Dear Friends,
Our reading for today is the Feeding of the Five Thousand, also called the Loaves and Fishes. It’s a story rich in meaning and beloved by people of faith across the globe. It’s the only miracle story that all four gospels record, suggesting it was of unusual importance. The story was widely shared and known in the life of the early emerging church and likely was read each time the faithful gathered for communion, whether in small house churches of the countryside or in the growing communities of faith in urban areas.
Before we read this miraculous feeding story, let us pray for illumination:
Providing God, by your Holy Spirit feed us with your Word, that we might be filled with the bread of life. Amen.
“Now when he heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.” (14:13) What had Jesus heard that would cause such a reaction?
Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, was the local ruling representative of the Roman emperor in Galilee and Perea. He was the ruling “client king,” which means he was a Roman official rather than a traditional king. He was very powerful. During a lavish celebration of his birthday, the daughter of his wife, Herodias, danced before his guests. He was so pleased with her performance that he promised to grant whatever she wished. She could have asked for jewels or lands, but “prompted by her mother, she said ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’” (14:8)
It’s important to know that her mother, Herodias, hated John because he had denounced her and Herod for marrying; she had been his brother’s wife, and such a marriage was prohibited by the laws outlined in Leviticus. Herod had already imprisoned John the Baptist because John had so roundly condemned his marriage to his erstwhile sister-in-law, and he didn’t hesitate to comply with his step-daughter’s grim request. He ordered that John be beheaded and even triumphantly presented his severed head on a platter to his step-daughter, wife, and guests at his birthday party.
“His [John’s] disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.” (14:12) The news of John’s execution posed a true threat for Jesus. John and Jesus were more than cousins. John presented himself as the prophet of Jesus. They were linked in the minds of the people. And they were linked in Herod Antipas’s mind as well. When he learned of Jesus’s teachings and miracles, Herod’s first thought was that Jesus might be John the Baptist resurrected. Just as John had been, Jesus knew he was a threat to Herod’s power and authority, and Jesus was well aware that he, like John, was a target for Herod’s grisly reckoning. Thus, on hearing the news of John’s death from John’s disciples, Jesus withdrew from the town where he was preaching.
It’s easy for us to misunderstand the word “withdrew” here and dismiss it as typically stilted biblical language. But for Matthew, “withdrew” has a specific meaning. For him, the notion of withdrawing is intentional and strategic; it is not meant to imply anything passive like retiring, retreating, or abandoning. Recall, if you will, that the Magi “withdrew” to their country by another road instead of reporting the location of the infant Jesus to King Herod the Great. (Matthew 2:12) Joseph “withdrew” to Egypt with Mary and their newborn child. (Matthew 2:14) Having heard of Herod the Great’s death, Joseph started the return journey from Egypt back to Bethlehem but “withdrew” to Nazareth in Galilee upon learning in a dream that Archelaus, Herod Antipas’s brother, was in power in Israel. (Matthew 2:22) Similarly, upon hearing of John the Baptist’s initial arrest, Jesus “withdrew” again to the rural, uninhabited areas of Galilee. (Matthew 4:12) Matthew 12:14-16 records that after a Sabbath controversy moved the Pharisees to conspire against Jesus “to destroy him,” Jesus departed or “withdrew.”
So, when Jesus sensed the danger he was in, he withdrew – he made a strategic move – and traveled by boat to “a deserted place,” as translated in many versions of the Bible. In other versions, “deserted” is translated as private, secluded, solitary, remote, desolate, lonely, out-of-the-way, isolated, quiet, desert, or wilderness. This emphasis on a deserted place is more than unwrapping all the layers of translation; it is an intentional reference to the wilderness and deserts that are threads throughout the Hebrew Bible. Its importance will become more obvious as we dig further into the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, so please bear with me.
To Jesus’s surprise, the crowd followed him, not by boat, but on foot, with more and more people joining in as they went along. Somehow the crowd, who had “followed him on foot from the towns,” (14:13) knew where Jesus was going. “When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.” (14:14) He wasn’t able to fully withdraw after all, any more than he was able to resist his compassion for them.
As evening approached, his disciples came to Jesus and asked him to dismiss the crowd because there wasn’t enough food to eat. “Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’” (14:16) All the disciples had were five loaves of bread and two fish, barely enough to feed themselves and Jesus. Jesus, unperturbed, took the meager meal, “looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.” (14:19).
Matthew 14:20 is an amazing verse. In a single sentence, it tells us, “And all ate.” What a miracle! It goes on to tell us, “and were filled.” Wow! This wasn’t just a little bit to tide them over until they got home; it was a full Galilean peasant meal of bread and fish. And there’s still more; Matthew goes on in that verse to describe actual left-overs. “And they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.” From scarcity to overwhelming abundance!
And then, almost as an aside, Matthew tells us how big these crowds actually were. “And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” (14:21) The crowd could thus have numbered as many as twenty thousand. This was a stupendous miracle; one that, while it occurred in a deserted place, could not be kept quiet.
By feeding the multitude, Jesus embodied the ancient Jewish concern for welfare of all in the community. This concern was expressed in life-giving bread and fish. How that simple, yet nourishing meal contrasted with Herod Antipas’s luxurious meal, ending with his execution of the prophet John the Baptist, would not have been lost on the struggling people oppressed by the occupying forces of Rome.
This miracle makes us look both back to earlier times and forward to what is to come during Jesus’ earthly ministry and beyond, to his resurrection. You’ve borne with me if you’ve read this far, and now I’ll satisfy your curiosity about the deserted place that we touched on earlier. If you think of a deserted place as wilderness, that will surely make you think of all the wilderness stories in the Hebrew Bible, just as it did for Matthew’s readers. There are nearly 1,000 wilderness references, but the one that truly stands out for most of us is the story of the Exodus – how the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years and survived thanks to God’s provision of manna. (Exodus 16:1-15) They were fed, and fed anew each day, and there were thousands of them, following Moses.
The Feeding of the Five Thousand also provides a dramatic foretaste of the upper room in Jerusalem, where Jesus shared his last earthly meal with his disciples. As the day closed on the crowds who had followed him to the deserted place he had been seeking after he heard about the death of John the Baptist, he looked to heaven and blessed and broke the bread, just as he did at his Last Supper with his disciples. For Matthew, both of these events are messianic meals because Jesus is the host. And even to this day, we recall both when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, a miracle in which we are privileged to take part.
The Good News for us today is that God continues faithfully to provide for the church amid chaos and need. Just as Jesus used the meager resources that the early disciples brought to their situation, so, too, does God use what we bring in our times of trouble for nourishment, healing, and comfort. Even in times like these of pandemic and economic chaos, even when justice seems a distant goal, God is present. I know that we’re all weary and anxious. When you feel despair descending into your soul, remember that Jesus fed thousands. Our faith feeds billions. Be assured that we will continue to find nourishment in our faith and in the boundless grace of God.
This familiar, elegant story confirms yet again that Jesus in his earthly ministry and in his resurrection is the bread of all life. Thanks be to God who reminds us of this truth even when it doesn’t seem possible that our hunger for it can be filled.
Joys and Concerns:
For all those experiencing both earthquake and hurricane amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
For those millions in our country, and billions globally, who live with hunger, threat of homelessness, and all the other forms of financial insecurity that unemployment and under-employment bring, as economies shrink in the face of the pandemic.
For the perseverance of those who struggle for racial justice and serve as our guides as we labor together and as individuals to discern our path at this pivotal moment.
Let us pray together:
Compassionate God, you are good to all. Help us to trust in you and to share what we have with a hungry world. By your graces, our physical and spiritual needs are met. Strengthened by you, we pray that we may offer ourselves in such a way that you will use us to meet the needs of others. Deepen our commitment to follow Jesus in ministries that feed and serve others.
We pray for all the people of the world, for all nations, and for all leaders, that wars will cease, that the hungry will be fed, and that refugees will live in safety and peace.
We pray for all those who suffer from physical and spiritual ills in this time of global pandemic, as we also pray for those who care for them.
We pray for our schools and for the teachers, administrators, and all who work in them; and for the students who are trying to cope with so much uncertainty, even as they prepare for a new academic year.
Gracious and merciful God, abounding in steadfast love, we join our voices with all who speak your praises and bless your name, for with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, we know you are just in all your ways and kind in all your doings. Amen.