Feeding of the Five Thousand Plus

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 13A)

Matthew 14.13-21

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

 

Hopefully, we all know that the Bible contains four Gospels. Each written by a different author. Each written to a different audience. As a result, while each Gospel contains substantially the same story of the life and ministry, the death and resurrection, of Jesus Christ; while each contains many of the same basic stories about Jesus, each nonetheless contains and focuses on slightly different details. All that said, today’s miracle, commonly referred to as the “Feeding of the Five Thousand,” is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. Which says something about the importance of this single miracle.

 

The version we have today is in Matthew’s Gospel. In his Gospel, Matthew is writing primarily to a Jewish audience, essentially making the case that Jesus is the new Moses sent to liberate God’s people. With that as a lens, what does the feeding of the five thousand, as Matthew reports it, have to say to the crowd that was Jesus’ original audience? What does I have to say to the Jewish audience Matthew was writing to—Jews who were recent converts to Christianity or who were considering converting? And what does it have to say to the Church that eventually came into being, both the early Church and the Church we have inherited?

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