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When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
This reminds us of another time when "he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (see Matthew 9:36). Therefore, since Jesus himself was himself good shepherd (see John 10:11) he made the sheep to "sit down on the grass", that is "to lie down in green pastures" (see Psalm 23:2). The disciples had their doubts, as though they said "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" and "Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?"" (see Psalm 78:19-20).
He said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
Jesus was the good shepherd raising up shepherds after his own heart to tend the flock. But, for their part, the disciples only realized how little they had to offer. All they brought to the table were five loaves and two fish, which were utterly insufficient compared to the vast crowd of more than five thousand men, not counting women and children. Even if they dared to hope that Jesus himself might do something for the crowd they had no conception of how they might give them some food themselves as Jesus commanded. The loaves and the fish couldn't touch the hunger of the crowds. The law (the five books of the Pentateuch), the psalms, and the prophets, was insufficient to answer their deep spiritual hunger. The suggestion of the disciples was to dismiss the crowds, to send them away, and to make them fend for themselves. The disciples didn't know how to address their hunger and so, they thought, they would be better off on their own. But the heart of the shepherd did not want to see his sheep scattered. His desire was rather to gather all sheep around him until there was one flock and one shepherd (see John 10:16).
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”
Jesus wanted to teach his disciples what to do when they encountered the insufficiency of their own efforts and resources. The temptation would be for them to throw in the towel allow everyone to go his own way. But Jesus desired rather that they bring what they did have to him. Their weakness was not meant to be something that scattered and divided but rather something that further united them in Christ. They were meant to be able to feed the crowds just as Moses and Elisha had done, but they would only be able to do so by turning to Jesus himself, who alone could transform too little into more than enough.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
Jesus broke open the loaves just as he broke open the riches of the Old Testament, transforming them from lifeless letters that brought death (see Second Corinthians 3:6) into words of Spirit and life. He began to unveil the mystery toward which all these food miracles pointed when he would give to his disciples his own Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine that they in turn might provide it to the entire world. Before this multiplication of the loaves it might have seemed like the manna in the desert was a past reality constrained to the pages of history. But instead, Jesus assured, and now demonstrated, it pointed ahead toward the time when his Father would provide for all peoples the "true bread from heaven" (see John 6:32). This multiplication of the loaves was a prelude and even a primer for that day when the "LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined" (see Isaiah 25:6).
The false prophet Hananiah tried to solve the problems of Israel by himself, by insisting that his own will was that of God, tried to make up for his own insufficiency by resorting to lies. After all, he had nothing of true substance to offer. We are called to be instead like Jeremiah who preferred the will of the Lord to his own, even when that will spoke of curse before blessing. He humbled himself before the Lord so that in due time he would exalt him (see James 4:10). Sometimes, our weakness is so apparent that it is truly painful to bring it to the Lord. But whenever we do so we find that his strength is sufficient for us in our weakness (see Second Corinthians 12:9). We must even bring our sins to the Lord in confession rather than letting them scatter us to the surrounding villages. Jesus himself will then multiple in our hearts the grace we need to bring forth good fruit and lead us to the feast, the wedding feast of the lamb, where he himself is the bread we receive.
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