Five Loaves of Bread and a Few Small Fishes

Last week I had the opportunity to teach Sunday School in my ward.  Part of the lesson I was able to teach was on the Savior's feeding of the five thousand.  As evidenced by the image taken out of a bible stories book, this is a story that we are all familiar with and know from the time we are young.  Sometimes these stories that we are so familiar with can lose the power that they ought to have in our lives because we assume that we have heard it all before.  At least I know that I've done this before.  In the process of tuning out, we miss the opportunity to hear messages that we hadn't heard before.  Gratefully last Sunday, I was willing to look closer and listen to the comments of others in the class which helped me to see greater meaning in this story.

I'm impressed by the fact that this story originates with an act of compassion and grace.  The Savior had just learned of the death of his friend and cousin, John the Baptist, and had gone by ship "into a desert place apart" (Matt 14:13), seemingly wanting to be alone to mourn.  But the people followed Him and He was "moved with compassion toward them" (Matt 14:14) so that he healed their sick and then taught them until it began to grow late.  The disciples began to worry and told the Savior to "send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals," prompting the Savior's response, "They need not depart; give ye them to eat" (Matt 14:15-16).  Ever the Teacher, the Savior was trying to help His disciples understood that they had more to offer to the Father's children than they had as yet understood.  In terms of spiritual nourishment, the Savior was trying to remind his disciples and the people that it would be these Twelve men to whom they would soon directly look for spiritual bread.  At the same time, He wanted those disciples to understand that they had access to priesthood power beyond what they had accessed to that point.

Still trying to understand how they were to feed the multitudes, the disciples remarked that they did not have enough money to buy bread for everyone, and all that could be found among the multitude were the "five barley loaves, and two small fishes" (John 6:9) that a young boy had brought with him.  "But what [were] they among so many?" (John 6:9)  Their query prompted the Savior's response, "Bring them hither to me" (Matt 14:18) and the resultant miracle by which those five barley loves and two small fishes not only fed, but "filled" the multitudes with enough and to spare left over.

At times in our lives, each of us are like the multitudes, the disciples, and the young boy.  Like the multitudes, we come to the Lord in search of healing and then in search of nourishment.  At times we may have almost nothing we can contribute to the whole.  For whatever reason, our best efforts still keep us focused upon our own need for healing and nourishment from heaven, and for these things we have come to the Lord.  We go to the Temple in search of answers.  We go to our knees with the weight of the world hanging upon our shoulders.  And we beseech heaven's comfort and aid.  We want to do more, but in those moments, the best we can sometimes do is to make it through the next day with the Lord's help.

Like the disciples, we sometimes have the ability to see beyond our own concerns to the needs and challenges of others.  We are filled with compassion toward them and we want to know what we can do to help, but despite the best of our efforts to come up with ideas, we are left without adequate solutions.  And then when the Lord instructs us, "Give ye them to eat" (Matt 14:16), we wonder how we will ever accomplish that monumental task.

And then there is the small boy, who for one reason or another had brought five small barley loaves and two small fishes with him.  It was likely all that he had.  Perhaps they were to be his own dinner that evening.  Perhaps he was intending to sell these meagre provisions to help provide for his family.  Whatever the case, he was asked to bring them unto the Lord; to sacrifice his all for the betterment of the whole.  And he likely wondered, as did the disciples, "What are they among so many" (John 6:9)?  Surely others had more to offer.  Surely his contribution was not enough to make the difference.  And yet, with faith beyond his years, this young boy gave all that He had to the Lord and His servants in hopes of blessing the whole of those who were there.  And as is always the case, whatever we bring to the Lord in sacrifice and consecration is blessed, multiplied, and increased to meet Heaven's needs.   In the eternal scheme of things, many of us probably have only five loaves of bread and a few small fishes to contribute to the Lord's Kingdom.  We wonder how He could ever do anything with so little. And yet, as we consecrate these small offerings to Him, He will find a way to make more of these offerings than we can possibly imagine.  With them, He can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and bring comfort to the disconsolate.  All that we have to do is place our few loaves and fishes upon the altars of consecration.  In the process, we too will be filled beyond what we thought we could expect.

Brett