“When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent”. (John 6)

The miracle of loaves and fishes, which Jesus did, has a great deal to think about. But one of the great lessons of it is the fact that the fed become the feeders. After a few loaves and fishes fed a multitude, more was collected from the multitude than was originally distributed. And though natural resources were used to make the example, the subject of the event is spiritual. It is the Word of God coming to be in those who hear it. The true bread of heaven is Christ and His word in you. And the true bread of heaven, the words he speaks, are spirit and life, not molecules. The true bread of heaven does not go in the mouth and out the other end. It goes in the ear and makes it’s way out of the mouth. The miracle of loaves and fishes is not fully understood until it is seen that the hungry are to become them who feed others. Jesus later said (in praying to The Father), “I do not pray for the world, but for them you have given me, for they are yours…Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word…) (from John 17)

Through THEIR word…

After Jesus did this miracle, the crowd followed Him because He had filled their bellies temporarily. But He identified their misguided reasons in following Him… If you read the account, it becomes apparent that they wanted to know what they must do that they might work the works of God, but they were thinking of the natural benefits of the things Jesus was able to do, not the spiritual and eternal benefit of hearing what He says. Jesus answered them that the work of God is that you believe him whom God has sent.

Later, in John 9, another miracle unfolds that bears out the work of God. A man was born blind, and Jesus was asked who had sinned that a man should be born blind? His parents or even the man? Jesus said neither, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. Jesus opened the man’s eyes and set off a firestorm. If you read John 9 carefully, you may see something. The man goes from saying “I don’t know if Jesus is a sinner or not, only that now I can see”, to saying “If this man were a sinner, He could do nothing”. (The restoring of his natural vision is miracle enough, but consider where his rapid wisdom was coming from! And the fact that the religious leaders questioned and condemned it, throwing him out of the Synagogue). But for all this, and the miracle of opening the eyes of a man born blind, a thing previously unheard of, this alone was not the work of God. The work of God was revealed when Jesus asked the man if he believed on the Son of God. The man replied, “Who is he, that I might believe?”. Jesus said, “You are both seeing and speaking with Him”. And the man said, “I BELIEVE”. And he worshiped Him. The work of God was the faith he came to, evidenced by the rapid rise of wisdom in him, before he ever set physical eyes on Jesus.

This speaks to all of us, for in truth, every human being is born blind.

Natural benefits and provision are wonderful but are fleeting. Consider the little girl Jesus raised to life. He commanded them afterwards to give her something to eat. Reviving a dead body, revives everything it is (and is not). What Jesus did with the little girl, with Lazarus, and others, was not the resurrection. It was the reconstitution and reanimating of a natural being. The resurrection is eternal. And the spiritual benefits of Christ in you are likewise eternal.