Luke 9:13-23

But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.’ For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, ‘Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.’ They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Peter’s Declaration about Jesus

Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

Attempts to rationalize this miracle are futile. Four sacred evangelists have provided the historical records of an astounding wonder, and one that is rich with spiritual overtones. The power and Godhead of Jesus are dramatically affirmed by this event. That it actually happened is proved by the response of the multitude who wanted to make Jesus king (John’s account) in a purely secular sense, of course, and with the evident purpose of using the Lord to supply an army of insurrection against Rome. That the multitude believed Jesus could have done such a thing could have resulted only from what they had seen him do, as related here. The wealth of detail, such as the reclining of the throng in companies of fifty, the pitifully small source of five loaves and two little fishes, and the twelve baskets of crumbs gathered up after the feast, the Lord’s giving thanks, and the hard-heartedness of the Twelve, whose sympathies were in tune with the wishes of the crowd, and the Lord’s sending them on ahead, despite threatening weather – there is no way to explain all this, except on the basis that it all actually happened, exactly as recorded in the New Testament. With the great passover throng which made up the multitude, and with the miracle having been wrought outdoors, and far from any inhabited place, there was simply no way that a thing like this could have been faked. Five thousand men, besides the women and children, had eaten all they wished, all the bounty coming out of that little lad’s basket, passing through the hands of Jesus, and from him to the apostles and the multitudes. Time can never diminish the impact of such a sign; and it is no wonder that the apostle John made it one of only seven signs that he recorded, nor that everyone of the Gospel writers included it.

Blessings as we pray that we might truly believe that Jesus can feed us with his living bread and water.  Be safe!  Be well!  The Spirit has come!