Matthew 14:13-21
Feeding the Five Thousand
13 When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. 14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”
16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”
18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Here we are again in the gospel according to Matthew, the church friendly gospel reading a passage that many people know, even those who are not that familiar with the Bible, they have heard the story of Jesus feeding a whole bunch of people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. This miracle is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four gospels. We look at the miracle often but I invite you today to look at some of the circumstances surrounding the miracle today. The portion of scripture we read for the lectionary comes after two important events. The first is in the last portion of Matthew chapter 13 where Jesus is rejected at Nazareth, his own hometown. Jesus tried to the work of the Lord at home and because the hometown folk didn’t think much of someone from their own town, he was rejected. Then at the beginning of chapter 14 right before what you heard during the scripture reading. Herod has killed John the Baptist. That ‘it’ that Jesus heard in Matthew 14:13 was Jesus learning about his cousin being killed for speaking truth to power. When Herod did wrong, John the Baptist said so, he worshiped God, not his country, or a particular politician. Something I find interesting in the silence of so called Christians is how religion and nationalism have been combined in horrible ways. So much so that when people speak against something going on in this country, they are labeled unpatriotic. People are protesting racism and police brutality right now and some people, religious leaders included, are so religious about loving their country that when you say something about it, they say “if you don’t like it you can leave.” Really, I need to be okay with racism and police brutality, I am unpatriotic if I speak on these things? John spoke truth to power and paid the ultimate price for it.
John the Baptist was Jesus cousin, but John the Baptist was also one of the first to affirm Jesus ministry on Earth. Losing someone that close can be devastating. Jesus heard about his cousin, John the Baptist getting killed and wanted to get away, he wasn’t enthusiastic at that particular moment about ministry. I can relate to that somewhat, trying to preach these days and pastor after losing my brother Eric McKay, at 38 years old sometimes you just don’t want to do it. Jesus departed to the deserted place by himself, some translations call I the wilderness. A deserted place, a wasteland, a place with harsh winds, a type of place that disoriented the people there. The wilderness was a place with a little bit of vegetation on it for animals but people did not live there. Hagar went through a wilderness time, Jacob did too. The people of God in Exodus had to travel through the wilderness to get to the promised land as well. Even the good times wilderness is mentioned in the Bible there is still a separation from the people. We are in a wilderness now, people losing jobs, people losing unemployment benefits while congresspersons use this as an opportunity to fund their pet projects and finger point. Those who have a job may have their employers holding the fact that they still have a job against them, employers talking crazy to employees, cutting pay, cutting benefits. The price of goods is going up during this pandemic and now with a coin shortage, the places you shop are expecting you to just round up and lose your change.
Even in the wilderness Jesus still had compassion for the people and he healed the sick. Something gets lost in translation there, because people could read that verse and think about the medical issues. These were also people of a lower social class than Jesus and the disciples. Even though Jesus was grieving he still cared about the people. Herod on the other had a birthday party with dignitaries in attendance. Herod was a Tetrarch, one of the four co-emperors ruling Rome at that time. Jesus was was moved by compassion and went to the people even though he was obviously hurting.
The text says 5,000 not counting the women and children, these people came from all over, no settlement would have been the big during theses times. That is why the disciples said to send them back to villages plural. There were a lot of people who came to see Jesus and they stayed for quite a long time. So long that the disciples said Jesus needed to send them away so they could eat. There is something interesting in the text there for leadership. The disciples had the idea, the church folk that is, but they wanted someone else to do the work. That is a good idea, you should go tell them that, somebody needs to take care of this thing going on at the church, ever been in a meeting where everyone knew something needed to be done but no one wanted to do the thing themselves. Ok just me then, never mind. Jesus did not let the situation stop him from letting God show up and show out.
Jesus performance of a miracle required people to follow instructions, every time you see a miracle in the Bible there will be some instructions to follow. I can’t think of a miracle in the Bible where the man or woman of God didn’t have some instructions to follow, not that God is not powerful enough to do something without the help of humans, I believe the instructions are there so that we grow as believers that we have some skin in the game and appreciate what God has done that much more.
Jesus looked up to heaven and blessed the bread, that was to let us know that God was providing the increase. Jesus took the bread and blessed it so that we could see who the source of our supply was. Then he broke the bread and gave it to the disciples, and the disciples fed the multitude. Watch the text, Jesus took the bread, blessed the bread, then gave it to the disciples. There is some similarity in feeding the multitude and communion but there is also something overlooked. The Disciples were the ones that fed the people. Jesus provided the blessing, but the disciples did the work. Even though Jesus is there and credited with the miracle the disciples were doing the work. While we ask God to help us with things that doesn’t mean we get to sit on our behinds and wait for the miracle to fall in our laps we still have some work to do. The disciples took two fish and five loaves of bread and fed the multitude, you can take a small amount of food and start a pantry. You can take a small amount of space and help the community, you can take a seemingly small idea and do great work for the lord. 2 fish and five loaves in your own hands is dinner for a day, in Jesus hand is dinner for thousands. Not only is it dinner for thousands but everyone is full and there is still twelve baskets left over.
One dinner got a man killed, another dinner showed the people the bread of life. Rome was called the bread basket then, the money had Nero on one side and Ceres the Roman goddess of agriculture on the other. Jesus was letting them know where the real bread basket was. One dinner had dignitaries and a prideful ruler, the other had the least, the last and the lost, eating with the Prince of peace. There was an expectation of the lower class to have to work for patrons in order to get their food. Jesus willingly gave it to them. Jesus let the people know all around that his dinner was better. Better for your soul, better for your peace of mind
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