"Jonathan, here is your food. I'm sorry it's all I can give you." The mother looked down at her son now almost twelve years old. Instead of disappointment in his face she saw only his excitement.
The mother tried to pretend that she also was excited by the news that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, but her life had become very hard since her husband had died in a storm while fishing on the Sea of Galalee. The meager meal of five barley loaves and two small dried fish, she now sent with her son would mean she would go without for the rest of the day.
"A miracle, Jonathan? Yes, perhaps you will, perhaps everyone will." , she sighed.
"I've got to go, mother, will you be all right by yourself?", he asked already looking toward the door.
"Yes, go on. Your friend's family is already waiting for you. Hurry up and go." She watched him run off to join the others and then called after him. "Jonathan, be careful of your basket. It's all you have to eat!" Jonathan looked around and tucked the basket up farther under his arm, then spun around with a wave to his mother and raced to catch the family he was walking with. She watched him go and wondered if he would be as excited when he came back to a home with no food and no hope.
The family Jonathan walked with soon joined others, and others and others. Those from the village where Jonathan live were soon joined by many on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover. He had not gone to the Passover in Jerusalem since his father had died. In fact this was his first trip of any kind in over a year. His mother seemed so afraid and had shut herself in the house away from everyone except Jonathan. Though he wished his mother had come he was glad to meet new people and feel their excitement as they talked of the Nazarene.
".... I've seen him heal people." Said one man proudly.
"They tell me he has even raised the dead!" Said a voice behind Jonathan. At that bit of news a little of the day's excitement faded from his heart. He wondered in his own mind if the Nazarene could have brought his father to life, or if He could bring life back into his mother's sad eyes.
Soon they had to wade across the Jordan river. Everyone got wet and Jonathan had to hold his basket high over his head so it wouldn't soak his meal and ruin it. If they didn't see Jesus soon he would eat a little of it on the way. He started to reach for a bit of bread but decided to wait, he wanted to take some back home to his mother. He wasn't sure but he thought she had given him all the food in the house. He would take some back home and tell his mother he was too excited to eat it all.
"Look, that is the boat of Simon the fisher. Jesus was in that boat yesterday." Jonathan looked first at the man who yelled standing near the shore of the Lake of Galilee. When he found the man he saw where his hand was pointing out into the huge lake. There, not too far from shore he could see a triangle shaped sail and a boat with several men in it. They were headed for a place on the north shore of the lake, not too far from where Jonathan now was.
"Let's try to see him when he gets out of the boat, "yelled Jonathan to his friend and they set off running along the shore line to try and beat the fishing boat to the strip of beach where it would land. They were not the only ones running, several other men and boys had the same idea and were running also. Soon it was a foot race to see who would see Jesus first. The basket in his hand was slowing him down and he even thought about dropping it, but he knew his mother would be upset if she knew the food had been wasted and the basket lost, both were in short supply at his house. So he tucked it tighter under his arm and ran even faster.
As he got closer to the place where the fishing boat would land he saw that many others were already there. They must have known that this fisherman Simon would land here. Jonathan stopped running, if fact he thought about turning back, for what he saw on the shore took all the energy from him. There were at least a thousand people waiting to see Jesus, and from the hills and trees all around the lake more were coming. In his little village there were less than a hundred, only in Jerusalem with his father had he seen so many people and never out the middle of nowhere like this. Even worse in all the crowd he had lost his friend. He stood alone and began to wish he had stayed home with his mother.
How was he going to see a miracle? He wouldn't even be able to see Jesus. All he was going to see was thousands of people all trying to do what he wanted to do. Well, it was too far to go back, he would walk down with the others but he wouldn't run, there was no need. Maybe his friend's family was already down on the shore somewhere, he would try to find them.
When he finally got down to the landing, the ship was already pulled up on the shore and no one that he could recognize was anywhere nearby. The crowd was moving farther away from the seashore and so Jonathan followed. After a short while he found that he was in a grassy meadow and that the crowd had begun to slow. He could not see anything except the backs of others around him. In the distance he could hear a man's voice speaking, he sounded a little like the village rabbi or teacher and he strained to hear the words above the noise of the multitude.
Slowly the crowd began to hush as the words of the teacher fell over them. There was a gentle power in that voice. Jonathan listened but still he could not see for no body would sit down as they all strained to hear the voice and see the face of Jesus. Still if he concentrated hard, he could hear some words.
"Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give rest to your souls . . . " and then the phrase drifted off as he struggled to hear more. The wind changed and he caught another phrase.
"I am the bread of life . . . " was all he heard and then it seemed as if the speaker moved out of earshot. It went on like this for hours, one moment hearing words that seemed to come from heaven and offer such hope, the next the sounds coming from the crowd or the lake cutting off the voice of the teacher.
It was getting late in the afternoon when finally someone came by and told them that the Master had asked everyone to sit down. He thought that this Master must be Jesus. Jonathan didn't know why but the one who asked them to sit also asked to look in his basket. Was he hungry? Should I offer him something to eat? If he did what would he be able to take back home. Before he could decide the man smiled and returned the basket without a word. Jonathan had been so caught up in trying to hear the teacher that he had almost forgotten how hungry he was getting. Now he remembered. As the crowd sat he reached inside the basket for something to eat. He had just picked up a loaf when someone beside him loudly whispered, "Look there he is!" Jonathan dropped the loaf back into the basket and looked. At first all he saw was several men standing on a small hill. Then he saw one standing in the center of the others and to whom they all showed respect. He must be Jesus of Nazareth, the one who could do miracles, the one who could raise the dead. Somehow He did not fit the picture Jonathan had formed in his mind as he listened earlier, but now that he saw him he couldn't remember that picture.
Suddenly, he realized that the man who had told them to sit and had looked into his basket was talking to Jesus. He could not hear what he was saying but he thought . . . Oh no . . . they were pointing in his direction. Now they had quit talking and the one who had been talking to Jesus was coming back toward him. Was there something wrong? For a moment he wished he could run or hide but the words of the teacher echoed in his mind, "Come unto me . . . " The man now approached Jonathan and knelt beside him on the grass.
"Son what is your name?"
"I am Jonathan, sir."
"My name is Andrew, I am a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. He has asked us to feed all these people. Yet you seem to be the only one who has brought any food. Would you come talk to my Master?"
Jonathan looked around at all the people seated on the grass. There were thousands and thousands. It would take more to feed these than his whole village would catch in a entire year! What would his little basket do for so many? Still he arose and went with Andrew to meet Jesus.
As he walked through the ranks of people he could feel them stare at him and hear them whisper. The questions they asked each other he also was asking himself, "What does Jesus want with me?" Before he could change his mind he stood with Andrew beside Jesus.
"Rabbi, this is the lad that I told you about. His name is Jonathan."
"Jonathan, that is a name of great friendship. Have you heard the story of King David and his friend named Jonathan?"
"Yes, lord. My father was also named Jonathan and he used to tell me the story when he would take me out fishing with him."
"Your father is a fisherman? Where is he? I would like to meet him also."
"My father died last year when a storm caught him on the lake. There is just my mother and me now."
"I understand." As Jesus said that, Jonathan felt he was telling Jesus things He already knew.
"Jonathan, did Andrew tell you why I asked you to come up here and bring your food?"
"Yes, sir." Jonathan's tongue was dry as a rock and his eyes were fastened to the ground. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and the great teacher bent down to his level.
"Would you give up your meal to feed all these others?"
"It is not a very big meal, teacher, but I would give it up . . . to you."
"Why did you come here today?"
"To see you and . . . they say you can do miracles?"
"Are miracles important to you, Jonathan?"
Jonathan looked into the eyes of Jesus and suddenly felt as if they were all alone, in all the world there was only Jesus and him.
"They don't seem so important now." He said and yet he knew that in his heart a miracle was already taking place.
Jesus smiled and Jonathan even thought maybe he winked, "Keep your eyes on your meal." He said.
Then Jesus took the loaves and said the blessing, "Blessed art thou, Jehovah our God, King of the world, Who causes to come forth bread from the earth." It was a familiar blessing, Jonathan had heard his father pray it often in the past. Yet when he heard it now there was the sound of expectation about it. As though Jesus' prayer was for much more than just five barley loaves and two dried fish.
Jesus called the other twelve disciples and broke the bread and fish into twelve small pieces, which he gave to each disciple in a willow basket to distribute to the crowd. Jonathan could not understand why Jesus would do something like this, only twelve people would get even a small crumb of food. It was then he noticed the Jesus was handing something to him, he took it and found that it was a piece of bread and a piece of fish. Jonathan's mouth fell open for he knew he had seen all the food go into the baskets. Yet when he tasted it he knew it was from the barley loaves that his mother had made that morning. He looked out into the crowd to see where the disciples were. He looked as their faces went from astonishment and surprise to smiles and even laughter. Andrew was passing his basket and stopped to look back at Jonathan. He reached into his basket and pulled out two fistfuls of bread and fish. Throughout the crowd the whispers and talk began and no one could wait to taste a miracle; the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
Jonathan ate his miracle meal with a tear running down his cheek, for while everyone else had only seen one miracle that day, he had seen two and the one that took place in his heart was better than any bread or fish.
It was late back at Jonathan's house in the village. His mother was growing more and more worried about her son. For several hours she had stood in the doorway watching the road Jonathan had left on early that morning.
"Surely they should be home by now." She thought to herself. She shouldn't have let him go, or at least have gone with him. She knelt down and said a prayer to God that her son would not be lost to her as his father had been. She had just finished when the sound of laughter and loud talk came down the road the villagers had left on that morning to find the Nazarene. She rose from the mat she had been kneeling on and ran to the door. Just as she opened it, in walked her son. Her arms went around him and squeezed, Jonathan wondered if she was going to let him breath.
"Where have you been? Are you all right? What took so long?"
"Mother, I must tell you what happened! We found Jesus and he was wonderful and I talked to him and . . . and . . . I saw a miracle, mother!"
"A miracle? What did you see?"
"There were thousands and thousands of people and no one brought any food. One of His disciples came and asked me to talk to Jesus."
"You talked to him, Jonathan?
"Yes, He asked me my name and about father and then He took my bread and fish and used it to feed all those people, everyone was full. You should have been there, the bread and fish just kept coming out of the baskets. Everyone was fed!"
The mother smiled and then as Jonathan watched the tears began to roll down her face. She cried because her son was finally home, she cried at losing her husband, she cried at her son now growing up, she cried at his still boyish excitement and she cried because in the miracle of her own bread being made into a feast for a mulitude she still must go to bed hungry.
"What's wrong, mother? Why are you so sad?"
"It is nothing, my son. It is only tears of happiness at your return home safe to me. We must go to bed now."
There was a knock on the door and one of the village men who had gone with Jonathan called out, "Jonathan you forgot this when you ran ahead." Jonathan stepped outside to take something from their neighbor. His mother could not see what it was. When he stepped back inside he held a large basket, big enough to hold a shekel of wheat.
"Thank you." He called back through the door and set the huge basket down at his mother's feet.
"What is this Jonathan? It is not your basket."
"When all the people had eaten and no one could eat anymore, the teacher sent his followers back out to pick up the leftovers. They picked up twelve baskets full mother, twelve! He told me to take this one home to you. It's funny he acted as if he knew you too."
Jonathan pulled back the cloth that covered the top of the basket and underneath it was filled to overflowing with bread and fish. Enough to last them for weeks.
She looked at the smile on her son's face and she looked again at the basket, a miracle in her own house and she said, "Jonathan, tell me more about Jesus."
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