The feeding of the 5000, the 800, and the 152 000 (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15)
Today we read about the feeding of the 5000 by Jesus and his disciples. This is a very significant story. The writers of all four of the Gospels included it in their biography of Jesus’ and their record of his ministry. It is actually the only miracle that all four of them noted. The authors John and Matthew were both present when this event occurred, and Luke’s version of this incident is recorded after some significant research. And John Mark was certainly part of the inner circle of Jesus’ followers afterwards and so he undoubtedly heard about this incident quite a bit - as he himself may or may not have been there as well.
John and Matthew were both there when this happened. John has a little bit different of a memory of this event than Matthew but no more of a difference of a recollection than Susan and I have over some of the events of our life and ministry.
This story struck me anew this week for a couple of reasons. One, I was surprised to learn this week that I have never preached on this passage before – though I did reference it in a piece I wrote that was included in the 2008 book One Thing and the 2011 book One for All by Commissioner James Knaggs and Major Stephen Court about a miracle God did while we were helping out with Emergency Disaster Services relief work in Texas. And EDS work is the second reason why this story stood out to me this week.
I am going to read an excerpt from my account in One Thing[i]:
Our canteens were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of their food before they came in for the night. They did not want food returned when people were going without. One canteen had some food left. It was getting late so they were seeking out someone to give their last Cambro (container) of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them their food. They were really appreciative.
As they were feeding these men, a number of school busses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them today). Someone picked up the Cambro from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. The Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now.
That is a real-life miracle that I will never forget. We have a similar miracle happening right here in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island today, right now. When the crowds in the disciples’ day were without food, Jesus said ‘you feed them!’ to which they replied, ‘we don’t have enough money to feed them!’ to which the response is still ‘no really, feed them!’ They do and God provides the food needed in whatever miraculous way He provided the needed food.[ii]
In the Alberni Valley here we have now fed people more than 152 000 times during the pandemic. At our height we were feeding more than 700 individuals a day. Now we are providing lunch at the Bread of Life soup kitchen, dinner and weekend meals off the Salvation Army truck, and evenings at the drop-in centre with Kuu-us.
Feeding 152 000: Think about this miracle. There is no way when Covid-19 hit that we could possibly have fed that amount of people and, honestly, the Bread of Life was broke. Jesus said to us “you feed them.” “We don’t have enough money.” The soup kitchen was close to turning out the lights forever when they approached the Army about serving the Lord and the community together before the pandemic and then the Lord produced miracle after miracle after miracle: we keep breaking bread to serve the crowds which seem to be without number and the Lord keeps producing more food with which to feed them. The Soup kitchen doors are open and the agencies in this community, we are working together like we have never done before and we are continuing to feed people to a tune of more than 152 000 times – and we are still going strong. This is a miracle! And through this time more people have given their lives to the Lord through the Army here and we have faithfully put them to work. We continue to experience the miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes right here in the Valley each and every day. Praise be to God.
Let us pray.
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