One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, says to him,
Philip has just answered by measuring the size of the need. Now a second voice speaks. John does not just say "a disciple" — he names Andrew, and ties him to a more famous brother.
Andrew was a fisherman by trade. One writer sees his old habits of attention still at work in this scene.
Peter fished with a net and brought multitudes in with a sweep of the great waters, while Andrew fished with a line... The net-fisherman watches large things: the rise and fall of sea-tides, gales, and shoals. The line-fisherman keeps a careful watch for the little ripple, the slight dip of the float, the faintest pressure on the line. We see this quality in Andrew. When the multitude stood starving around them, and the rest of the disciples were in despair, it was Andrew who saw the boy standing with the bread basket, with the practical eye of one used to seeing small things and seizing small opportunities. He said, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish." Another would not have noticed a boy at all! And he had not only counted the loaves — he knew what they were made of!
The verse names Andrew by his tie to a better-known man. That is not a demotion. The two brothers worked in different ways, and one writer pictures the difference with a watch.
We see the hands of a watch doing their work out toward the world... But do they move themselves? No. Round at the back, hidden away and hard to find, is the fusee, a small wheel whose cogs move them... Simon Peter, like the hands of the watch, did his work mainly in public, and Andrew did his, like the fusee, in retirement. Simon Peter preached to the multitudes and brought thousands to Christ. But it was Andrew who gave the first push, by bringing Simon himself to Christ. It seemed a small individual service; but if we think of what Peter afterwards accomplished, we see that it had a vast result.
Andrew does one thing again and again in this Gospel. He fetched his brother; here he brings a boy's small meal.
If He is indispensable to us, He is also all-sufficient. We have no need to turn to any other source of supply. If this is the case with us, like Andrew, we shall always be found bringing something or someone to Jesus. With him it was first the sinner. Then the smallness of his own supply in the presence of a vast need. Then he came as the servant of the Lord who knew how to act in an emergency. Andrew brought them all alike to Jesus, because he had first proved how wonderfully Jesus could meet and answer every question in his soul.
The Lord did not act until Andrew had spoken. One writer weighs what that waiting was meant to teach.
He waits for the despairing words of Philip's fellow-townsman, Andrew, and would teach everyone now what His gracious power loves to do with the little and the despised, even for the greatest need. The brother of Simon Peter, who was even ahead of his brother in seeing the Messiah, could think of a little boy with five barley loaves and two fish, but not of Jesus. And where was Peter? Where was John, the disciple He loved? Nowhere, as far as faith goes. Truly no human being can boast in His presence.
The two disciples failed in opposite directions.
While Philip talks about how much they need, Andrew laments how very little they have. Neither of these disciples thinks of the Lord and the vast resources in Him that are at the disposal of faith.
Andrew faltered. But that is not the whole story of what he did.
The crowds were likely to faint from hunger, and Philip had no solution to the difficulty. Andrew brought the boy with the barley loaves and fish to Jesus. He seemed to falter, probably because the others looked at him with pity for his apparent foolishness. Yet he was the one who put the boy's supply of food within reach of the almighty, creative hands of the Lord.
- Noticed. Andrew spotted a boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Nobody else did. He was in the habit of watching small things.
- Brought. Every time Andrew appears, he is bringing something or someone to Jesus. He started with his own brother.
- Hidden. Peter worked in public, like the hands of a watch. Andrew worked out of sight, like the hidden wheel that moves them. That small service had a vast result.
- Faltered. He named the little supply, not the Lord's power. Philip named the size of the need. Both stopped short of the Person beside them.
- Placed. His faltering faith still did the one thing that counted. It put a child's meal within reach of the Lord's almighty hands.
There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes; but this, what is it for so many?
Thousands of people sit on a bare hillside with nothing to eat. The only food anyone can find is a boy's packed lunch. Andrew's report raises the question this miracle answers. Do we measure what we have against the need, or against the Lord?
Barley was the cheapest grain, and the fish were small. What Andrew found was not a hidden store but the poorest meal on the hill.
Barley loaves were the commonest kind of food. There were two small fish, and a lake full of fish lay not far away. How small a supply to share with that huge crowd! Philip's remark and Andrew's question both showed the same thing: only a miracle could provide a meal. Now they would see that the supply the boy had, so small to human thinking, was plenty — if only the Lord chose to use it. The loaves were not multiplied to ten times their number. The fish, small as John tells us they were, stayed just two the whole time. Yet those five loaves and two little fish did more than satisfy five thousand men, besides women and children. They also filled twelve baskets with the leftovers.
Philip had just done the arithmetic on what it would cost. Andrew now does the arithmetic on what is in hand. Both calculations leave out the same factor.
While Philip talks about how much they need, Andrew complains about how little they have. Neither of these disciples think of the Lord and the vast resources in Him that are at the disposal of faith.
They had also forgotten something their own Scriptures record: God had once fed a hundred men from one man's loaves.
Yet did they not know the Scriptures? Had they forgotten what Jehovah had done in the days of Elisha? Back then God multiplied the loaves of a man from Baal-shalisha, and a hundred men ate their fill (2 Kings 4:42-44). And a greater than Elisha was here — Jehovah Himself.
Commentators differ on how to read Andrew. Some hear only unbelief in his closing question. Others notice that he mentioned the loaves at all — which, on the face of it, was ridiculous.
Without faith, to mention so small a supply in the face of such vast need was absurd in the extreme. But Andrew had some knowledge of the Lord's power. Otherwise he would never have mentioned the small supply the boy had. He did spoil it a little by adding, "But what are they for so many?" We know the result. The Lord took that small supply and made it enough for every person in that vast crowd.
The food was small, and the hands holding it were weak. That is the kind of supply the Lord asks for.
They did not even have the small supply themselves. It was little, very little that they had, and it was in the hands of a little boy, one who was weak. How suggestive! It is so with ourselves and the little we have. Blessed are we indeed if we do know how little it is which is in our hands and how much is lacking. But do not let that turn into unbelief, thinking it is such a little bit that He cannot use it. Nothing is too small, nothing too little, if we bring it to Him; yes, He has chosen the weak things.
The boy who supplied the meal gets the least attention of anyone in the story.
Matthew, Mark and Luke do not even mention the boy, yet it was he who had the food that could feed the crowd under the Lord's hand. Let us be content to be thought little of, even perhaps overlooked altogether. But let us place what we have, however small, at the Lord's disposal. It is not the name and renown of the servant that matters — the lad is unnamed. What matters is having what the Lord can use to sustain His own.
Some commentators read the two items as a picture of Christ Himself.
The five barley loaves (no doubt small rolls) speak of Christ as the bread of life, in lowly humiliation and suffering. The two small fish remind us of His passing through the waters of judgment for our sake. The boy was willing to give his lunch for others. Grace is shown here in the way it can use the smallest willing sacrifice of love for Him, and multiply the blessing.
- Little. The only food was barley bread and two small fish. It was the cheapest meal on the hill, and the disciples did not even own it.
- Counted. Philip measured the need by money. Andrew measured it by supply. Neither measured it by the Lord standing in front of them.
- Offered. Nothing is too small for Him to use, if we bring it to Him — He has chosen the weak things.
- Unnamed. Only John mentions the boy, and even he leaves him nameless. What mattered was not his fame but what he handed over.
- Multiplied. God had fed a hundred men in Elisha's day, and a greater than Elisha stood here. The little became enough for every person in that crowd.