Did Jesus really feed 5000, Mark 6:35-44
I’ve been wondering a bit lately about the multiplication miracles. As a group of people who are Bible believing Christians, what is your thinking is it the same as mine? Did Jesus feed the five thousand, I don’t think he did? Before you get up and leave let me unpack this.
Three things, for a start, The disciples did, Jesus did however produce this miraculous event and there were more than five thousand who experienced the multiplication miracles.
If we unpack this a little and look at the account of Mark’s gospel we see that the disciples come to Jesus who had been teaching these people and say, “Jesus we’re out in the sticks and it’s late, send these people away to buy some food” (Moffatt paraphrase).
To which Jesus replies, “You give them something to eat”.
To which the disciples reply, “That’s going to cost a whole lot of money, eight months’ pay for one bloke, do you want us to spend that much?” (Moffatt paraphrase). You can just imagine here that Judas who was their treasurer was getting a little fretful.
So Jesus asked them how many loaves they had, their answer was five and two fish. Matthew and Luke give a very similar account of this miracle, whereas John says the bread and fish belonged to a small boy. It’s interesting that it was Andrew who brought the boy with the food to Jesus and asked the question, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:1-15) It’s interesting to see that the disciple I’m named after was not that sharp at maths either.
1) The thing is that Jesus did preform the miracle but he didn’t feed the five thousand. You may be thinking here Andrew you’re just being a bit silly about this. But for Jesus disciples this was one of those great learning moments. The disciples rock up with a problem and Jesus says well solve it, “you give them something to eat.” I found in my education the best teachers always asked you to answer your own question!
It’s interesting here that Jesus, The Word of God, The Bread of Life, not only has the answer, he provides the solution. I do wonder if he was ‘thinking come on boys you can do this, “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” (John 14:13-14).
My first point here however is a hands on application, the small boy may have supplied the food, Jesus preformed the miracle of the food multiplication, but without the trust they had in Jesus and their hands on service of the food distribution by the disciples the five thousand would have gone hungry.
Not only that, the word used by Jesus, “something” in Greek, “tis” is in it’s most common usage used as; why? what? which? and who?, it is only used twice in scripture as something. When the disciples say these people need a feed, it’s like Jesus is saying “well what are you going to give them?” or may be even, “you see the problem provide a solution, provide something for them to eat.”
Of course we see the goodness of God poured out as Jesus preforms this miracle.
The disciples are then trusting Jesus and in service to the five thousand taking around this food, that continues to grow, to expand, to multipy, I wonder how this practically happened, this amazing thing?
As the disciples took a loaf, most likely a divided loaf to one of the groups of fifty and broke it, did it become a full small loaf, then as it was passed to another; did this happen again and again, was this the same for the fish? For ease of distribution this is the method I favour, Jesus, The Bread of Life providing multiplying sustenance, as the disciples participated in this wonderful thing. Jesus had and I believe, has power and control of material things. But in this instance his disciples played a key part. What’s more once this crowd had eaten their fill, there were leftovers. The disciples gathered up twelve baskets full of leftovers.
2) What it took was the disciple’s trust and participation; their part in the miracle was no small thing. their hearts were right with God, they knew Jesus. Interestingly these blokes were fully involved, the baskets they used to pick up the left overs, it seems were small baskets they carried with them as part of their traveling kit. Without their efforts no one would have been feed apart from one small boy whose Mum I would pick had the good sense to send her son out that day with a decent feed.
I also believe that this miracle involved the crowd who Jesus was teaching realising that as they passed on the blessing they had received others were further blessed. The first few dozen or so could have held onto that fish, that loaf and no one else would have been feed. There is a key lesson about God’s kingdom here, as we pass on what we have been given from God, others are blessed. Do you process good things, who is the giver of all good things? Are you blessing others with the good things given to you?
Unless we are willing to trust and pass on the blessings we have, the miracle, the miracle of the Kingdom of God cannot continue, others will miss out, on sustenance, relief from hunger and remain trapped by sin. Our role is in faith to be involved in acts of service, that others might know, that others might be saved. But, there is more to our lives to our faith than this.
3) Paul points out what Jesus mission here on earth was and is, Ephesians 4:8-13 reads; “This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.’(What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” A lot of people stop reading half way through this passage as they try to figure out if they are an Apostle or a Pastor etc. What Paul is pointing out here is what the mission of Jesus was on Earth. It was this; “to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Note particularly: the part about reaching unity in faith. This is heart sold out for Jesus stuff, he asks us to distribute a few scraps of food, what we have, in faith we do it?
4) I mentioned earlier that there were more people involved in this miracle of multiplication than five thousand. The people counted were men, we already know that a small boy had food with him, and there would have been women and children present. Only men were counted, easily counted as they were sitting in groups of 50 or 100. There are many other points that can be taken from this passage of scripture.
Did you know that later in Mark's gospel after Jesus feed another four thousand as referred to in Mark 8:1-13, The Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him for a sign from Heaven. If these religious people had been present and involved in this other multiplication miracle they would have seen Jesus control over the physical, over the feeding of a great crowd, still they wanted another miracle some sort, of sign maybe a fiery chariot, a bolt from the blue, a crowd of angels singing sweet tunes. Jesus sighed deeply, and his answer to them was; “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth; no sign will be given to it.” (Mark 8:12).
Real life, sustaining true miracles occur! The ordinary becomes the extraordinary in Jesus hands, ordinary lives, a little faith, small things become extraordinary in Jesus hands.
Miracles occur when the people of God, when those claiming the name of Christ, trust in him, then get on and share their faith with others, we can be part of a miracle. Jesus mission on Earth was to prepare his people for works of service, why? So that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
The disciples, I wonder how they felt when Jesus asked them to step out and feed these 5000 people? Were they concerned five loaves and two small fish wouldn’t go that far, would they be ridiculed, as I said earlier the disciple Andrew had his concerns, his question was relevant.
But the thing was they knew who it was they were with, that they could step out in the faith they had in Jesus that in his hands, in his company the ordinary would become the extraordinary, the meagre would become the magnificent.
This could have been a disaster, but in their hearts they knew, they knew his words, they knew his character, they knew God. They were so convinced that they took a little under half a loaf each, a small segment of a small fish and feed five thousand men.
Would I be that brave? Now there’s a question to ask myself, would I be that brave?
With Jesus, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, our lives, our ordinary existence can become extraordinary in his hands.
When was the last time you truly explored the depth of your trust?
Please rate this sermon.
