The feeding of the 5,000 is a remarkable piece of scripture. It is found in all four gospel accounts and in two of the gospels, it is repeated again.
Consider that only two of the gospels have birth stories. The story of the “Prodigal Son” and the “Raising of Lazarus” are each told only once.
But this “miraculous feeding” is in all four and repeated in two.
That’s HOW BIG of an event this thing was…it had everybody talking…and everybody remembering it. It left a “huge impression” on people.
It was the kind of event that you wished you were present for…
And it was also the kind of thing that you would like to see repeated…again and again…if possible.
People were so “overwhelmed and taken aback” by it that the story is reproduced six times in four gospel accounts.
One of the things that it says to me is that Jesus spent A LOT MORE TIME feeding people than we have historically given him credit.
To feed this many people there had to be many alive who were actually there and could attest to it – even as the gospel is being written.
It was an UNBELIEVABLE event!
So much so – that people continued talking about it…for decades and decades…
And of course, it wasn’t just the food…
It was the “massive healings” that took place. The lame walking, the blind seeing, the sick healed – Jesus attempting to meet all of their needs.
Or, at least as many as he could get to – in that size of a crowd…
And it wasn’t just that…
We have to take into account that there were “dietary laws” that had to be taken into consideration. “Strict dietary laws…”
As a matter of fact – a good portion of the Law of Moses had to do with “food.” You had to know where the food came from, how it was prepared and what was in it.
There were also laws about “WHOM” you could eat with…
Under normal circumstances there is no way that 5000 men, women and children would sit down and eat with JUST ANYONE. It was forbidden.
Total strangers provided the food…which was then handed to the disciples, handed it off to Jesus and then back to the disciples, who handed it on to yet others. No one would EVER partake of that!
Who knows how many other hands touched it before it came to you? Who knows what those hands had touched before they touched the bread. And now you were supposed to partake and eat it?
Eat “impure food” and YOU would be considered “impure,” as well.
Sit down with someone who is “impure” or a “sinner” and you become one, as well. You would be considered “ritually unclean” and would be unable to enter the Synagogue or the Temple. You would have to undergo “rites of purification,” “make an offering” and “show yourself to the priests.”
Yet at Jesus’ meal, all these considerations are apparently cast to the side and are for some reason overlooked.
They ate the bread, with each other, in the company of each other, without regard to status, wealth, gender or the alleged “purity” of their compatriots.
That in and of itself was another miracle. You just don’t forget about the Torah, the laws…
The Scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees would have something to say about this kind of behavior. Rabbis would pounce on this kind of risky business.
And yet, none of this mattered.
The people ate and enjoyed. They told the stories over and over again, to any- one who would listen.
Jesus was challenging “the central ordering principle of the Jewish social world.”
Jesus was taking his stand with the pariahs of this world. He was choosing the outcasts and the sinners over the righteous.
Sinners and outcasts were his table companions and the ostracized tax collectors and prostitute’s his friends…
The meals Jesus shared with outcasts were not therefore, simply the occasion for the delivery of his message.
The people themselves became the message!
And WHEREVER all those people went, this story was told and retold, again…