According to John, Chapter 6

John 6

Sometimes I have weird thoughts when I'm reading the Bible. Maybe they aren't so weird. Maybe they are just thoughts that nobody is ever going to preach about or teach about.
For example:

When reading the story of the feeding of the 5,000 or the feeding of the multitude, I wonder how many of the people being fed knew what was going on. It's not like there was a huge sound system and electronic jumbotron video screen set up so that everyone could witness the bag lunch being turned into food for thousands. I think that most people just sat down when they were told that they were going to be fed.

If you were one of the poor, hungry people in the crowd that day, you would have taken your seat and accepted your meal when it was passed out. You may have even asked. "Where did all this food come from?"
But would you have believed that this was a kid's sack lunch?
And did you ever wonder why only one kid's mom thought to send along lunch for the day?
Sometimes I think that the event itself was more for the apostles and close followers of Jesus than it was for the crowd of hungry people. The people got fed. The followers that knew the story behind the meal got much more.

When the Apostle John wrote this account to be shared and preserved 50-60 years later, those reading about it (including you and me) don't get any of the food; we get the much more. We get to see the miracle from the apostle's viewpoint. We know about the kid and his lunch of bread and fish. We know that everyone was full and there were baskets of leftovers. 
I'm not sure that most of the people that day got more than a day of listening to Jesus teach and a full belly. The story of the kid's lunch and the miraculous feeding probably spread like a rumor over the next few days. It may have been accepted as truth or it may have been blown off like an ancient conspiracy theory.

I write these things because I think it is important to remember the message of the Bible. There is something different to be learned based on perspective. What John witnessed that day is different than what the last person to be fed witnessed. What someone reading about it decades or even centuries later is also different. 
They got food.
We get food for thought.
So, what do you think?

There is much more to John 6 than this, so be sure to read the whole chapter.
Maybe you have comments or questions on something. Please feel free to add them either by commenting on the blog or whatever social media platform you are reading.

Right now I'm wondering what the bread in Israel tasted like 2000 years ago.
John