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Luke 9:10-17

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 9:10 when the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they

had done. And taking them with Him, He withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida.

11 But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and He welcomed them and

began speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and curing those who had need of

healing.

Luke 9:12 Now the day was ending, and the twelve came up and said to Him, “Dismiss

the crowd, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find

lodging and get something to eat; because here, we are in a secluded place.” 13 But He

said to them, “You give them something to eat!” But they said, “We have no more than

five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.” 14

(For there were about five thousand men.) But He said to His disciples, “Have them

recline to eat in groups of about fifty each.” 15 They did so, and had them all recline. 16

And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and, looking up to heaven, He blessed

them and broke them, and gave them to the disciples again and again, to serve the crowd.

17 And they all ate and were satisfied; and the broken pieces which they had left over

were picked up, twelve baskets full.

In Luke’s gospel chapter 9, starting on the 10th verse and going to the 17th, we have a

feeding story where Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish and thousands of

people eat. There are many ways to interpret this narrative, and I’m going to offer one

that is probably unique and somewhat different from what you might’ve heard from

other preachers. Before I do this, I have to explain a couple of cultural items that lead

me to the conclusion that I want to present.

When people traveled from town to town in Jesus’ day, they carried food and water

with them. The food and water would be in containers that would be held underneath

the tunic. It was placed underneath the tunic to keep the hot rays of the sun from

cooking or spoiling the food. People carried fish and bread under their coats. They also

carried water with them. We have to remember that in Jesus’ day, there were no Burger

King or McDonald's restaurants along the traveling roads. If you didn’t bring food, then

you went hungry. This feeding story was near a large town. Since there were people

who traveled regularly, I have no doubt that people in the crowd were coming home to

the city, and that brings us into the second cultural point.

When you travel from city to city with your food and water, you never reached your

destination with any food on you. Food was to be eaten before you reach that

destination or could be fed to the birds or the animals. Therefore, there would have

been people in the crowd that needed to do something with the excess food they had

if they were returning to their homes in the town.

Another cultural point of importance is called in Hebrew pe’ah. This cultural point I

found in a book called the Talmud. The Talmud is a collection of rules and regulations

and interpretations that were in use during Jesus’ day. The Talmud was actually put

together in writing around 200 CE. One of the intriguing things about Near East culture

is that it rarely changes. People have lived the same way for thousands of years.

Therefore, this cultural point would have been in place in Jesus’ day.

You’re probably now wondering what this cultural point of importance was? Pe’ah refers

to the cultural rule that when you are served food in a house or outside, you always

leave some food on your plate. That extra food was given to those who prepared and

cooked the meal, and served it to you. Therefore, the concept of having baskets of food

left over was because of this cultural concept. The people who were served left some

food behind for those who served them. In this case, it was the apostles of Jesus.

You may never be heard of this concept because the cultural books written by Christian

authors don’t mention it. Like I said, I read it in the Talmud that you always left food

behind. When you put these cultural items into the feeding story, you may see it a little

differently. Seeing it differently than just a miracle of creating lots of bread and fish is a

much better lesson that the author was trying to give us. Of course, I should be saying