The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

When You Feel Short on Resources:  Mt.14:15 – 21

^14:15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ ¹⁶ But Jesus said to them, ‘They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!’ ¹⁷ They said to him, ‘We have here only five loaves and two fish.’ ¹⁸ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ ¹⁹ Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, he blessed the food, and breaking the loaves he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, ²⁰ and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. ²¹ There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.

I know people who have had this kind of miracle happen to them.  The food doesn’t run out.  The oil that was supposed to only last a month heats the house all winter and beyond.  George Mueller set up orphanages and prayed for food and it came.  I’m not sure what to make of it, but praise God for times like that.  On one level, yes, Jesus was helping them to recognize that he provides the resources for his mission.  But how?  It’s not as though Jesus just makes money appear in church bank accounts on a regular basis.  

Let’s look at how the miracle happened.  The disciples were concerned that the people would go hungry.  Their intentions were good.  Nevertheless, Jesus still challenged them.  ‘You give them something to eat!’ is an eye-popping command.  The disciples brought Jesus the five loaves and two fish.  They know they didn’t have much.  Enough for maybe one family?  Nevertheless, Jesus ordered the people to sit down on the grass.  As any Jewish man would have done for his household, he thanked the God of Israel for providing the food.  He blessed it.  He broke the bread.  He handed some to the disciples.  I imagine that they, shrugging, gave the bread to the people closest to them.  Maybe they were thinking, ‘Well, at least these lucky people in front got some.’  But when they handed out what they could carry, they came back and found that Jesus had more bread.  ‘Did someone else bring more bread and fish?  Well, that’s great!  A few more hungry stomachs fed.’  Handing that out, they came back, only to find that Jesus had…more.  And more!  The disciples probably thought of the great passage in Isaiah 55:1 – 3 speaking of God renewing the covenant with Israel on the other side of Israel’s exile and captivity.  God would provide a banquet for one enormous family through the head of that family, the Messianic king from David’s line.  Jesus had just evoked that very image in more ways than one:

¹ ‘Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
² Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
³ Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful mercies shown to David. (Isaiah 55:1 – 3)
 

The important thing, I think, is that the miracle happens where Jesus is, and the disciples get to see it.  Of course, the crowd must have understood that something special was happening.  But the disciples were the privileged ones.  As they served, they saw the miraculous happen.  They must have been astonished.  Nothing like this had ever happened before.  And when everyone was fed, the disciples were not exhausted, burned out, and hungry.  Jesus didn’t use them up to feed the ministry machine.  Instead, each disciple held a basket piled up with leftover bread halves.  Perhaps Jesus was helping them recognize that serving him held this kind of hidden privilege.

Jesus often used bread symbolically to represent himself and/or his teaching.  Eating bread, therefore, symbolized eating – that is, internalizing – Jesus and/or his teaching.  He will speak about the children’s bread with the Canaanite woman, and she will speak of getting crumbs from the table (Mt.15:27 – 28).  Jesus will feed four thousand other people with bread (Mt.15:29 – 39).  Then he will compare his teaching with the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, using internalizing bread as a metaphor for internalizing teaching (Mt.16:12).  Later, at the Last Supper, Jesus will ask his disciples to internalize his death and resurrection by eating broken bread (Mt.26:26).  As we share Jesus with people and watch them internalize him, Jesus shares with us an insight about his working.  It’s always him doing the miracle.  We may be close to the event.  We might watch them change and grow.  But Jesus is the one who multiplies himself.  He is the nourishment.  And we are left with more than we started.

          The first time I led a bible study, it was after my freshman year of college.  I had met with a mentor for a few months in college to study Mt.5 – 7 together, and I had read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book The Cost of Discipleship, but otherwise I was quite new in the faith.  Psyched to grow and oblivious to how much I didn’t know, I plunged ahead.  I came home for the summer and put the word out there to my friends that I wanted to organize a study in Matthew 5 – 7, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  The very first week, I got there half an hour early to pray and prepare.  I was so nervous that, during those thirty minutes, I went to the bathroom three times!  Overall, my experience that summer was powerful and challenging.  I saw people reconcile with each other as a result of reading Jesus’ teaching.  I saw people, including myself, challenged in other ways.  It left a deep impression on me.  I yearned for more and asked fresh questions.  I wanted more people to meet Jesus and be transformed by him.  I wanted to be a better teacher of Scripture.  How, and what that would mean for me, I had no idea.  But my basket felt full.

          We are not cogs in Jesus’ machine.  We are honored servants, blessed with the privilege of seeing Jesus nourish people.  That is part of how Jesus nourishes us.