Jesus Feeds Five Thousand: The significance of Jesus’ actions involving abundant food is the recognition that the world of the first-century Roman Empire was marked by significant inequalities concerning food access. Many people knew food insecurity and struggled on a daily and seasonal basis for adequate food and nutrition.

The biblical tradition explicitly identifies God’s will that hungry people be fed. God provides food for the wilderness generation (Exodus 16). Ezekiel condemns Israel’s leaders or “shepherds” for failing to feed the sheep/people (Ezekiel 34:1-10). The prophet Isaiah declares God’s will that people “share your bread with the hungry” (Isaiah 58:7, 10). The establishment of God’s Kingdom in all its fullness depicts this coming age in terms of abundant food and feasting for all. 

Jesus’ action in the gospel of Matthew highlights and confronts this injustice with an action that enacts God’s will to feed hungry people and that anticipates the coming age in which God will supply abundant food. Jesus’ initial response is one of compassionate power expressed in healing (14:14). They produce the five loaves and two fish. Jesus blesses the food and gives it to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. The language of “taking,” “loaves,” “blessed,” “broke” “gave to disciples,” “ate,” and “all” in 14:19 appears in the last supper scene in 26:26-27. This is not a last supper (no cup!), but the two are linked by the use of food in the dispersal of divine blessing.

Prayer:  Merciful God, you call us to a loving relationship with one another. Be with us now as we seek to find joy in our relationship. Give our hearts love and care for one another. Give us the gifts of honesty and openness, and fill us with your healing power and grace. We ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen.