the earliest days of Christianity, Jesus has been recognized as the focal point of all creation and the epicenter of time. We read this in Paul's proclamation.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the Church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20)
In the totality of creation, at the core and heart of all, we find Jesus. And in the teaching throughout his public life, we find this event and subsequent interchange (John 6) to be the focal point of all he would say. It is he past, the present, and the future given to us in the “now.”