5 Loaves & 2 Fish
Notes
Transcript
Jesus feeds the multitude with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. This is the only miracle (not counting the resurrection) which is recorded in all four gospels. the miracle happened on such a large scale that each gospel writer had to include it in their book. Sometimes referred to as the “feeding of the 5000” - the actual number was much larger. Matthew 14:21
About five thousand men plus women and children had eaten.
So…more like 10,000 people! You can appreciate why all four gospel writers were inspired to include it in their accounts. That is a lot of fish and bread.
We are going to do something a bit different - we will be examining two different accounts of this miracle, over two weeks, with two different perspectives. Today, I will preach on Gospel of Matthew’s account and next week, Rev. Harold will preach on the Gospel of John’s account found in the 6th chapter. If I had thought of it - I would have brought sardines and crackers for you to snack on during the sermon - maybe Harold can next week.
Here is my take on Matthew’s account. First, let’s establish the context. This miracle occurred during the period of time that Jesus was travelling thoughout the region of Galilee teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God. In the Northern part of Israel, there is a large fresh water lake that is called by several names: the Sea of Galilee, Lake Tiberias or Lake Kinneret - I imagine depending on what part of the lake you reside determined what name you used.
Jesus and his disciples spent a fair amount of time walking around or crossing by boat this particular lake. Jesus even walked on the lake itself once - so did Peter briefly (another story for another time). during their travels, they stayed in towns like Capernaum, Tiberias, and Bethsaida. As his ministry tour got rolling, his fame grew and great crowds would come out to hear him - and many would seek him out for healing. His disciples, his students, would learn not just from his verbal teachings, but also by observing his way of life and taking on what they saw him doing. I’m sure that spending time day after day with Jesus would have an impact on your prayer life, on your list of priorities, on how you managed your resources, and on how you related and interacted with people.
What lessons would the disciples draw from the feeding of the multitudes?
That is what I want us to focus on today.
We can call this “Lessons from our Teacher” - what is Jesus teaching us in this miraculous event.
Here are four lessons I hope we can gain today:
Show Compassion Always
Be part of the Solution
Bring What You Got
Expect the Unexpected
the first Lesson: “Show Compassion Always”, requires us to back up in the story and look at what just occurred that lead to this moment.
Jesus had just received word that his cousin, John the Baptist, had been executed. Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, was the ruler over the territory of Galilee, and at some point, he had become the target of John’s bold preaching since Herod had married his half-brother’s wife. It was a wicked thing to do and John took him to task. john was not afraid to stir the waters. Herod in turn, had John arrested and locked up.
For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet.
On Herod’s birthday, his niece, the daughter of Herodias, danced for him and his guests and he was so turned on that he promised her whatever she wanted. After consulting with mama, she said she wanted John’s head on a platter. And so John met the same fate as many prophets - he was executed. Jesus, having just left his hometown of Nazareth, was now back near the Sea of Galilee when he receives word of John’s death.
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Jesus is grieving. The one person who he knew all is life, who also was called by God to serve in this dangerous mission, was now gone. John was bold enough to speak truth, call people to seek the Lord, acknowledge their sin, repent and be baptized. And for that, he was killed.
Facing such a loss, all he wanted to do is go away to some quiet place with his disciples and grieve. Yet when he gets there - there is a crowd waiting.
Instead of being frustrated, we read that he “had compassion on them and healed their sick.”
Instead of seeing people as a nuisance, he saw them as precious, lost souls in need of extraordinary love. i imagine he reasoned, “my cousin died for these people and I’m going to die for these people.”
There is never an excuse for not showing compassion to others. I say that as one who knows, if that was me and someone whom I loved had died and I just want to be left alone - I’d have a real hard time taking the focus off of myself. And yet, that is exactly what would be best for me to do. Showing compassion to others not only brings healing to them, it brings healing to you. There will always be times when the Lord will permit, even encourage, moments of rest and time to be alone - but if He brings someone to you in need - no matter what is happening in your life at the moment, the appropriate response is to show compassion.
Lesson 2. Be Part of the Solution.
Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
As disciples of Christ, we are instructed to be part of the solution, not a shirker of responsibility. The crowds had come to encounter Jesus and his disciples are saying “send them away” as soon as problems arise.
Imagine for a moment that the Spirit of God moves through Cambridge like a mighty wind and suddenly - hundreds of people begin showing up to church one Sunday thirsty to hear God’s Word. People are lined up outside to come in. All the pews are filled. All the meetings over last couple of decades where the church leaders talked about the need to reach more people, and now, suddenly, God brings them to us. Now what if, given the problem of over-crowding, our ushers stand at the front door and shout to the crowd - “you all need to go home, there is no room for you here!”
Can you imagine? What does that communicate? It says to the crowd “there is a limit to what Jesus can do.” (I’m not picking on our ushers - it is just a hypothetical response.)
It like the employee who, when faced with an outside the norm situation, says “that’s not my job” - if I was the owner, my question would be, so your job is not to contribute to the success of the company?
Disciples of Jesus tackle problems with Kingdom-oriented solutions. What actions can we take that will grow the Kingdom? How can we creatively meet the challenge before us? What do we need to change in order for us to tackle the issue? This is the beauty of the Body of Christ. God has knitted together a diverse group of people, each gifted in their own way, to handle whatever comes their way. We gather together, we pray to the Lord - show us what to do - and we begin putting together our game plan. Which leads to...
Lesson #3: Bring What You Got
I call this the MacGyver principle. Remember the old tv show from the late 80’s? MacGyver would find himself in a situation that required out of the box thinking - like disarming a bomb with a swiss army knife, a bag of frozen peas and an Elvis Presley belt buckle.
When faced with a problem or challenge - what would MacGyver do? Better yet, what can you bring to the table? Jesus doesn’t turn to one disciple and say “Peter - I want you to solve this one by yourself.” He says to the group “you give them something to eat.”
We can complain and say “Jesus, there are so many problems here in Cambridge. Teen hopelessness, generational poverty, broken families, gun violence, disbelief - do something about it.” But do we hear his response, “my disciples, you do something about it.” What can you bring to the table?
We’ve got two fish and five loaves of bread. We’ve got some folks willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work. We have a small mission center a few block down the road. We’ve got some shut-ins who spend many hours in prayer. We have a kitchen and a large room with tables and chairs. We may know another church that is tackling this one issue but they need some helpers. We can spare a couple bucks a month for the Mission Fund. We can go wherever the Lord want to send us. We can bring to the table what we have - an offering of sacrifice - and say Jesus, use this.
Which leads to Lesson 4: Expect the Unexpected.
And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Do you realize that Jesus loves to reveal himself to His people? When we earnestly seek him and act according to his Word, that he is pleased to respond?
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
I know I have shared this real life story before, but it was such a beautiful example of what we are talking about today.
During my first pastoral appointment, I served a church in the St. Michaels area and when we arrived, there was virtually no youth ministry in what is referred to as the Bay Hundred (from Royal Oak to Tilghman Island). The number of youth regularly engaged in church in that entire area could be counted on two hands.
During a period of church discernment and visioning - one small group came up with what we called “the Big Dream.” We would reach 100 youth for Christ in one year. It was a big audacious goal that would only be possible with God. We offered ourselves to the Lord. God we have the hearts to do this, we will pray over this endeavor, some of us will give our time and talent to volunteer wherever needed, others would make baked goods or organize events, others would offer to setup or break down events. We were all in - we offered up our five loaves and two fishes, we just needed Jesus to show up.
And did he ever. Within a year, we had earned the trust of school officials, we held a back to school bonfire attended by dozens of youth, and we organized a school assembly with freshman and sophomores in attendance where a Christian former NFL player came in and shared a message with the kids. Within three years, we were able to bring a speaker into every middle and high school in Talbot county and we established a chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes in St. Michael’s High School. Time and again, Jesus would remove some obstacle and we would keep moving forward. What started off as a dream with a few dozen members of a small rural church ended up being a movement that reached over a thousand youth in Talbot county with the gospel.
I’ve seen Jesus do the same here with the Mission Center. We offered up our gifts - our 5 loaves and two fish, and he has blessed it in countless ways.
And He is not done yet. I truly believe that we are going to experience multiplication occur as we stay focused on the mission we have been entrusted with.
Keep focused on the lessons of our Teacher:
Show Compassion Always
Be part of the Solution
Bring What You Got
Expect the Unexpected
Amen.