13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."
16 Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."
17 "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.
18 "Bring them here to me," he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.Chances are that you've probably heard this story before at some point in your life. But instead of just looking at it as a pretty neat-o miracle (which it is!), let's try to see what other significance Jesus' actions here might have. The feeding of the 5000 is about more than just making sure people have lunch. When we see Jesus standing in front of the crowds and breaking bread, we see him forming a people.
Are there other times in the Bible when people were miraculously provided with food? There are several, in fact, but in the case of the feeding of the 5000, it's hard not so see some similarities with the Israelites being provided with manna when they were wandering in the desert after leaving slavery in Egypt. Every morning the Israelites would go outside and pick up the bread that had appeared there. This was how their hunger was satisfied and they were provided for on their way to the promised land.
In Matthew's gospel, there are a number of a parallels that seem to be drawn between Jesus and Moses/Israel during the exodus. In Matthew, we read about a king having infants killed, about Jesus coming out of Egypt, and about Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness. These facts all correspond to elements of the exodus story. And now, Jesus is giving the people bread, just as the Israelites were given bread. What is especially interesting is that the feeding of the five thousand takes place near the time of Passover, when the Jews would have celebrated and remembered how they had come out of Egypt and had become a nation (Jn. 6:4).
In feeding the five thousand, Jesus looks like a new Moses. Moses was the leader of Israel when they became a people. And Jesus forms a new people--the people of the kingdom of heaven. This is something that the crowds in Matthew 14 didn't miss. In John's account, the people hope to make Jesus king after this miracle (Jn. 6:15). They understand that Jesus is forming a new community, but they don't understand how that works. They don't understand that Jesus isn't there to kick the Romans out and take his place on an earthly throne in Jerusalem. They don't understand that that the kingdom of heaven is bigger than that.
That's why it's so important for us to study Matthew's gospel. In Matthew, we learn a lot about the nature of the kingdom of God, and we learn about what it means to be a member of that kingdom. We are part of the people formed by Jesus. We are in this new community that he creates. So pay close attention to what Jesus is saying in this gospel, because we need these words if we are going to be the kind of disciples that the king calls us to be.
David Heffren
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