John 6:1-12
Year B
John’s story of feeding the 5,000 invites reflection on scarcity and abundance. In response to the crowd’s size, Jesus asks Philip: “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” John tells us that this question is a test, for Jesus “knew what he was about to do.” So what is this test about?
By now, the disciples should have learned something about abundance amid scarcity. After all, the first act of Jesus’ public ministry in John took place at a wedding at Cana where he averted social disaster by providing vast quantities of choice wine (2:1-11). So now, faced with scarcity once again and a large crowd of strangers, what would his disciple suggest?
Well, Philip sees only scarcity and individual deprivation, observing that “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” By contrast, Jesus sees abundance. There is a lad with five loaves and two fish, so Jesus invites the gathering to sit down, gives eucharistic thanks, and distributes the food. And when they had eaten, Jesus instructed his disciples to gather the remaining scraps: “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost” — and there were 12 baskets of leftovers!
The story invites us to reflect on abundance amid scarcity and sharing with strangers who are not part of our in-group. It also invites us to consider why scarcity has such a hold on our lives and imaginations. Let’s begin with the question of scarcity.
Philip’s response to Jesus’ question contends that there is “not enough.” And, in our world, this contention is on steroids, for ours is a sum-zero culture. Scarcity is a lie with deep and pervasive implications for economics, race, sexuality and ecology. It says if poor people win, privileged people lose; if people of color win, White people lose; if trans folk win, cis-gendered folk lose; and if the earth wins, the economy loses. These equations are lies not only because none of them are factually true, but also because they “other” and demonize minoritized people and the non-human world.
In an amazing book entitled The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee, an expert in social and economic policy, challenges the sum-zero world. She contends, “The old zero-sum paradigm is not just counterproductive; it’s a lie. I started my journey on the hunt for its source and discovered that it has only ever truly served a narrow group of people. To this day, the wealthy and the powerful are still selling the zero-sum story for their own profit, hoping to keep people with much in common from making common cause with one another.” She makes a compelling case that what folk say is a “threat is in fact our country’s salvation — for when a nation founded on a belief in racial hierarchy truly rejects that belief, then and only then will we have discovered a New World. That is our destiny … Since this country’s founding, we have not allowed our diversity to be our superpower … But it could be.”
Jesus would surely agree, for he summarizes his mission: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). And he embodies that mission by crossing boundaries, welcoming strangers. Thus, when he encounters a Samaritan woman at a well in John 4, instead of demonizing her as an “other,” he engages her in a lengthy theological conversation (his longest on record in the Gospels), offering her the gift of abundant, living water gushing up to eternal life.
You may also remember that Jesus’ last sign, like his first in John 2, is a miracle of abundance — a fishing story in which the disciples, following his directions on where to cast their nets, haul in an abundance of fish, 153 of them! Jerome, one of the most learned biblical scholars in the early church, contended that Greek zoologists had classified 153 species of fish and that the number anticipates including all types of people in the church’s mission. The story also conveys that mission, pursued under Jesus’ guidance, is abundantly fruitful. It is a mission in which we follow Jesus’ command and gather the fragments so that none will be lost. For the world Jesus envisions for us will always be more than the sum of us. Let it be so.
Questions for reflection
- When have you experienced scarcity — not enough food, finances or other resources — and what was your response?
- When have you experienced God’s abundance amid scarcity? How did it happen, and what was your response?
- When and where have you experienced a diversity of people and their gifts as a sign of God’s abundance amid scarcity?
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