On the subject of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, I recently read about a group of people teaching that Jesus did not really feed the 5000 cause the 5000 already have food with them and when Jesus distributed his 5 loaves and 2 fish they simply brought out their food and shared it with others. Thus the so-called miracle is really about the power of sharing.
Isn't it funny what people can come up with to explain away something they don't really understand? They don't understand how Jesus can take something small and multiply it more than a 100 times so they come up with a lame story to make it easier to understand and in the process turning Jesus' truth into a worldly lie. Obviously if the 5000 already had food with them in such vast amounts (who can miss 5000 loaves of bread or 5000 pieces of fish?) the disciples wouldn't have worried about their lack of food and the whole story wouldn't have happened in the first place.
The above sums up the problem with a lot of Christians. Such Christians do not believe that God wanted them to rely 100% on Him alone. They prefer to believe that the way God saves them is by helping them chase and win material prosperity and temporal happiness. So they ignore everything God says in the bible about worldly things. You can guess what happens to these people when they don't get what they want (especially since God often deprives people of material comfort so as to bring them back to Him). However instead of repenting and following God's truth such people try to change the Bible into something much easier to follow. Like ignoring everything Jesus said about suffering and carrying the cross in order to follow Him. Like ignoring the fact that God is love all throughout the Bible and that He punished the Israelites not to destroy them or because He hates them but because He wants them to see how far they've strayed from Him.
Thus we need the Holy Spirit to help us read the Bible so we don't let worldly judgments color our understanding of God's Word.
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1 comments:
Excellent reflection. In John Ch. 6, I noticed the miracle of the loaves and fish happens right before Jesus explains the Eucharist in John 6:32-71. I've often wondered if the miracle of the loaves was a way to teach us how it's possible that the Body of Christ could be made available to billions of people, daily if they wish, until the end of this world.
But, since many Protestants reject the Real Presence, it makes sense that they would lose the significance of the miracle of the loaves as well.
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