The Miracles of Jesus
Miracle # 18
“The Feeding Of The 5,000”
(Mt 14:13-21, Mk 6:30-44, Lk 9:10-17, Jn 6:1-14)
The miracle of the
“Feeding of the 5,000” is one of the best known miracles of Jesus and is the
only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. We are going to rely for the most part on
John’s account.
John tells us of the
sustained ministry of Jesus (6:2) “Then a great multitude
followed Him, because they saw His signs which He per-formed on those who were
diseased.” The three verbs in this verse are all in the imperfect tense indicating
continuous action. It would read literally, “A great multitude was following
Him because they were seeing His miracles which He was doing.”
A great crowd followed
Jesus into a deserted (uninhabited) area. Matthew
connected the Lord retreated to the desert place with his hearing the news of John the
Baptist’s death (Matt. 14:13). Mark (6:30-31) gives us an additional
motive, the Disciples had just returned from their mission, and they and the Master needed
time for refreshment of body and spirit.
So to get some rest
from the crowds that followed Him and seeking time to deal with the news of the murder of
John, Jesus and His disciples withdrew by boat across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum to
Bethsaida.
Yet the people found
out where Jesus’ was bound for and while Jesus and His disciples made the trip by
boat, the people followed along the shore and actually got there before He did. When He
arrived He found a large crowd to greet Him. The presence of these huge crowds entirely
defeated the whole intention of making this trip. Given this situation, surely the
Lord’s good humor in being met by this large crowd clamoring for his attention is
miracle in itself.
The
Background of the Miracle (Jn 6:1-9)
“After
these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. (2) Then a
great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He per-formed 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.”
On the surface it might appear that there is
some discrepancy as to where the concern for the needs of the crowd origin-ated. In Mark
(6:35), Matthew (14:15) and Luke (9:12) the suggestion to send the crowds away comes from
the disciples, but John tells us that it is the Lord who first puts the question to
Philip.
John says (6:5-6), “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?"
(6) But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.”
John tells us that Jesus said this to test
Philip. Jesus already knew what he was going to do. God knows what His plans for
us are, and yet He does not often let us in on His plans before hand.
He did not need Philip’s advice, he
wanted Philip’s heart. Jesus took this opportunity to teach the disciples. We often
say we believe something and really think we do in our heads but we only really know what
we believe when we are forced to stand on them in real life.
The disciples were faced with three possible
options. The first is seen in their initial response which was to “send the people
away so they could go and buy themselves something to eat” (Mark 6:36). The
disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds home, so that they could obtain food. On the
surface this appears to be a request based upon the disciple’s compassion for the
crowds (though I doubt that it was such). It seemed a very reasonable solution. It even
seemed to be the only possible solution.
How shocked the disciples
must have been to hear Jesus’ response (Luke 9:13): “You give them something to eat”. The
disciples thought that acquiring food was the people’s problem. Jesus told the
disciples it was their problem.
The second option was, take an offering. See
how much money could be collected and see what might be done. We see this option in Philip’s
response given in (John 6:7), “Philip answered Him,
"Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of
them may have a little."
In his answer Philip says that two hundred denarius
would not be sufficient for this need (KJV uses penny) – the denari was a silver coin
that was about the normal day’s wage for a working man at that time. So
two hundred denarius would be about eight month’s wages.
Perhaps Jesus had hoped to hear Philip say,
“Lord, You Can Get Us Through This.” Instead Philip thought the
problem was bigger than both of them and backed down. Philip’s assessment was, there
are not enough resources to take care of the problem, but Philip calculated without faith.
The third option was to expect Jesus to do
something. We see this option at work in Andrew’s response given in
(John 6:8-9) “One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother, said to Him, (9) "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two
small fish, but what are they among so many?"
Andrew is also overwhelmed by the magnitude
of the problem but he takes a different approach than Philip. Andrew did a little better
than Philip. At least he looked around to see what could be done and had the nerve to
mention one resource so small that he must have been afraid that the other disciple would
laugh it off.
We are not told who the boy was, or how
Andrew found him. Nor are we told whether the young boy offered his lunch or whether
Andrew had to persuade him. What we are told is that he had “five
barley loves and two small fish.” We need to not misunderstand the word “loaves” it is not referring to the kind of loaf we
might buy at the supermarket or bakery. He is talking about something much smaller like a dinner
roll. We are also told that these loaves are made of “barley” which is
the cheapest grain and tells us that this boy was from a poor family. Andrew reveals his thoughts when he says, “but what are they among so many?"
Application
Jesus’ command to feed this crowd
reminds us that faith is seldom learned in the classroom, but is learned in the crises
of life, when we must obey God without all the visible means available to do
so. The disciples need to see that they can accom-plish things they never dreamed of doing
through their association with Jesus.
The two greatest faith
killing phrases heard in the church of today is “We have never done it that way before,”
and “We
could never do that.” These statements have a way of limiting our vision and
squashing our ability to see with faith because of practical concerns or because of
traditional ways that things have been done in the past. When we are in a pressing
situation we often tend to focus on what can not be done and so the disciples respond in verse
nine, all we have is “five barley loaves and two small
fish, but what are they among so many?"
Perhaps the saddest thing
is that the disciples who have witnessed Jesus perform many miracles, had no expectation
that he would be able to meet this current need. But they had forgotten that they were
speaking to the Creator of the universe, “calls those things
which do not exist as though they do.” (Romans 4:17). How
like us they are. We too remain dull to the power of Christ, no matter how many times he
may have met our needs in the past, the next crisis always seems to cause us to question
God’s ability to meet our needs. How silly!!!
Jesus is not recorded
as having said anything in response to either Philip or Andrew’s suggestions; they
appear simply to show the impossibility of meeting the needs of this situation from human
resources or wisdom.
The Elements
of the Miracle
(Jn.6:10-11)
“Then
Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place.
So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. (11) And Jesus took the loaves, and
when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those
sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.”
Jesus and his
disciples are in an isolated place with a large crowd of people. Some have estimate that
the crowd that day, if the women and children were added (only the men were counted) might
have been fifteen or twenty thousand.
Mark tells that Jesus then had the
Mark also tells us that He
blessed the five loaves and two fish (v. 41) he broke them and “gave them to the
disciples.” The word he “gave” is literally in the
imperfect tense and means he “kept giving” them to the disciples.
I can’t prove it but I believe the miracle took place in the hands of Jesus. Jesus
kept producing bread and fish in his hands with the supernatural power of the Creator.
Jesus kept on creating tons of barley cakes and fish between the palms of his hands until
all of the thousands were fed. The lesson is that Jesus does not demand what we cannot supply,
he only requires disciples through whom he can work!
The Effect
of the Miracle (John
6:12-14)
Twelve Baskets
of Fragments (John 6:12-13)
“So
when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that
remain, so that nothing is lost." (13) There-fore they gathered them up, and filled
twelve baskets with the fragments of the five
barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.”
Everyone ate until
they were filled and even then there were twelve baskets full of fragments of the meal
left over.
Is there some
symbolism is the fact that there were twelve baskets? There are of course twelve key
disciples; perhaps it is just a demonstration of the wonderful provision of God that there
is one basket for each of the disciples.
Explaining Away
the Miracle
Some who prefer not to
see a miracle here say that when the crowd saw the little boy’s lunch in the hands of
Jesus they were ashamed for keeping their food to themselves. Suddenly
thousands of little lunch sacks that had previously been hidden, appeared and everyone
began to share with everyone else. The point of the story then becomes a lesson on generosity,
not the power of Christ to perform a miracle. Isn’t that touching?
You have to feel sorry
for those whose God is so small. The text of this miracle was not that this crowd overcame
selfishness but that Jesus performed a miracle to prove that He was “The Bread of
Life.” Only a miracle would explain the twelve leftover baskets for fragments from
the meal and why the crowd wanted to make Jesus a king.
Take Him by
Force to Make Him King
(John 6:14-15)
John in his account is the only one to tell
us of the reaction of the crowd when they realized a miracle had been performed (John
6:14-15). The people were impressed. They may not have understood all that that is
involved in what John calls a “sign,” but they did see that what had happened
was wonderful. So they gave their verdict in verse fourteen, “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said,
"This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." They did not
speak Jesus as “a” prophet but “the” prophet.
John tells us that Jesus realized that the
intentions of the crowd (v. 15) to “seize him” and “make him king.” “Therefore when
Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He
departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.” It seems ironic that this
verse says that the people intend to take him by force and make him king.
But knowing that the people had misunderstood his intentions and were regarding him as a political
savior, Jesus “fled again to the mountains
alone.”
The tragedy of
these Galileans was that they tried to make Jesus into their kind of king.
People still make
that kind of mistake.
The Bread of
Life
The next day the crowd that had been fed
came looking for Jesus. They were hungry again and hoped for another miracle. But Jesus
read the intent of their hearts and said, “… you seek Me, not
because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. (27)
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting
life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on
Him." (John 6:26-27)
Jesus now uses this occasion to give his
teaching on being “The Bread of Life” (vv. 28-40). In this sermon Jesus pointed
out the selfish motives of the crowds who followed him. He told them that he is the true
bread, the source and sustainer of life. He is the bread of heaven sent by the Father to
give eternal life to everyone who believes in Him. He tells them that those who live only
for the food that perishes will perish with it. But those who seek the heavenly bread will
live forever. We see this vividly portrayed in the story of the “Rich Man and
Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-31). In this story the fortunes of these two men is reversed
after death.
The resulting rejection of Jesus conveyed in John 6:66 is surely some of the saddest in the Bible, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”