It is interesting to note that the five barley loaves and two fishes came from a small boy, not a big man. This is very meaningful, because the Lord wants to indicate to us that He is our life, not as someone big, but as someone small. Both barley loaves and fishes are small items, signifying the smallness of Christ as the life supply to us. The miracle-seeking people considered Him as the promised prophet (6:14; Deut. 18:15, 18) and would have forced Him to be their king (6:15), but He would not assume the position of a giant in religion. Rather, He preferred to be small loaves and little fishes that He might be small enough for people to eat. All of this reveals the smallness of Christ. He is small enough for us to eat. Whatever we eat must be considerably smaller than we are. We are much bigger than the bread and fish that we eat. We cannot eat something that is larger than we are. If it were larger than we are, it could eat us. Everything we eat is even smaller than our mouth. If it is larger than our mouth, it must first be cut into pieces. A small boy brought five small loaves and two small fishes. This means that the smallness of the Lord Jesus is most precious to us.
Most Christians, including ourselves, always think of our Lord as someone great. But in John 6 the Lord Jesus does not want to be great. He wants to remain small enough to eat. There is a song that says, “How Great Thou Art,” but we have a sweeter song which praises the Lord for His smallness. If the Lord were only great, we could never touch Him. Praise Him that He has become so small! Perhaps you have been a Christian for many years and yet have failed to realize how small the Lord is. To think of the Lord as a great prophet is merely a religious thought. If the Lord only became a great prophet and was enthroned as a great king, He never could have been a little piece of bread. He never could have been our food supply. Before He could become our food, He first had to become small. Thus, He was symbolized by five small barley loaves and two small fishes brought by one small boy. We need to be impressed with the smallness as well as with the greatness of the Lord. He was even born in a small manger, brought up in a small town, and raised in a lowly family. He did not come to be a religious giant. He was a little Nazarene, having nothing to do with greatness or bigness. Oh, He is so small!
Are you bigger or smaller than a piece of bread? You must admit, of course, that a piece of bread is smaller. Since the Lord comes to you as a piece of the bread of life, you must say to Him, “Lord, I praise You that You are smaller than I am. Now You can become my food. If You were greater than I, You could never be my food.” As far as the greatness of our Lord is concerned, of course, no one is as great as He is, but we must also be impressed that as far as the smallness of our Lord is concerned, no one is as small as He is. He is bread that is small enough for us to eat.
In Matthew 15 we see that the Lord not only became the loaves, but also the crumbs, which are small fragments of a loaf. Many of us were not qualified to take Him as loaves. However, surely we are qualified to take Him as crumbs. Do you remember what the woman of Canaan said to the Lord when she asked Him to help her and He said that it was “not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”? She said, “Yes, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. 15:27). The Canaanite woman was not offended by the Lord’s hard words and by the fact that He referred to her as a dog. She seemed to be telling the Lord, “Yes, Lord, I am a Gentile dog, but the Gentile dog has his portion. The children’s portion is on the table, and the dog’s portion is under the table. Lord, You must realize that now You are not on the table but under the table, because the naughty children have cast You away. Now that You are under the table, You can be my portion.” The Lord admired her faith. We all need to enjoy the Lord in such a lowly way. Do not wait to go to heaven to enjoy Him. Get Him from under the table where He is right now. Praise the Lord that on the earth He is so small and available now! He is available at any time according to our appetite. However much we can take of Him, He will be that much to us. And the leftovers always surpass what we can eat.
This chapter not only brings out the smallness of the Lord, but also the richness of the Lord. Just five loaves are rich enough to feed five thousand people. The twelve baskets left over signify the overflow of the riches of Christ’s life supply, which fed people over one thousand times. That five loaves fed five thousand people means that it fed them one thousand times. According to the Scriptures, the number one thousand signifies a complete unit. For example, one day in the court of the Lord is better than a thousand (Psa. 84:10). One thousand is a full unit. Hence, five loaves can fill five thousand people. This reveals how rich and how unlimited the Lord is. The multitude could eat as much as they wanted, for the supply was unlimited. Even two little fishes were sufficient for all.
Twelve baskets of fragments were left over. Why were there not five, eight, or eleven baskets left over? Because the number twelve signifies eternal completeness and eternal perfectness. This means that even the fragments are eternally full and eternally complete. Even a small, fragmented Christ is full of a richness which can never be exhausted. He is so small and yet so unlimited. Have you ever compared His smallness with His unlimitedness? He is the little Nazarene, yet He has been feeding all of the generations. He has never been reduced. Before the feeding of the five thousand, there were five loaves and two fishes; after the feeding of the five thousand, there were twelve baskets left over. Therefore, after the feeding of the five thousand, more surplus remained than what was there originally. This portrays the richness of Christ, for there is always something left over after the multitude has been fed.
For twenty centuries, Christ has been feeding thousands upon thousands of people. Today, He is still rich, for there are still twelve baskets full. We need the revelation of the richness of the smallness of Christ. In form, He is the five loaves and the two fishes, yet thousands and thousands of people have been eating Him for twenty centuries. And He is still here. He can never be reduced or exhausted. Oh, how we must praise Him for His smallness in form and for His richness without limit!