You’ve heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Do you know the story of the boy with no name?
There are many characters in biblical stories. Some of the characters are protagonists or antagonists. Some have large roles in the story, and some have small roles in the story. Some of the characters are places or objects or rituals. Whatever or whomever the character is, the purpose of each character in the story is to point to Jesus.
In chapter 6 of John’s gospel, the gospel writer gives his account of Jesus miraculously feeding more than 5,000 people with a few loaves of poor man’s bread and some pieces of fish. This story is told in all four of the gospels (Matt 14, Mark 6, Luke 9). Only in John’s gospel do we hear the story of an anonymous young man.
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” John 6:9.
The other gospels make no mention of where the bread and fish came from, only that it was nearby. John does not name the boy or specify whether he was a teen or a toddler. The text doesn’t mention if it was food brought for a family and then shared with the disciples or if the boy was a servant with permission to give the food. Whoever this boy was, this was his only role in John’s account of the event.
The miracle of feeding more than 5,000 people with a small amount of food is intended to reveal who Jesus is. The crowd has followed Jesus out into the countryside from neighboring cities hoping to see miracles. When everyone was able to eat their fill, twelve baskets of food remained. Because of this, the people began to speculate that Jesus was the promised leader they read about in the scriptures.
Important details according to John:
The people were in need. Galilee was known as a peasant, agrarian region of Palestine. Barley bread was known as poor people’s food. The people were under the added burden of heavy taxation and were looking for relief and help.
Jesus saw their need. He had gone up on the hillside to sit with his disciples as teachers were known to do. He saw the many people coming to him and had compassion for them because they were “bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). The disciples wanted to send them away to fend for themselves. The miracle that Jesus performed not only revealed his true identity, but the miracle also brought genuine hope and help in the face of real-world needs.
The disciples saw the lack of provisions and were hopeless. Jesus asked Philip where they could get food for everyone. Philip replied that eight months of wages wouldn’t be enough money to buy bread for everyone to get a bite (John 6:7). The disciples were in a human and understandable mindset. I’m not enough. I don’t have enough to make a difference. We can’t meet the needs of these people.
Jesus gave thanks for what was provided. The miracle happened somewhere in that thanksgiving. Five barley loaves, about the size of pita bread, and two fish broken into pieces were distributed and fed 5,000 men who were counted plus the women and children who weren’t counted. Everyone had their fill, meaning that they were no longer hungry. God used the insufficiency of what they had available to reveal his Son and pour his blessings into the world.
The Hard Part
This is a difficult and unpopular truth. The boy who arrived that day carrying a basket of bread and fish didn’t matter. His name wasn’t recorded because his name written in the gospel wouldn’t help people see Jesus better. His participation went almost completely unnoticed because the story wasn’t about him. He played a small role in the grander story of God and then went back to his ordinary life.
We don’t know the story of the boy with no name. And that’s OK.
In modern society, to do the basic and right things like sharing some bread and fish would be labeled heroic. Someone would make a video about the good deed with the hope that it goes viral on the internet. Mom would be posting selfies with her boy and telling everyone that her son was the one who shared his food with Jesus as if those five barley loaves and two fish filled the stomachs of 5,000 people. That boy would be the hero of the story.
It’s often hard to remember that we have no power of our own to change the world. It’s not about us. God loves us and treasures us. But his story is not about us. His story is about his Son and the love that is meant to meet very real needs in the real world.
All we can do is offer the insufficient, small amount that we have to Jesus with thanksgiving. Then we step aside so that others can supernaturally have their needs met and see Jesus for themselves.
When we take what little we have and thankfully give it to Jesus, we have done our part. If no one knows our story, if no one knows our name, it’s OK as long as they see Jesus.
“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” (Luke 17:10).
Copyright @ TA Boland 2023
Image: Unsplash
Comments