Just before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus hears of the death of John the Baptist. King Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, had imprisoned John because John was critical of Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife. After a feast his step daughter, at the request of her mother, asks Herod to kill John. He does. After John’s death, his disciples go find Jesus and tell him about what happened. This is where our story picks up.
Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus hears about John’s death, and he wants some alone time. So he jumps in a boat and heads for a deserted place. I wonder why Jesus felt the need to withdraw from the crowds? There are a few possibilities. John was Jesus’ cousin. He also baptized Jesus. Jesus may have wanted some time alone to mourn John’s death.
Maybe Jesus was concerned about his own future. John was a popular figure in Galilee. Herod didn’t want to kill him because he feared the people would revolt. He did kill him, though. Maybe this prospect concerned Jesus a little. After all, just before this passage we read an account of Jesus preaching in his hometown of Nazareth. His fellow townsfolk ran him out of town and tried to kill him.
Maybe Jesus, knowing what path lay ahead for him – torture and death, wanted some time to pray. Maybe he needed to steel himself for the work that still lay ahead.
Regardless of the reason, Jesus gets in a boat and sails away to seek refuge. The crowds, though, know where he’s going. He probably didn’t get very far from the shore in his boat. The crowd may have watched him sail away and watched him sail down the coast and chose to follow him.
When Jesus gets to his ‘deserted place’ there is a crowd awaiting his arrival. If I were Jesus, I would be upset. I’m trying to get a little alone time, and the very crowd I’m trying to escape follows me. Not Jesus. He sees the crowd and instead of anger or frustration, he feels compassion. So instead of spending the day mourning or praying, he spends the day teaching and healing. Maybe the boat ride was all me time he needed.
The crowd is there. About 5,000 men, not including women and children, so probably closer to 10,000 people. Now the hour gets late. Evening comes. The disciples are concerned that the crowd is getting hungry. After all of the walking, teaching, and healing, they’ve likely been at this all day. Even those who brought food have probably eaten it. Now it is dinner time and the disciples are worried about facing a hungry crowd. They approach Jesus and suggest that he send them all away.
This story of the “Feeding of the 5000” is the only miracle, aside from the resurrection, that is present in all four Gospels. The stories are not identical, but they all tell the same story and each have the same elements. A crowd, Jesus, the disciples, teaching and/or healing, five loaves, and two fish.
The differences are small. In John’s gospel, the disciples do not approach Jesus about the hungry crowd. Jesus asks Philips, “Where can we buy bead for this crowd?”
In each of the other 3 Gospels, the disciples go to Jesus and ask him to send them away.
“Send them back to town so they can buy some food.” “Come on, Jesus. We’ve done all we can today. They’re hungry. Send them home.” “You’ve done enough. You preached to them. You healed the sick. Let’s call it a good day’s work and go find something to eat ourselves.”
Jesus has a different idea, though. His reply is simple, but direct.
“We don’t need to send them home. You feed them.”
“Um… what?” “Jesus, we don’t have… We can’t… What?”
The disciples finally respond, “All we have are 5 loaves of bread and two fish.” The response differs a little in each Gospel as well. Luke adds, “Unless we buy bread for them.” Mark adds a cost for the bread, “It would cost 200 denarii to feed them all!” That was equal to 6 month’s wages. So Jesus tells the disciples to feed the crowd and their response is, “Jesus, that’s impossible!”
This story offers a perfect picture of many modern churches and many modern Christians as well. A little later in Matthew’s gospel Jesus gives a vision of what the church should be and what we, as followers of Christ, should do. Yes, there is the Great Commission where he tells us to go make disciples. Before that, though Jesus tells a parable about sheep and goats. Where he tells the sheep, “I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me.” This is what we are called to be. This is the Kingdom work we are called to do.
Too often we are just like the disciples in this story. We are presented with a hungry, hurting world and our response is like there’s. We’ve done all we can. Let’s send them home and let them fend for themselves. Besides we don’t have the resources to help them. Jesus, that’s impossible.
What comes next is important and I don’t want you to miss it. This story is often preached and taught as one of Jesus’ miracles. And, well, it is, but look at who actually feeds the crowd.
The disciples bring the bread and fish to Jesus. Jesus takes the bread, breaks it, blesses it, and hands it to the disciples. The disciples then distribute the food to the crowd. In some versions of the story the food comes from a boy in the crowd. In others, we’re not told who brought the food. The disciples just have it. One commentary I read suggested that 5 loaves and 2 fish were about right for the rations for 13 people.
The disciples bring their, or the boys, resources to Jesus. He blesses them, and they are more than enough to fulfill Jesus’ call to them. Jesus calls the disciples to feed the crowds, and then he empowers them to fulfill that call.
In this story we have a wonderful example of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Each of you; each of us is called to feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to help the least of these.
We have a wonderful example of what it means to be the church. As a church we are called to make disciples, but we are also called to the least of these. This is an especially meaningful story for a small church. Talk about limited resources! But, not only are we called to minister to and help the crowds we encounter, we are promised that our resources are enough. With God’s help what we have is sufficient.
Not only is it sufficient for the crowds we encounter, but God’s resources are enough for all.
After the disciples fed the crowd they gathered the leftovers. There was enough left over to fill 12 baskets. That is not an insignificant number. The 12 baskets can be seen to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. In other words, Jesus provided not only enough for the gathered crowd, but enough for all of God’s people.
Which, according to Alyce McKenzie, who is a professor at Perkins School of Theology, that is the image we should take away from this story. The image of the disciples lugging 12 full baskets of leftovers through the crowd as everyone sits back full and satisfied.
We all find ourselves in the place of the disciples. Jesus tells all of us just as he told the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Luckily when we offer our sometimes meager resources he tells us exactly what he told the disciples, “Bring them to me.” And our limited resources grow miraculously and we are able to fulfill our call.
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