Five Loaves & Two Fish

The following is something I wrote this week while thinking about Matthew 14:13-21, which records Jesus' feeding of the five thousand in the desert with five loaves of bread and two fish.

What does it mean to follow Jesus into the desert? It is to leave Egypt, just as the Jews left Egypt and entered the desert. It is to leave behind false gods and false security (which is truly just slavery) in order to follow the one true God who leads his people through the desert in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. (Ex. 13:21) It is to repent, for the Kingdom of God – in the very presence of this Jesus – is at hand. It is to open oneself to God in simple prayer, and it is to humble oneself with quiet almsgiving and unseen fasting. (Mat. 6) Summing it all up, it is to confess one’s sin and entrust oneself – with fear and trembling, but also with hope – to the mercy of God.

What happens in this desert of confession? Jesus sits us down on green grass. (Green grass in the desert: the miracle before the miracle!) He is, after all, the good shepherd (Jn. 10:11) who makes us to lie down in green pastures and prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.(Ps. 23:2, 5) The true enemies in this desert are trials and temptations, “for our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh…” (Eph. 6:12) The presence of such enemies in the desert of confession is ongoing. Nevertheless, Jesus feeds all five thousand of us not with meager rations but to the point of complete satisfaction: “All ate and were filled.” (Mat. 14:20)

He does this with five loaves of bread and two fish. Five loaves and two fish: What does this mean? The five loaves: the five books of Moses. The two fish: the Law and the Prophets. In the desert of confession, Jesus feeds us with the Word of God. Said differently, he feeds us with himself. (Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jn. 1) This is the new covenant, and Jesus writes God’s Word not on stone tablets but on human hearts (Jer. 31:33, 2 Cor. 3:3). He does this not because the crowd is full of swell people, but simply because “he saw the great crowd, and he had compassion for them.” (Mat. 14:14)

Twelve baskets are left over: plenty for the twelve disciples who have been called to feed the crowd with God’s Word. The twelve must feed a lot of people with this Word, but they don’t need to worry about whether there will be enough for them too. God's Word has not, and will not, run out. And perhaps the twelve baskets left over aren’t merely for the disciples, but for the totality of the twelve tribes of Israel. The point remains the same: the Word – that is, Jesus’ grace and mercy for those who have followed him into the desert of confession – will never run out, regardless of how many come to him with empty stomachs. It’s true: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Mat. 5:6)

That’s how it happened then, and that’s how it happens now. Five loaves and two fish: “All ate and were filled.” (Mat. 14:20)