Picnic

Extract 54
With John gone, Jesus suddenly seems to be more prominent. The crowds that used to go to John, now follow my son. Everyone wants to know what it all means. Was John a prophet, was he Elijah or one of the other prophets? They know now that he wasn't the Messiah because the Messiah can't die, but there seem to be more questions in his death than when he was alive.

We went into the hills yesterday to be with Jesus. It was extraordinary. People from all the villages had come, thousands of us, all there to hear what Jesus would say. He astounded us. 'John was the last prophet of the old covenant'. What did he mean, 'old' there is only one covenant? Then he went on to explain – he had us spellbound. So many stories, so much of his humour, so much from his childhood. 'If your friend has a plank in his eye, take the speck out of your own first', 'if you're building a house, don't build it on sand!', 'look at the flowers, not even Solomon was dressed like these'. He had a word for everyone, we all felt we were in the presence of someone special.

Extract 55
None of us wanted to go back to the ordinariness of our lives. We wanted to stay in his presence, to feel the warmth of his words, bathe in the love of God. By the time any of us realised, it was too late for many families to get home and prepare a meal. Some of Jesus friends started to argue, one of them urged Jesus to send us all home but I could see that look in Jesus eye. 'I've fed them all day, you feed them now'. Most of them panicked, trying to work out how much it would cost, where they could buy food, what they already had and how many it would feed. It was so funny, I could see Jesus looking, hoping to see faith in return. And he found it. Not in any of his friends, but in a small boy – he ran up to Jesus and offered him his lunch – a couple of small fish and a piece of bread. It was a precious moment, we didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Jesus friends weren't impressed though, they dismissed him crossly. Suddenly Jesus was angry, not at the boy, but his disciples. 'Never stop children coming to me, he's come to me with what he has, he's come to me with faith – just as you should have done.'

What happened next will live with us all forever. Jesus took the food and gave thanks to God then he began to divide it and pass it out to us all. It just kept coming. Every one got fed and the food kept coming. In the end we gathered up baskets full of food left over after everyone was full. At first we just enjoyed the food and then we began to understand what was happening.

The last person to feed the people with food from nowhere was Moses. The man who saved his people.