St. John’s Gospel doesn’t speak of Jesus performing miracles. Instead, it describes the miraculous things Jesus did as signs. A sign either points us somewhere or tells us something and this is true of the signs Jesus gave us. The feeding of the 5,000 strong crowd was such an impressive sign that those who were fed by Jesus literally wanted to crown Him as their king. But this sign operates on many different levels. It points, first of all, to the wonderful compassion of Jesus, who was so concerned for the human needs of those around Him. This tells us that Jesus is interested in the details of our life, our worries and our fears.
Secondly, the feeding of the crowd points us to the faith of the disciples. Philip was unsure when Jesus asked him where enough bread could be bought to feed everyone. Andrew took a hesitant step in faith and pushed forward the small boy with five loaves and two fish. At the command of Jesus, however, the disciples trustingly did exactly what He asked. This tells us that living by faith can sometimes be shaky and unclear, but that the word of Jesus can be relied upon.
We can often be tempted to doubt that God can supply the things that we are essential. By miraculously feeding the impossibly large with the incredibly small, Jesus reminds us that God is better than we might think, that God always wants to nourish us, both humanly and spiritually.