Lineage Manger to Messiah
Feeding the 5000 Episode 13
Jesus had just been told about the death of His cousin
and the man who baptized Him, John the Baptist,
and most likely wanting some peace and quiet
and wanting to reflect and contemplate on the situation,
He left where He was and went across the lake to a deserted area.
When the people noticed He had gone,
some saw Him leave and followed Him, either by boat or walking around the lake.
It was hard for Jesus to get some peace and quiet
as the people wanted to be with Him.
[music]
Seeing the multitude that had gathered,
Jesus was moved with sympathy and spent the entire day
healing the sick and teaching the multitude.
Despite not having His rest, He stayed and ministered all day.
Nearing the end of the day,
His disciples came to Him and said that they were in a deserted area
and there wouldn't be anywhere to buy enough bread or food to feed the multitude.
They suggested sending the people away,
allowing them to buy their own food in the nearby villages on their way home.
[music]
Jesus responds and says, ‘Give them something to eat.’
But they have no food.
Jesus then asked if anyone does have any food,
and Andrew, one of the disciples, says that there is a young boy
with five loaves and two fishes
but there is no way that five loaves and two fishes
can feed five thousand people— five thousand hungry people
who've been standing and listening to Jesus all day.
Jesus commands that the food be brought to Him and the people be sat down.
Then taking the food, Jesus blesses it and breaks it
and gives it to His disciples and they pass it out to the people.
As Jesus breaks the food, miraculously it keeps on multiplying.
[music]
Jesus has His disciples cooperate with Him in the distribution of the food.
They took food from Jesus and they were to give it out to others,
and only as they gave food away did they receive more from Him.
If they didn't give any food away
then they couldn't collect any more food from Jesus.
And so it is with us in our spiritual life.
As we share what we know about God's word,
He then gives us a deeper understanding in our spiritual journey.
After everyone had eaten, an important spiritual lesson was taught.
They didn't waste any food, but they gathered the fragments that remained.
[music]
They gathered 12 baskets of fragments—
fragments that would likely have been taken home by the people there
so they could share the blessings of the bread that Jesus made
with friends and family who were not able to make it.
Exactly where this miracle took place, no one really knows,
but this miracle and all the lessons that Jesus taught with it
would have taken place somewhere on a hillside that surrounds lake Galilee.
[music]
This miracle teaches us some important lessons.
Firstly, sharing what we have.
From the little boy to the disciples who were giving out the food,
they shared what they had.
Secondly, it teaches us not to waste anything.
They gathered up the fragments that remained and nothing went to waste.
We also see that Jesus did not perform miracles for people's curiosity
or for His own ease and pleasure.
There was a genuine need, and Jesus provided for that.
May we today learn these lessons of frugality, generosity,
and willing service that Jesus taught [with] this amazing miracle.