Breaking news by all four gospels
The Passover theme is emphasized in the story of the loaves of bread
July 30, 2006 -- 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Michael Stubbs
When an especially important news event comes up, such as a severe weather alert, all the local television stations will suspend their usual broadcasts. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often. After all, what would we do without our soap operas and sitcoms?
The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish stands out as one of the only two miracles reported by all four gospels. (Jesus' walking on water is the other one.) Evidently, the multiplication of the loaves and the fish meant a lot to the early Christian community.
John's version of this miracle elaborates it by following with Jesus' discourse about himself as the Bread of Life. In our gospel reading we listen to John's description of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. The Bread of Life discourse will provide gospel readings for two of the following Sundays.
John's gospel often differs from Matthew, Mark and Luke. It should not surprise us that in John's version of the multiplication, we find a detail lacking in the other gospels. John identifies the loaves of bread as barley loaves, whereas the other gospels simply mention loaves of bread, and nothing more specific- not rye, wheat, pumpernickel or raisin bread.
What meaning can we find in this seemingly insignificant detail? There are two possibilities.
First, barley bread was the common, everyday bread, not nearly as expensive as wheat bread, which was the luxury bread of the rich. In 1 Kings 7:16, barley flour sells as half the price of wheat flour, while in Revelation 6:6, it sells at a third the price of wheat.
Barley bread was the bread of the poor, who made up the majority of the population. They were the people attracted to Jesus, not the wealthy elite. By mentioning the word "barley," John's gospel emphasizes this point.
Second, barley bread directly relates to the feast of Passover. This holiday comes at the end of the barley harvest. It doubles as a commemoration of a historical event, the escape of the Hebrews from Egypt under Moses, and also the celebration of an annual event, the barley harvest. The unleavened bread which plays such an important role during Passover would have originally been unleavened barley bread. John's mention of barely bread reinforces the Passover theme, which dominates the story of the multiplication of the loaves.
After all, it takes place close to Passover. "The Jewish feast of Passover was near." It involves a vast crowd, which reminds us of the crowd of Hebrews escaping under Moses' leadership. Once the Hebrews escaped into the desert, God miraculously fed them with manna. Jesus' multiplication of the loaves reminds us of that earlier miracle.
And lest we forget, Jesus compares the two in his discourse: "Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven for a man to eat and never die."
By multiplying the loaves, Jesus was preparing to give them the Bread of Life, himself in the Eucharist. No wonder that the early Christian community gave this event so much attention, that all four gospels covered it.
(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)
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