Before the Miracle. ⁵ When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” ⁶ He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷ Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little (bit).” ⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, ⁹ “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”

The miracle is initiated by Jesus. Just as Jesus initiated contact with the Samaritan woman (4:9) and initiated the healing of the man by the pool (5:6), so also here he anticipates the hunger of the crowd. His question, “Where can we buy enough food?” is a different question from “How can we provide enough food?” Continue reading →