The feeding of the five thousand
By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. 'This is a remote place,' they said, 'and it's already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.'
But he answered, 'You give them something to eat.'
They said to him, 'That would take more than half a year's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?'
'How many loaves do you have?' he asked. 'Go and see.'
When they found out, they said, 'Five—and two fish.'
Then Jesus told them to make all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. (Mar 6:35–44)
One miracle
The Gospel accounts of our Lord's feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand are very similar, apart from the numbers involved, so for teaching purposes they can be viewed as one miracle and their details used interchangeably.
There are five teachings that come from these miracles: two are concerned with what God does for us—we will look at those in this study; and three with what God wants us to do—we will look at those when we come to the feeding of the four thousand later in this series.
Material provision
Before Jesus fed the four thousand he said:
'I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.' (Mar 8:2–3)
In the previous study we saw that Jesus had compassion on the people with respect to their spiritual and physical needs, and in response to that he taught them the Word of God and healed their bodies. These verses show that he also had compassion on them with respect to their material needs.
Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand by performing miracles, which were dramatic proofs of his love and care. But he also told his followers how they would be provided for at other times.
He told them not to worry about what they would eat, or drink, or wear (the essentials of life), or how they would obtain them. Instead, they were to seek his kingdom and his righteousness first of all (make spiritual things the priority in their lives), then all the material things they needed would be given to them as well (Mat 6:25–34).
That didn't mean that they shouldn't pray if they had a need, but they should pray knowing that their heavenly Father would provide for them. He said:
'Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?' (Mat 6:26)
Did God send his Son to die for birds? No, he sent him to die for us. So if God feeds the birds, how much more will he feed those for whom his Son died—and not just feed us, but provide every other thing we need as well (Rom 8:32).
Spiritual provision
Of the thirty-six miracles of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, only one of them is found in all four of the Gospels: the feeding of the five thousand.
If that miracle is found in all four Gospels then, arguably, it's the most important miracle he performed. Could that be true? I believe it is, because the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand are the only miracles that point to the cross.
V41 of this chapter tells us that before Jesus fed the people he took the loaves, looked up to heaven, gave thanks and broke them. Why did he do that?
Having taught his disciples to ask their Father for their daily bread (Mat 6:9–11), it was only right that he thanked him for it. But he didn't have to look up to heaven to give thanks, and he didn't have to break the loaves before he multiplied them. Jesus was teaching something more than that.
The breaking of bread is central to the Christian faith because it represents our Lord's death on the cross. Jesus looking up to heaven, giving thanks and breaking the loaves, was a symbolic act: he was showing that he was the spiritual bread who had come down from heaven to give spiritual life to the world (Joh 6:32–3).
After feeding the five thousand the people followed Jesus across the lake (Joh 6:23–4). When he saw them he told them that they had followed him because he had provided for their material needs (Joh 6:26).
He then told them not to work for food that spoils (material food): that shouldn't be the priority in their lives. Instead, they should work for food that endures to eternal life (spiritual food) which he, the Son of Man, would give them (Joh 6:27): that should be their priority. Jesus is that spiritual food (Joh 6:33).
Spiritual food is more important to us than material food. We need material food to live, but spiritual food so we can live forever. By breaking the loaves before he fed the people, Jesus was showing that their spiritual needs (which would be met by his death on the cross) were more important than their material needs.
In Joh 6:48–51 Jesus compared himself to the manna Israel ate in the desert, which was material food, sent from heaven, from God. But even though it came from God, the people who ate it still died physically.
Jesus, however, is the spiritual manna God has sent from heaven. Whoever eats of that manna, even though they may die physically, will live forever spiritually (Joh 11:25–6).
Spiritual or material?
What is more important to us, the spiritual or the material? It should be the spiritual because the material (which includes this present earth and our earthly bodies) is only temporary and will soon pass away (Mat 24:35); but that which is spiritual is eternal.
The Bible is a spiritual book and its central theme is salvation: how we can have our sins forgiven and receive eternal life. That is the most important subject of all because it governs our eternal destiny.
Michael Graham
November 2008
Revised April 2019
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicised edition). Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved.