¶ … Jesus Feed 5000 people Seven astounding signs are there in the Gospel of John. The first one is the process of evolving water into sweet wine. Second is the instance of curing the son of royal. Third is the instance of curing of an invalid man, suffering since thirty-eight years. Fourth one is the nourishing of the 5000 starving people. The fifth one involves strolling on the water at mid-night. Sixth one is blessings to the blind man so as to enable him to see. The seventh one involves nurturing of the dead Lazarus. These symptoms provide us sufficient grounds to raise our spiritual thinking that led to regard Jesus as God. The fourth astounding symbol in John's gospel is about feeding 5000 starving people. All such wonders were performed not to exhibit His enchanting power. These were performed since Jesus had great propelling heart for His people and desired to extend the same activities for the children of God. The feeding of 5000 starving people led us to conclude that He has a great marshalling heart. It teaches us to have belief to feed 5000 starving people with five small leaves and two of the small fishes. (The Five Loaves and Two Fish)

The incident of amazing feeding happened about a year prior to crucifixion of Jesus Christ upon the cross. This is the only amazing incident that is mentioned in all the four Gospels. This has profound impact on the people throughout the history, for the people of that time as well as of today those hear about them. (The Miraculous Feeding of the 5,000) With the return of followers back to Jesus, it is seen that Jesus took them out to a lonely place belonging to the city of Bethsaida. (Jesus feeds 5000) Jesus had been having awful days at that time. The information about assassination of the John Baptist by King Herod made Him much disappointed. Jesus at that moment desired to have some time alone and went to a desert place. (Feeding the 5000: A loaf of bread or poster of Jesus feeding the 5000)

However, the masses could trace Him out and followed Him. (The Miraculous Feeding of the 5,000) After a long walk at the completion of the day, about half way around the Sea of Galilee, many people felt tired and hungry necessitating healing. (Brow, 1999) Matthew 9:36 says that when Jesus visualized the helpless and harassed masses He had great sympathy for them since they were track less like sheep without a shepherd. He was sympathetic rather than petulant. According to Mark 6:34a, "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd." (The Five Loaves and Two Fish) This led Jesus to think that the masses were in such miserable situation not because they were wrong but because they had none to shepherd them. (The Five Loaves and Two Fish)

When Jesus was compassionate to the masses that came to Him, followers started to express their worries about their realization of the dawn of the day and they were then in a deserted place. The disciples were worried about feeding the masses. They suggested telling the masses to return to the town for purchasing food. (Being fed by Christ) The night was approaching. Therefore, the disciples came to him and suggested to make the people return since they had no enough food to nourish them when they allowed remaining the night. (Feeding the 5000: A loaf of bread or poster of Jesus feeding the 5000) The disciples expressed, "It is getting late, Teacher, and the people are hungry. Send the people away so they can go to the towns and buy food to eat." (Feeding of the 5,000: A Workshop Rotational Model)

This suggestion was not considered to be an agreeable solution. Jesus was not in favor of returning any one hungry and thirsty for the 'Word of God'. He considered them as "Blessed who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, since they shall be filled." (Miracles (4) Bread and Fishes: Dinner for 5,000) Jesus visualizing at the masses could understand that they were hungry and had not eaten. (Jesus feeds the 5000) Mark 8.3 said: "If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance." (The Five Loaves and Two Fish) The doctrine of Mark revealed they had nothing left to eat. (Brow, 1999) Jesus asked the disciples to feed them with whatever...

(Jesus feeds 5000)
The disciples felt helpless to carryout His desires. (Miracles (4) Bread and Fishes: Dinner for 5,000) Jesus placed the disciples in a perplexing condition when he said they need not be returned to be fed with the food that was available. The words were seemingly inexplicable to them. (Feeding the 5000: A loaf of bread or poster of Jesus feeding the 5000) It seemed mysterious to think of their feeding the multitude. The total stock they had were five loaves and two fish. Jesus had his own solution. (Jesus feeds 5000) Jesus queried Philip, "Where shall we buy bread that all these people can eat?" Philip replied, it would cost an imaginable amount to feed the mass and they did not have enough money. (Jesus feeds the 5000) Philip put forth an earthly solution to the problem. Philip expressed that collecting money would not be sufficient enough to purchase enough bread for feeding the 5000 men. Even Cub Foods cannot be fetched in enough quantity to feed the mass with the money available. (Sisterman, 2000)

Phillip was of the view that wages of about eight months would not even suffice to purchase a small quantity of food for them. He could not succeed in the test since he had simply calculated and then got despaired. He found out an earthly conclusion to the problem. (Sisterman, 2000) His reply was considered to be right in consideration to the human confinements. The intention of Jesus was that they should confront the realization. He asked Peter and other followers to conform to the task which was considered to be impossible. Jesus could perform the task through them and with their constrained resources. (Called to the Impossible - Luke 9:11-14) Another follower Andrew expressed about the impossibility of feeding the masses with the boy having five small barley loaves and two small fishes. Andrew said: "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" (The Five Loaves and Two Fish) The possibility of feeding the masses with that of the lunch of the little boy could not be understood by Andrew even after the willingness of the small boy to forgo his entire lunch to Jesus. (Jesus feeds the 5000)

Jesus offered the test to His disciples to view farther beyond the earthly confinements and also to understand the portions that God could utilize. Their idea of feeding the crowd was considered to be good and right. However, this was not included in the plan of God. Jesus re-concentrated their idea and proposed a different way of attaining the goal of feeding the masses. (Being fed by Christ) They were amazingly stunned when they were asked to feed the people themselves. They could guess that it would take at least 200 denarii's to feed 5000 people. (Lesson in the Gospel according to St. Mark 6:30-56) They could understand the healing of the people all the day; however, they failed to understand the ability of Jesus Christ to provide for every circumstance by way of the power of the spirit. (How does Jesus feed you?)

Andrew later surrendered the five small barley loaves and two small fish that they had to Jesus. Jesus instructed the disciples to tell the people to sit down. Jesus told his disciples to make the people sit forming groups of 50s. Mark described their groupings in 50s and 100s. 2 The people made to sit were counted to be 5000 in number, excluding women and children. Jesus took the little food that the boy had. There was the possibility of the boy to be puzzled about the action of Jesus with his lunch. He probably would have thought of nothing left with to eat. However, he gave it to Jesus anyway. Jesus then prayed to the almighty to bless the food and to foster the faith. (The Five Loaves and Two Fish)

After the prayer Jesus broke the loaves and fish and passed them to the disciples for distribution among the huge crowd. That was the moment the people could visualize the wonder Jesus did. Each of the individuals could eat according to their desire, however, the loaves and fishes remained as it was. Still a lot of bread remained after all the people were fed. Jesus instructed to accumulate the leftovers so as not to waste them. They could fill twelve baskets with the leftovers after feeding every one. (Jesus feeds the…