Being Part of A Miracle

A dramatic proclamation of John 6: 1-21 in the form of an imagined interview.

Today we have a very special visitor! The story we just read included a boy who helped Jesus by giving up his lunch for Jesus to feed the whole crowd. He is here so that I can ask him about what it was like to be part of one of Jesus’s miracles.

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So, can you tell us why you were there on the lakeshore that day?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have been there at all if it were up to me. I mean, I know everyone in the village was talking about this new teacher who could heal any disease, but I’ve never really been one to follow the crowd. I had the day off from fishing with my father and I would have much rather spent time with my friends than hiking out to a remote spot with my family and half our Galilean neighbors!

Oh! OK. I guess I wasn’t expecting someone who had seen one of Jesus’s miracles to NOT be excited about it.

Well, to be fair, you asked why I was there in the first place. We haven’t gotten to the miracle part yet.

Right. Of course! So, why were you there.

(Sigh) My mom made me go.

Hmmm. Yeah. Moms are like that sometimes.

Whatever. It was fine. It was actually my uncle we were going for. He had been infected with leprosy the year before, which… was pretty awful honestly. Before that he had lived with our family and worked on the fishing boats with my Dad and I. But lepers have to live outside the town, where they aren’t a danger to other people.

Oh. That sounds awful.

It was. It’s this terrible disease that can be passed along by touching. So, I hadn’t been able to hug my uncle for over a year. He was a lot younger than my Dad, so he was really like a big brother to me. We used to wrestle and mess around a lot. And he would always mess up my hair – which I hated! – but I kind of missed it once he had to move to the leper colony.

So, what did you mean that you went to see Jesus for your uncle?

Well, Mom was convinced that Jesus could heal him, but it was tricky for my uncle to get to see Jesus because he wasn’t allowed to touch anyone outside the colony, and with the crowds always following Jesus he had no way to get close. But Mom had this idea that everyone in the extended family could form a circle around my uncle… far enough away that none of us were touching him, but then we could all be a barrier from the crowds, so that we could work our way up to see Jesus.

Wow! Your Mom sounds really smart!

Yeah, I guess (rolling eyes)

So… did it work? Did your uncle get close enough for Jesus to heal him?

Yeah. I know that’s not why you invited me here to talk to you, but as far as I’m concerned that was the REAL miracle that day! It changed our lives forever to have my uncle whole and healthy again.

Although, for a while there, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. It took FOREVER for us to get close to Jesus because there were, like, thousands of people there, and it was really hard to push through the crowd while keeping our protective circle around my uncle but not touching him ourselves.

Wow! That must have been really frustrating and stressful.

I mean… Yeah, you would think so. Thousands of desperate people all trying to get the attention of just one prophet. But… I don’t know. I can’t really explain it, but it wasn’t like a normal crowd. People weren’t shoving, or swearing, or getting irritable. There was this… peace… I’ve never experienced anything like it before.

That sounds a bit like a miracle itself.

Oh, it was! But then we finally got up close to Jesus and he saw us, all in this huddle around my uncle, with linked arms, and him in the center with his head on a constant swivel to make sure he wasn’t touching any of us. And Jesus got this look in his eyes… it was so full of just compassion and love. He took a few steps toward us and reached his arm over my shoulder and laid his hand directly on my uncle’s shoulder.

            Jesus said, “Brother, you are clean. Let your family embrace you again.” And that was it. I looked at my uncle’s hands that had been gnarled and swollen with the infection, and they looked like young hands again… the skin was smooth and whole. He stared at them for moment too, and then his smile practically cracked his face open. The whole family was laughing and crying and reaching out to touch him for the first time in over a year. He reached out and messed up my hair and I didn’t even care. It was the best moment of my life.”

Wow! What an amazing thing to experience. I can understand why that seems much more important to you than the feeding miracle.

Yeah… I mean. It definitely was. But also… the food was cool too. And very welcome, because I was hungry! Have you ever noticed how big emotions can be super exhausting?

Oh, definitely!

Right, I definitely felt that. After my uncle was healed we all just hugged and laugh-cried in our big family huddle for like 10 minutes. Until… umm… never mind. It’s kind of embarrassing.

Umm… Ok… I would never make you share something you don’t want to, but I will admit I’m curious.

Well… It’s just… it might have been me who got Jesus’s attention about how hungry the crowd was.

Oh? Did you say something to him?

Not exactly….

So…

My stomach… might have growled… really loudly!

I see.

What? I’m a growing boy! And we had been there for hours! AFTER walking miles and miles into the wilderness. I had worked up an appetite!

Right, but you had food with you, right?

Oh yeah! Mom thought of that too… I know, I know… she’s super smart.

If you say so!

ANYWAY…. My stomach growled, and I saw Jesus turn toward me with this, like, amused and knowing look on his face. Then I heard ask his disciples how they were going to feed all the people who must be hungry so late in the day.

Hmm. I wonder why he asked them that?

Right?! It was kinda strange, because, obviously, he didn’t actually need their help! He had the power to perform miracles. He had been demonstrating that all day!

Exactly. Longer than that even.

Yeah, but I’ve thought about it since, and I think Jesus did what he did because he understands something about people and how we need each other. Like, when Jesus healed my uncle, he told him he was clean and then immediately told him to let his family embrace him. Like… Jesus understood that we were all sharing the pain, even though our bodies were healthy. So, we all needed to share the healing too.

Oh, interesting.

And the same principle applies on a bigger scale too. With something like a hungry crowd. It wasn’t a problem just for the people who had no food, and it wasn’t a problem just for Jesus to fix. It was a problem for everyone. Like… I wasn’t just going to sit down with my family and enjoy our picnic while the people around us were starving. I was hungry, but I’m not a jerk!

Is that why you offered the food to Jesus? Was that an easy decision to make?

Hm… I wouldn’t say it was easy, no. I mean… I genuinely was hungry. And our food really was only enough for our family. It wasn’t enough to stretch very far. So… yeah… it was kinda scary to just hand it over not really knowing what Jesus was going to do.

What do you mean scary?

I mean, I was scared that I wasn’t going to get it back… or at least not enough to actually make a meal. And I know what that’s like… Being a fishing family can be tough. Usually we catch enough to cover our needs, but it’s never guaranteed. And once you have missed a meal because there just isn’t enough food… you never forget it.

Wow! So, it took a lot of trust for you to give your family’s meal to Jesus.

Trust… yeah, I guess that’s fair. I don’t really think of myself as the most trusting person under normal circumstances. Like, I have healthy skepticism about a lot of things. But in that moment, when I saw the disciple Andrew pointing to the basket of food I was carrying, and Jesus just looked at me with this open expression… like it was up to me what I was going to do… he wouldn’t force me to help… Well, I realized that I WANTED to help. And I trusted that Jesus enough to hand over what I had and just see what he would do.

What did you expect that to be?

Oh, I honestly had no idea. In fact, I still don’t actually know what he did. I handed over the basket and then the disciples started getting people to sit down in groups, and before I knew it, Andrew was handing me a half-loaf of bread and a big piece of broiled fish, and then the same to my uncle… and everyone I could see had food.

So, you didn’t end up hungry?

(chuckle) No. Definitely not hungry. No one was hungry. If they had been we wouldn’t have ended up with 12 baskets of leftovers!

Wow!

Yep. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before or since.

Well, I have just one more question, if you don’t mind.

Sure. What’s that?

What do you think you learned from that day?

That one’s easy. I learned that Jesus really SEES all the people around him… he sees what they need… including the practical things like healings and food, but he also sees that we need each other. And one of his most important miracles is the way that he gets average people like me and you involved in helping others.

Thanks be to God!