The Miraculous Feeding
Matthew 14:13-22 records a high point in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. This particular miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded by all four gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Thus we conclude that it is of unique quality. Each writer not only includes the miracle but puts it at a point of climax in the life and ministry of our Lord.
When the Lord began His Galilean ministry, He looked for the crowds in the cities; He attempted to make known to them His name, to demonstrate His power through mighty works. He tried to teach them concerning the Kingdom of God and Heaven. He wanted to manifest Himself as the King offering a Kingdom.
We also know that the religious leadership has rejected Him. There is a rising hostility with this increasing publicity from our Lord. As we come to this particular miracle, His popularity reaches a pinnacle. In fact, the result of this miracle is that the general public in Galilee wants to make Him the king by force. They are in awe of Him, and willingly follow Him; this is the high point.
It also is the beginning of His withdrawal, because just prior to this high point has been the murder of John the Baptist. So there is not only religious hostility from the Pharisees, but there is political hostility as well. Herod, the petty ruler, is very threatened by the Lord Jesus, as he was by John the Baptist. So because of all that hostility of both the religious and political leaders, the Lord begins to withdraw Himself following this miracle.
And as we move through this, this being the last year of His life on earth, He spends most of His time only with the Twelve, readying them for what is about to happen in His death and resurrection and preparing them for the task at hand, as they will be the foundation for the building of the church.
It all begins in Matthew 14:13 with, "When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself." It was hard to find privacy in Galilee; the area is quite small: 50 miles long and 25 miles wide and there were 204 towns, with at least 15,000 people in it. So it was very densely populated. But our Lord found a quiet place, and went there privately by boat.
Luke 9:10 tells us that He went to a place called Bethsaida or Bethesda. Basically, there were two places called that; one on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and one on the western shore. The one on the east was called Bethsaida Julia because it was named by Philip the tetrarch for the daughter of Augustus Caesar. Luke says that is where He went.
About a mile south of that town, there was a grassy hillside which continued from the plains by the Sea of Galilee to a high mountain. Jesus took His disciples, got out of the little boat, and ascended that slope to find a place in the trees up the hill. But this desire for privacy with His disciples is overruled by the need of the people.
Verse 13 continued, "But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities." Some of the cities close by began to empty their people into an accumulating mass of humanity walking across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee to go to the place where they had noted Jesus was going in the little boat.
Mark 6:33 tells us that some were even there already when He arrived, the fast ones, the ones who ran. The lame, the blind and those who were ill and had come for healing, would have arrived much later. So even though there were some who were there before He arrived, He went beyond them into the mountain with the Twelve and sought the time of solace and quiet. But the crowd begins to swell.
John 6:2-4 tells us why, “Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.” So there were, no doubt, not only the people collecting out of the towns and villages, but pilgrims on the way to the Passover who would have added to the crowd.
Frankly, the majority sought Him, not because they believed what He said, not because they worshipped and adored Him, but because they heard the diseases He healed and wanted to see close-up all these wonder-working incidences, and maybe have their own disease healed, but surely at least be fascinated by it.
The crowd by now had become real large. Verse 21 says it reached 5,000 men. You can be assured that there would be at least 5,000 women with them and likely even more than that, for women were uniquely drawn to Christ. And multiples of children would be in addition to that. In those days, large families with many children were common, and so there may have been 25,000 people there and that number may even be conservative.
Matthew 14:14 says, "And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” Jesus felt their pain, He felt their hurt, He felt their need. That means His heart went out to them. Jesus Christ, though God, was passionate, and felt the pain in His own heart.
This is God’s nature whose heart goes out to those in need. This is not based on whether they will respond or reciprocate by believing; it is that God's heart goes out to all those in need. That's why, in Matthew 10, the Lord said to the disciples that He would give to them the power to heal diseases. He could have demonstrated His divine power by having them fly over tall buildings or walk on water or create food.
The reason He gave them the ability to cure disease is because the heart of God goes out toward those who hurt. The Bible tells us in verse 14 that He healed their sick. Jesus sets aside His rest, refreshment, priority of time with the disciples. God is never too involved in the running of the universe and all of the "big issues” of His plan, and He can set it all aside to help to one who has a need and is asking for help.
In Matthew 14:15 we read, "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.'" The disciples of Jesus are very concerned with the hunger of this group; and you don't see that in Matthew's version of the account.
Between verses 14 and 15, there is an interlude, so turn for a moment to John 6:5, “Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” And Mark and Luke added that Jesus not only healed them, but He taught them concerning the Kingdom of God. But before He even started that, He plants a question in Philip's mind: where are we going to buy bread to feed this group?
There are several reasons why Jesus asked that of Philip. Number one is because Philip was from that area, and would most likely know where so much food might be gained. Secondly, He asked Philip, John 6:6 says, to test him. Philip was like a lot of us - It took him a long time to get the picture. In John 14:8-9 Philip asked, "Show us the Father," and Jesus responds, "Have I been so long with you, Philip, and you still don't know? If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father."
Philip probably told this to the other eleven and said, "Hey guys, we have to figure out a way to feed these people." They thought all day and never came up with an answer. In fact, Philip said, "We have 200 denarii," which was 200 days' wages and probably what was in their treasury to provide for their daily needs. He says, "That's all we have and no way that is going to be enough.” So they have no resource.
Andrew comes, and says, "Lord, I've been through the whole group and found one kid with five flat barley cakes and a couple of fish." Barley was the cheapest grain, and the poorer the people, the more likely they were to use barley to make little bread cakes. They would take the fish, which were sometimes pickled, and then put them like a relish on the bread.
Finally, evening comes and they still had no solution. The Jews had two kinds of evenings; one was from 3-6, the other was from 6-9, and this was the first evening, prior to the setting of the sun. Matthew 14:15 says, “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.'" That was their solution.
Matthew 14:16, “But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” Sure. They're thinking, "We don't have any food." Jesus knew that, so why would He say that? It was very simple. Jesus wants them to face the fact that they don't have any food. We are people who without Jesus do not have any resources at all. And unless we admit that He will not help us.
They said, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." That is it. How can that provide food for 25,000 people? They are baffled, and it is very important that they realize, "We haven't got it, and we can't do it.” That's a great spiritual lesson for all who serve God; we haven't got it and we can't do anything just like they couldn’t.
Here we come to the great part of this story. In Matthew 14:18 Jesus says, "Bring them to Me. Bring the five bread cakes and two fish." Now, in a sense, He is saying to them, you don't have anything, but what you do have, give to Me so I can use it to transform everything. You can imagine that they are sort of sitting back and wondering what will happen next.
In verse 19, Jesus does a strange thing: He commands the multitude to sit down on the grass. It is the spring of the year, and the grass is green. This is a lovely spot, the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The grass sloping down to that plain next to the shore would be a beautiful place to sit, and the sun would be setting in the west and the little whitecaps would be seen as the breeze comes across the Sea in the evening. The air would be cool, and they're going to have a picnic!
Mark tells us that the Lord told them to seat the people in groups of 50 and 100 with aisles in between, so that the disciples could serve them. Of course, the disciples are obeying the Lord, but they can't figure anything out. They still don't know what is going on. They are all seated in order, prepared to be served. Then, this is even more interesting in verse 19, "He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed.”
It says in Matthew, "He blessed," and in John 6:11, it says He said 'thanks,' therefore we can conclude that saying 'thanks' to God and blessing God are the same. Verse 19, "And He broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes." The miracle is almost hidden, isn't it? It doesn't say He got up on top of the mountain and shouted, "Food!" or that the earth shook. He just started handing out bread and fish and never stopped; He just kept creating new food.
It must have been real good, because it had never been touched by the curse. It was the best bread and the best fish they had ever eaten, and it just kept coming. You say, "How much was there?" Well, verse 20 says, "So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.” This is a picture of God. The supply was exactly equal to the demand. This is the concept of abundance.
Of course, there was some left. When they collected all the fragments, there were 12 baskets full! There were also twelve disciples. Amazing. As great a wonder as the ability to create was the ability to create exactly the amount that satisfied everyone with exactly twelve baskets left over for the disciples. God doesn't waste His miracles.
What was their reaction? Verse 21 says, “Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” John 6 says that they tried to make Him king. He could not only heal all their diseases, but He gave the best-tasting food there ever was. This has to be their king, so their political aspirations reached a fever pitch, and they tried to force the issue.
Verse 22 says that “Jesus made His disciples get into the boat”, which means they must have fought against it. They didn't want to leave Him, “and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.” Verse 23 says, “He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.” So what is God teaching us from all this?
First, He taught about compassion for people in need, and showed them the heart of God, which was not just for spiritual needs, but also for physical needs. Second, He then taught to sacrifice rest and leisure to meet the needs of others. Thirdly, He taught that while helping to meet physical needs, we also have to teach the truth of the Kingdom. When you help someone sick or hurting, the purpose is to introduce them to the Gospel.
The fourth lesson is to learn to obey even if you do not understand why. When the Lord tells us to do things that we don't understand, do them anyway, because something wonderful will happen. Number five, do things in an orderly fashion. God is a God of order; look at nature, everything is created in order, every creature is perfect in the way it grows, moves and every detail is there for it to function in the proper order.
The sixth lesson is that ministry is serving others, not serving yourself. Jesus says, "Give Me all you've got, and let us give it to them." The disciples didn't eat until they had fed everybody else. We are called to provide for others first, and God will make sure there is provision for us.
Number Seven is to learn to share with those who have not. From all His blessings, we must give blessing to others, so we by doing that we bless God. He has given us time; He wants a return. He has given us talent, spiritual gifts, money, possessions and all of it has come from His creative hand. He asks that we share it with others; that's what stewardship is.
The eigth lesson is to learn to trust the power of God to provide what seems impossible. Think about that in terms of ministry. We are responsible to feed others spiritually, to represent Christ day in and day out, to stand between Him and the world, and to feed the church. I don't have it and I can't get it in my own strength, and that is why I depend on Him to provide it.
Lesson number nine, is to begin with your own, available resources no matter how small. A little becomes much when it is placed in God's hand. God often uses small things; He used the tears of a baby to move the heart of Pharaoh's daughter. He used a shepherd's stick to work mighty miracles in Egypt. He used a sling and a stone to conquer a nation. Jesus likes to have the weak; that way, when incredible things happen, we know it's all because of His power.
The truth is that God wants to provide for people through you. When He took the little bread and fish and He broke it and He gave it to the disciples. They stood between Him and the multitude. Now we stand between Jesus and the multitude, and God wants to feed the multitude through us. It depends on your availability and your heart of service. That is the important spiritual lesson for everyone in this generation. Let's pray.