Outside Reading - Peter Ikeda

On Monday, my small group discussed John chapter 6 where Jesus fed the 5,000. After being followed by a massive crowd Jesus "went up to the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples." (John 6:3). It was on this mountain that Jesus broke a mere 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to provide enough food to feed a crowd of more than 5,000. My final paper for the semester was on Mountains in Christianity and how God is met on mountains because they serve as a sacred place due to their isolation and separation from society as well as their closeness to the heavens. I incorporated many different instances in the Bible where God 's glory and/or presence has been manifested to humanity on a mountain like Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and Moses meeting God at Mount Sinai. Reading this passage in John and how Jesus performed one of the most well known miracles in the Bible on yet another mountain only reaffirmed my thoughts on the spirituality of mountains and their connection to God in Christianity. Jesus fed more than 5,000 people with a mere 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and had 12 baskets of leftovers after everyone had eaten all they could. It's a pretty simple miracle in many senses, nothing phenomenal like parting the red sea or raising someone from the dead, but God still manifested His glory through Jesus to provide these people with enough food despite the lack of physical resources.