Luke 9:10-17
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here."
13 He replied, "You give them something to eat."
They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." 14 (About five thousand men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." 15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Jesus and His disciples went to the town of Bethsaida...When the crowds found out where He was, they followed Him to Bethsaida...Jesus welcomed the crowds of people...He spoke about the Kingdom of God to them...He also healed those in the crowd, who needed healing...A big part of His ministry was healing...
Later that day, the disciples ask Jesus to send the crowd away...They were in a remote place and had no food or lodging...Jesus replied, interestingly, back to them...He said, "You give them something to eat."...They are ones who just told Jesus that there was little or no food there...Plus, Jesus knows all things, He knew the what food was there...Jesus might have been testing their faith...They had seen many miracles and maybe should have known He was there and could provide...Regardless, of His motive, the disciples replied that the only food there was five loaves of bread and two fish...There were five thousand men in the crowd, not including the women and children...
Jesus said to the disciples, organize the crowd in groups of fifty and have them sit down...The disciples did so and everyone sat down...Jesus took the five loaves and two fish looked up to heaven and gave thanks...Then He broke the bread and the fish...Then He gave the broken bread and broken fish to the disciples to set before all the groups of fifty, the whole crowd...The whole crowd ate and were satisfied...The disciples picked up twelve baskets of broken bread and fish that was left over...The Jewish people believed that twelve was a sacred number (there were twelve tribes of Israel, there were twelve gates to Jerusalem in Ezekiel's dream, there were twelve disciples)...There was more than enough food, even though there was only five loaves and two fish..
It is God that comforts...God answered Jesus' prayer and comforted the people (with the food)...The great multitude was fed with five small loves and two small fish...We must give thanks to God for His comfort...The food He gave the crowds would be comforting...How much more comfort to have seen Him perform this miracle of the feeding of the five thousand...How comforting it would have to have been there...
When one is blessed by Jesus a little goes a long way...He tells us this in His mustard seed parable...If we have the faith as small or as little as a mustard seed, we can do great things...In heaven and when Jesus is with us, there is even more than enough...We must give thanks to God as Jesus did before this miracle...There is power in prayer...Jesus after praying, God turned the broken bread and fish into enough food to feed five thousand men and even more women and children...When we receive comforts from God we should give Him thanks and praise...
Jesus wants us to believe in Him...He teaches both truth and miracles...He also wants us to go beyond His miracles and have faith...The miracles might fade in us...We, as man, try to rationalize the miracle later or the miracle seems to drift away and we want to see another miracle...The more common miracles become the less we believe in miracles...This seems to be the position the Pharisees took on viewing His miracles...Jesus said to the Pharisees, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father...For which of these do you stone me? (John 10:32)...
When we look back at the Father and Son's miracles do the miracles convert those seeing the miracles into belief in the Father and/or the Son...Pharaoh and the Egyptians seen many miracles of God, did this turn them to God...How many people that seen God's Son's miracles were following Him only because of His miracles and were not following Him to hear His doctrines and techings?...The miracle(s) may have been done to get one's attention, but until one listened to His teachings would they be a true follower...If one was and is already a follower, a miracle from Him can strengthen one's belief...Faith maybe there before the miracle and come after the miracle, but it His doctrines that will be the basis for one's faith and not the miracle...He told the Pharisees when they ask Him for a sign from heaven...He sighed deeply...He said why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign?...I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it...