The Life of Christ

Jn. 6:7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.”

Philip, trying desperately to come up with a reasonable response, first calculates that they had approximately 200 denarii on hand (two hundred days’ wages).

• Even that amount did not offer anywhere near the purchasing power necessary to feed this sized group.

Mk. 6:35-36 And when it was already quite late, His disciples came up to Him and began saying, “The place is desolate, and it is already quite late; 36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

When someone presents a need beyond our ability to fulfill, our knee-jerk tendency is to just send that person away.

• Before defaulting to that alternative, let us first ask the question, “Is there anything we can still do?”

• In verse 37 Jesus proceeds to tell His disciples to give them something to eat.

• Our mentality must be, “There must be something we can give — advice, prayer, encouragement, or even a tangible substance."

Mk. 6:37-38 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” 38 And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five and two fish.” After scouring the entire crowd, probably numbering approximately 20,000 people (5000 men, plus women and children), it seems that everybody that day miraculously had forgotten to pack their lunch.

• These five loaves and two fishes came from a young boy, willing to give up his lunch (Jn. 6:9).

• God loves to work against the backdrop of want; what meager amount this boy offered, multiplied by the power of Jesus, became enough to feed thousands of hungry people.

• It’s important to realize there may have been no miracle without the initial bread to work from.

• God’s math always requires that something must first come from us before it’s multiplied; nothing from us multiplied by Jesus still equals nothing.

We see this mathematical formula elsewhere in the Bible:

• We remember the woman had a little oil and meal, which God multiplied so that it fed her and Elijah for “many days” (1 Ki. 17:14-16).

• Then there was the other woman had a single jar of oil; God multiplied that single jar of oil so it could fill many jars (2 Ki. 4:2).

The Greek indicates that these were barley loaves, the most inferior of all breads.

It was considered the food of animals.

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