4. Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
Luke 9:10-17: 10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. 12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” 13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
This miracle, the only one to be recounted in all four gospels, is not just intended to relieve a human need but to signify symbolically that the messianic times have arrived and that Jesus is himself the Messiah. The symbolic meaning of the sign is concentrated particularly in the conclusion, which is formulated in the same way in all four accounts. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Luke 9.17.)
Everyone has eaten his fill, and there is still bread left over. The translation “broken” pieces can be misleading. These are not crumbs or half-eaten crusts with teeth marks all around them. These are extra portions, broken off by Jesus to distribute to the crowd, whole untouched helpings: twelve basketfuls. Twelve! Like the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. This number had a symbolic meaning for the Jews: it spoke of the people of God in its totality. The bread of Jesus cannot be limited to the five thousand; there is enough to satisfy the whole people of God.
The feeding of the multitude signifies the period of spiritual plenty that the Messiah is to usher in, the joy, the “abundant” eternal life that the coming of the reign of God will bring. Jesus is showing in symbol that this reign is near and that the messianic blessings that come with it will satisfy the people to the full and quench their deepest hunger. They will be, just like their ancestors who ate manna in the desert, filled with the bread of life come down from heaven. In his reign, the Messiah will provide for all their spiritual needs. “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” (Luke 6.21.)
What Jesus gives goes far beyond immediate needs and material necessities. The food he offers calms more than physical hunger. This mysterious, filling, abundant bread prefigures nothing less than the gift of eternal life. Everything that fulfills man’s deepest longings, everything the Old Testament had looked forward to— all of that is given in the person of Jesus, in his sacrificial death. The best commentary on this story is Jesus’ discourse on the bread of life in John 6. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6.51.)
Passages such as Exodus 16 and Numbers 11 certainly constitute the background of this miracle. They tell how the people were nourished in the desert by bread from heaven (Exodus 16.4). In calling himself, “the living bread that came down from heaven”, Jesus is using one of the great symbols that reveal him as savior, fulfilling the hope of the Old Testament. To eat of this bread means to believe on him. What every man hungers and thirsts for, ultimately, is God himself. Any other food will leave him unsatisfied.
The image of being filled is related to the image of the messianic feast, which represents the reign as a great meal with all the redeemed in attendance. This idea was very familiar to Jesus’ contemporaries, and he himself makes use of it repeatedly in his teaching (Luke 14.15-24; 13.27-29; 16.21; etc.). The reign of the Messiah is at hand, the table is set, the banquet is ready, the hope of men is fulfilled and they will be satisfied if they accept to believe the good news.
Where Jesus satisfies the hunger of the crowd, the disciples are completely helpless. For them, to feed this multitude is humanly impossible. The human solution they propose is pretty lame–we could get some take-out if we only had the money. They follow Jesus, but they have not yet recognized who he is, and it is in vain that he tries to nudge their faith forward. Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14.16.) But the disciples do not catch on, not even after seeing the miracle. For they had not understood about the loaves; their minds were closed. (Mark 6.52.) Their unintelligent minds could not grasp the deep meaning of what had happened. The miracle that Jesus had performed and the words he said to “signify” his mission had not been understood.
Prayer. Are we not, o God, in the same situation as the hungry crowd who did not recognize who you really are? We are not filled by eating the living bread of heaven when we eat it out of obligation, when we eat it without acquiring strength to do good and flee evil, when we eat it while yet yearning for the poison dishes offered by the world, by the flesh and by sin. Lord, please first teach us and enlighten us, then heal us and finally nourish us and fill us so much with yourself that we repelled by everything that comes from the world. Amen.