The feeding of the five thousand, in Matthew's gospel immediately follows two negative moments in Jesus' work: his rejection at Nazareth (13:53-58) and the death of John the Baptist (14:1-12), a death prefiguring his own. The shadow of death hangs over Jesus as the rejection at Nazareth also anticipates his rejection in Jerusalem (see 16:21-28; 17:22-23). But like the light that shines in the darkness (see Matthew 4:15ff), Jesus' work continues to give life in spite of the death that threatens to engulf him. Thus, while John the Baptists's death looms in the background, Jesus not only continues to heal but in addition gives food to multitudes.
Matthew 14:13-21 has a doublet in Matthew 15:32-39. Both feeding accounts are different however in that the first one (14:13-21) calls to mind the Messianic feeding of Israel in the last days, while the second one points to the feeding of the Gentiles (15:32-29). Both however anticipate the Eucharist. These two accounts of a feeding act like a frame containing accounts of healing (14:34-46;15:29-31) which in turn envelope an argument with Pharisees (15:1-20) and argument with a Canaanite woman (15:21-28) where Jesus is in a sense defeated. When seen in this greater context, the accounts of feeding are to be seen within Jesus' mission of giving life, a mission that continues even now in the mission of the Church to make disciples of all nations (cf. Matthew 28:18-20).
A simple comparison with the parallel in Mark 6:30-44 shows that here Matthew is rewriting his source. Even the context of the narrative is changed. While Mark puts the narrative after the return of the disciples from their mission, Matthew puts the feeding narrative immediately after Jesus hears the news of the Baptist's death. This way of putting it makes the feeding narrative in Matthew starkly contextualized in a section that shows how Jesus is rejected by people without faith and accepted by Gentiles and his disciples (Matthew 13:53-17:22)1.
In Mark's narrative, the crowds who are fed later on appear to intrude into Jesus' private moment with the disciples whom he had invited to a lonely place to rest. In Matthew, the intrusive character of the crowd's appearance is mitigated, although it is clear that they have come in order to be healed. Once more, the compassion of Jesus is the motive for the healing that follows. While Matthew does not state anything about Jesus' state of mind upon hearing of the Baptist's death, he however leaves it to his Palestinian readers the possibility of seeing Jesus' compassion on the crowd within the context of his mourning for the death of the one he has called "the greatest among men" (cf. Matthew 11:11). The poignant verse 12 says it all.
Jesus' compassion is mentioned three times: Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 15:32. In 9:36, it is the motive for sending his disciples; 14:14 is an echo of the parallel in Mark 6:34. In 15:32 one finds the word in Jesus' statement about his state of mind2 While Mark 6:34 mentions Jesus' compassion before the crowd whom he sees as "like sheep without a shepherd", Matthew's parallel does not mention "like a sheep without a shepherd" since he has already transposed it to 9:36. Mark's account is connected directly to the expectation of the Messianic feeding of the last days. Matthew's account already presupposes that it is connected to his work as the Messiah.
In Matthew's account, he underlines the disciples as Jesus' partners in feeding the crowds. After giving them the command to feed the crowds themselves, he asks for the food to be brought to him and after blessing it and breaking the bread, he "gave it to the disciples and the disciples gave it to the crowd" (v. 19). The command "Feed them yourselves" echoes 2 Kings 4:42-43.
A man came from Baalshalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, "Give to the men, that they may eat." But his servant said, "How am I to set this before a hundred men?" So he repeated, "Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, `They shall eat and have some left.'" So he set it before them. And they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.
This narrative about Elisha is set in a context of a famine. Someone gave him gifts of food which he then told his servant to distribute to "the men" (the guild prophets of the preceding account). Despite the servant's protestations, Elisha's command prevailed and therefore all who were served food ate and still, there were some food left. The account from 2 Kings illustrates how the man of God is the purveyor of the God's good things. In Matthew's account, the disciples' role is highlighted and the connection to the feeding in the desert of Israel in Exodus is highlighted. The leftovers in Matthew's account number to twelve baskets, symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel under the twelve disciples. Matthew tells us that the number of those who ate and were satisfied were five thousand, not counting the women and children who were there. This could have reached to 20 or 30 t housand. If that is the case, then Jesus would have fed a significant percentage of the total population of Palestine then, which is estimated at half a million (see NJBC, 658). Alongside the healing and nature miracles of Jesus, there is also the social miracle typified by this account and the one of the feeding of the four thousand. In Matthew's account, this social miracle occurs because Jesus broke bread.
The phrases "said the blessing, broke bread, gave it to the disciples" denote an ordinary Jewish meal. It is an action then that has a very familial setting. At the same time, those same words anticipate the last supper meal.
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." (Matthew 26:26-29)
The feeding of the five thousand points forward to the last supper where Jesus gives his body and blood as the sacrament of the new covenant. For Matthew's reader who sees the last supper re-enacted in the breaking of the bread (see Acts 27:35, 1 Cor. 11:23-24), the feeding of the five thousand appears as a social miracle deriving from the Church's eucharist where Christ continues to feed the hungry in, with and through His Church.
- 1. Mark's account places the feeding after the return of the disciples from their mission. Matthew, by putting the feeding narrative immediately after the Baptist's death is actually underlining the mission of Jesus as one who gives life, in contrast to the opposition -- here the protectors of Israel's institutions, Pharisees and king -- that puts to death.
- 2. In Luke, the word for compassion appears in Jesus' sympathy for the widow who has lost a son (7:13), the parable of the good Samaritan (10:33), and in the parable of the prodigal son (15:20). Luke is obviously more interested in compassion as an integral element in the life of the Christian community. Matthew and Mark are more matter of fact in their mention of Jesus' compassion.
