Bread and Fish

Glad we can be here together this morning. The last several weeks we have been looking at some stories or parables that Jesus told to help others understand and grow in their understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Mission of Jesus. Today though I wanted to shift gear as we continue through the book of Matthew and share a story about Jesus. Let’s turn together and read in Chapter 14 this well known story.

Matthew 14:13–21 NIV

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. 18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. 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 the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Feeding of the 5,000

This is a well known story. I wanted though to give some more of the background of this story to really help set the stage.

See the important part of this story is what happened just before. Jesus was trying to find solitude. Not just because he was tired from doing ministry, healing, or teaching but because in many ways he was mourning.

Just previously he had found out that John the Baptist has been beheaded. His cousin was dead. This had to have hit hard. Naturally being around large groups of people isn’t where you want to be when this kind of news comes in. It isn’t a strange idea that he seeks the solitude of close friends and his Father. Yet, the people follow. They don’t give him that Space.

This leads us to this moment of the feeding of the 5,000+.

I was reading this story and thinking of what is happening. It really is an amazing story of blessing that Jesus is doing here.

He is in pain. Yet, he has compassion.

He doesn’t want to send people away. He wants to show grace.

He tells his disciples to feed them.

The Disciples

Imagine for a moment being the Disciples.

Wait what did he just say.

Did he say that they don’t need to go away.

Did he say that we need to feed them.

Hey Judas, how much money do we have?

John, Peter how much food do we have?

What? Are you sure Judas we are broke ok.

Peter? WE only have two fish left and a couple loaves of bread. Well that isn’t going to cut it.

Umm Jesus Not sure what you want to do but this is all we got.

Imagine being the disciple who had to hand Jesus those couple of fish and five loaves of bread. They had to be utterly confused how this was going to work out.

It was here that I noticed that Jesus commits to four different actions.

Matthew 14:19 NIV

19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. 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 the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

He took, Gave thanks or Blessed, Broke, and he gave.

He Took

Jesus gathered up what little that the disciples had to offer and knew that something great could happen. He knew there was more here than they could imagine. I read a story the other day that really helped put int in perspective of what he is doing here.

10,000 Sermon Illustrations Balogna Sandwich

Imagine a man who goes to a church picnic, and only brings a dry balogna sandwich. He sits alone and begins to eat his sad excuse of a sandwich, when a grandmother and her family come up and sit by him. They take out of their picnic basket mouth-watering fried chicken, home-made whole-wheat bread, potato salad, and a couple of huge, juicy apple pies. As they are getting ready to sit down to their scrumptious feast, the grandmother leans over in his direction and says, “Why don’t we just put yours and ours all together?” That’s what God does—he takes our poor rags and gives us his riches.

He takes the humble loaves of bread and 2 fish and turns it into so much more. In fact he turns it into a feast the likes of which probably no one has seen. The humble food didn’t change in quality but it sure changed in quantity. So much that everyone was full and there were leftovers.

This is an amazing to think that God can do so much with so little when we are willing to trust him even with the little that we have.

He Blessed/Thanks

This is important here. We commonly read this passage in many text and see that it reads he blessed the food. The Greek word that is used here is translated as bless or praised. Which is why most Bible’s will translate it as Blessed the food or a blessing.

What is important though here is the context of that word and its reference in Jewish culture.

Blessed is the normal giving of tanks before a meal, the responsibility of the head of the Jeish family. He ‘blesses God for the food, rather than ‘blessing’ the food. This is why the translation of thanks in the NIV works so well. This isn’t about multiplying the food by Jesus divine power. This is recognizing the source the provider, God. Thanking him for all that was given. When we bless the food we are to take an attitude of praise and thankfulness. To Bless God with our recognition of his provision.

He Broke

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Jesus didn’t break the bread. If they would have passed the whole loaf. Would they have just multiplied as whole loaves.

You pick up the whole loaf for your family and poof there is another one in its place.

That isn’t how it happened but Jesus broke the bread.

This is a common and not an unusual practice at the dinner table. Break of the piece of bread you need for your meal. It’s not like today where we would break out a knife because we like nice clean cuts of our bread.

Now days if someone brings a loaf of bread to the table they it has a knife and a cutting board. We would look at people who would break bread as barbarians. No one does that.

Different time and culture though. Jesus broke the bread and he began his next action.

He Gave

He gave the pieces of the loaves to be shared with the crowd to the disciples. They then shared with the people. They kept sharing and sharing and sharing and everyone was satisfied.

Jesus provided for all of them. For over 5,000 people. This ordinary meal was turned into something extraordinary.

This was amazing. It wasn’t like Jesus snapped his fingers and a five course gourmet meal was in front of everyone. IT was a simple meal but it was from Jesus and no one was without. No one went hungry. Everyone was satisfied. He Showed that his blessing is far beyond anything we can imagine.

Another Meal...

These four actions,

Take, Bless, break, give

should stand out to us. They should be something that we recognize. There is an element in this story that we can’t miss. There is an element of foreshadowing that we must recognize.

Matthew 26:26 NIV

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

He took bread, He praised God for it, he broke it and he shared it. This bread didn’t multiply though. There weren’t leftovers afterward that we know of. This bread though turned into something far greater. It would become a blessing for all those to come after.

It would be the reminder that Jesus continues to host this great feast in the church to this day. That we recognize that This feast is open to all people. No matter who they are this is a feast that we confess our belief in Christ and his death.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

WE Gather to the table as men, women, children, of different places. Each of us unique but all invited to be reminded of the power of his death on the cross. That his death was done to free us from the Bonds of Sin. This morning we will participate in the Lord’s Supper. A reminder that he can take even the most humble of items and turn them into a blessing that is far greater than anything we can imagine.

Communion