<p>14:17&nbsp;<em>And they say to him: We have here only five loaves and two fishes</em>- Jn. 6:9 says that they said: &ldquo;There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves and two small fishes&rdquo;. The boy out of the crowd gave the bread to the disciples- for now, the bread is no longer &lsquo;his&rsquo;, but belongs to &lsquo;the disciples&rsquo;. Then they gave it to Jesus. He then gives it back to the disciples, and they give it back to the crowd, including to the boy. We see in this cycling around of the bread an eloquent picture of the Lord&rsquo;s humanity. What little the crowd of humanity had was taken by the Lord and transformed by Him into what could save them; and in this sense, the bread was &lsquo;sent down&rsquo; from Heaven, in John&rsquo;s terms, even though it was a recycling of the peoples&rsquo; own bread.</p>
<p>The very human perspective of the disciples is almost predictably brought out by their response to the Lord&rsquo;s question to them about where to get bread to feed the hungry crowd. &ldquo;Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient&rdquo; was Philip&rsquo;s response (Jn. 6:7). Andrew&rsquo;s comment that they had five loaves and two fishes surely carried the undertone that &lsquo;&hellip;and that&rsquo;s not even enough for us, let alone them- we&rsquo;re starving too, you know!&rsquo;. The disciples wanted the crowd sent away, to those who sold food, so that they might buy for themselves (Mt. 14:15). As the Lord&rsquo;s extended commentary upon their reactions throughout John 6 indicates, these responses were human and selfish. And yet- and here is a fine insight into His grace and positive thinking about His men- He puts their very words and attitudes into the mouth of the wise virgins at the very moment of their acceptance at the day of judgment: &ldquo;The wise answered [the foolish virgins] saying, Not so, lest there be not enough [s.w. &ldquo;not sufficient&rdquo;, Jn. 6:7] for us and you; but got ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves&rdquo; (Mt. 25:9). Clearly the Lord framed that parable in the very words, terms and attitudes of His selfish disciples. He counted even their weakness as positive, and thus showed His desire to accept them in the last day in spite of it. Another reading of the connection would be that the Lord foresaw how even in the final moment of acceptance into His Kingdom, right on the very eve of judgment day, His people would still be as hopelessly limited in outlook and spiritually self-centred as the disciples were that day with the multitude. Whatever way we want to read this undoubted connection of ideas, we have a window into a grace so amazing it almost literally takes our breath away.</p>