Friday, August 8, 2014

Musings on the feeding of the five thousand

Last Sunday we heard Matthew's version of the feeding of the five thousand.  

As I listened to the story for what must have been the five thousandth time (although one can never hear it enough!), I decided to capture some of my thoughts:

  • I reminded myself that this is the only miracle to appear in all four Gospels, highlighting what an amazing event this must have been
  • Matthew starts by telling us that Jesus was upset about John the Baptist's death and thus withdraws to be by himself, an no doubt, to mourn.  Yet, he selflessly puts that on hold when he sees an opportunity to preach and potentially save the lives of others.  
  • Jesus does not feed the masses by himself.  Notice that he tells his Apostles to.  The same thing applies to us today I suppose.  He could snap his fingers and feed all the hungry in all the world, but he is asking us to.  
  • God does not give exactly the right amount of food.  There are twelve wicker baskets- full left over.  A reminder that He is so generous ... He gives us more than we will ever need.
  • I remember reading once how people would use various elevations or wind direction to ensure there voice would travel far enough for all to hear.  But still, speaking so 5,000 people can hear you can't be that easy.
  • By the way, we always refer to five thousand.  But note that Matthew states that that does not include women and children.  I wonder what that number really was.  
 God Bless you.
 

4 comments:

Shirley said...

It's also a parable of the priesthood: Jesus assigns the Apostles (and successors) to bring to us the Bread of Life, to minister to His people.

Victor S E Moubarak said...

Years ago, when I was studying Religious Instructions, our lecturer noted that the various Gospels mention a different number of people and different number of loaves and fishes. He explained that when there's an accident, and different witnesses are asked to say what they saw; they'll all have a different version of events. But they'll all agree there's been an accident.

Likewise, in this story, the various interpretations authenticates that the miracle really did take place.

God bless you, Michael.

Janice said...

Thanks for posting. God is good. He gives us more than we can ask for.
Blessings,
Janice

Michael said...

Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to visit and comment! God bless all of you!