Feeding 5,000 Listeners—Luke 9:10-17

Please read today's text here: Luke 9:10-17

In a very real sense what Jesus had sent the Twelve Apostles out to do in the preceding episode was to “feed” the people of Galilee with truth necessary for their survival spiritually. The Jewish people were—at least in a physical sense—the “people of God”, since God had called Abraham, their ancestor (Gen. 12:1-6) and had freed them from slavery in Egypt through his servant Moses (Exodus). As his own people, the Jewish people were God’s responsibility. Like a father or mother who brought a child into the world, God could not just leave them to fend for themselves. But from a different perspective, this relationship also obligated the people of Israel (the Jews) to obey him and to keep their relationship to him strong and steady through listening to his words in the Scripture and through the prophets he sent to them.

So when Jesus sent the Twelve out to proclaim the kingdom of God, to call the nation to re-examine their relationship to their God and Redeemer, and to welcome the Messiah whom God had sent in the person of Jesus, he was performing God’s duty to “feed” the people whom he created to be his own special nation.

It is appropriate then that when the apostles returned from this mission, Jesus used a situation of genuine human need to demonstrate what his mission was in an acted-out way. Instead of using words, he used a spectacular and miraculous action: the creation of enough food to satisfy a hungry crowd of 5,000 men and uncounted women and children who may also have been present.

The need arose because the crowds had literally “hung upon his words” and followed him into areas far from any place where they could find food. Now many were literally ready to pass out from lack of food and drink. In verse 12, his apostles—seeing the situation—urged Jesus to dismiss the crowds and tell them to go to nearby villages where they might find food. In verse 13 Jesus’ answer to the apostles must have shocked them. He said “You give them something to eat!”

In the light of what I said above about how this was an acted-out explanation of what the apostles had done on their preaching trip, notice that Jesus does not say “I will give them something to eat”, but rather “You give them something to eat”. Although the miracle of providing the food resulted from Jesus’ own power and his relationship to God the Father, the food would be distributed by the apostles, not by Jesus. And symbolically this was to show that God would feed the people spiritually his word and his forgiveness of their sins through the preaching and ministry of these Twelve Apostles.

But the Twelve were no more perceptive to Jesus’ mysterious way of talking to them than you or I would have been, had we been there. They thought only of the physical situation—no food—and of the impossibility of their providing from their own small bag of food enough to feed this huge number of people.

Seeing their lack of understanding, Jesus gave them simple step-by-step instructions: First, have the people sit down on the grass in groups of 50. This may have been so that afterwards they would know just how many people they had fed: 100 groups of 50 men (plus women and children).

Then Jesus acted as the father at the family dinner table and prayed over the food (verse 16): 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Did the disciples think this was going to be a fiasco, when he tried to feed so many people with so little food? Perhaps. Much depends on whether their faith in him was growing, faith that he was capable of anything.

In verse 17 Luke summarizes the results very succinctly: They all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was 12 baskets of broken pieces. The fact that there were leftovers proved that everyone had eaten enough.

In the Apostle John’s gospel, where he tells this story, he records the crowd’s reaction: “This is indeed the Prophet who was to come into the world”. But Luke is content to let the incident speak for itself to his readers. An author’s silence is usually a sign that he thinks the story has been clear in its message.

So what is that message? As I said at the beginning, this incident was intended to be seen as part of the preceding one about the mission of the Twelve Apostles. They represent the entire Church of Jesus, which includes you and me. If you are counting on Jesus to forgive you of all the misdeeds you ever commit in your life, because of his death for you on the cross, then you are part of this community represented by the Twelve. You and I too have a service for Jesus. Sometimes it requires some speaking. As during their itinerant mission in Galilee the disciples shared words that Jesus gave them, so you and I read the Bible regularly—as we are doing together in this blog—and from that reading we are being taught by Jesus. What you learn today and tomorrow, you can easily share with those you love—your family and your friends. And when we share what little we have—as the Twelve in today’s lesson shared what little they had (5 loaves and two fishes), we find that it miraculously multiplies in the sharing, so that not only are others fed, but we ourselves understand much more deeply what we have learned and shared.

And if this applies to what we learn from Jesus (i.e., from the Bible), it also applies to other resources we have. Sometimes we know of others in need, and we look at our own busy calendars and limited budgets, and we say “How can I give anything to help them, from such a small income?” God can lead you to know what he will “multiply” from your own limited income. You may be surprised how God will make it possible to share your money or time with others and still have more than enough to meet your own needs and those of your family.