Matthew 14:13-2113. Now when Yahshua heard
this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart. But when the
crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14. As he went ashore
he saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. 15.
When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a lonely
place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and
buy food for themselves." 16. Yahshua said, "They need not go away; you give
them something to eat." 17. They said to him, "We have only five loaves here and
two fish." 18. And he said, "Bring them here to me." 19. Then he ordered the
crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he
looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the
disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20. And they all ate and
were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left
over. 21. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and
children.
The Story of the Loaves and Fishes Begins
Yochanan the Baptist was dead, executed by
Herod, the king. Yochanan was Yahshua’
forerunner and mentor, and Yochanan had baptized Yahshua. They were kin; they were each other’s disciples while yet in the
womb. The close followers of Yahshua had
also known Yochanan and had followed him before Yahshua took up the mantle of the
prophet himself. So they were boating
to the far side of Galilee Lake, out to the country to grieve and maybe even
hide out. They had but a little time
before the crowds of people, who had watched him embark, walked around the
shore to reach him.
As to why they followed -- most
followed to be healed or delivered of demons or to carry people
there. Others just followed to watch
the show. In that day and place, there
was little in the way of medical miracles or entertainment, so when the Father sent
a healer to Galilee, people from all over would follow him to receive something. Such gatherings were also risky because they
were illegal; the ruling class, called “Herodians” after the king, wouldn’t
have stood for religious meetings, especially right after Herod murdered a
prophet.
Here was a multitude. Even though Yahshua wished to be alone, he had
compassion on the sick folk -- which is a way of saying that he felt an
anointing to heal. After a while,
the disciples came to Yahshua under a false pretense. Because it was past their dinnertime, they asked
Yahshua to send the crowd away so they could eat. They phrased their pleas to sound like they
were concerned for the hungry, but they themselves were hungry -- can’t
blame them. So Yahshua tells them to take
their food and pass it out to the group. Imagine what they thought about that idea. “We don’t have that much,” was the
reply. But he said to share what they
had regardless of whether it was enough or not, because he was under an
anointing not only to heal, but to feed.
The Grub - Loaves of Barley
No doubt the disciples thought this was
another of Yahshua’ tricky ways of teaching them a lesson. They had no idea what was about to
happen. But we can give them credit
because they were faithful to part with their little repast, though perhaps
without relish, if you’ll excuse the pun.
The loaves were of barley and quite small and coarse. Although there was the lake nearby and some
of the disciples were fishermen, only the rich ate fresh fish. The poor and common folk ate pickled or
dried sardines. Did you ever try to break a canned sardine? What a mess.
Yahshua put all the people on the ground like
a picnic. Yahshua didn’t bless the food
like we do; he blessed the Father. Then
he passed the food back to his men who broke it and distributed it. We know the rest -- there was enough to go around
with an entire basketful per disciple left over. That is some lesson in itself.
Symbolism
and Fulfillment
Yet there is some wonderful symbolism
here. First, in regards to Yochanan: The
Gospel says that he was forerunner to the Messiah. Yahshua had called him “the coming Elijah who fulfilled
prophecy.” We remember that Elijah’s
successor was a man named Elisha.
Elijah and Elisha were nearly opposites in method and ministry, just as
Yochanan and Yahshua were very different. Do
you remember Elisha’s sincerity? He
begged Elijah for a double portion of Yahweh’s anointing -- and got it. Just as Elisha completed the ministry
of Elijah, Yahshua, as the New Elisha, completes Yochanan’s ministry and thus
becomes the capstone of the Yahweh’s Law and the greatest of Yahweh’s
Prophets. Consider the prophecy of
Elisha in 2 Kings 4:42ff:
2 Kings 4: 42. A man came from Baal-Shalishah,
bringing the man of Elohim bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves and
fresh grain still in the husk. "Give it to the company to eat,"
Elisha said. 43. But his servant
replied, "How can I serve this to a hundred men?" "Give it to
the company to eat," he insisted, "for Yahweh says this, `They will
eat and have some left over.' "
44. He served them; they ate and had some left over, as Yahweh had said.
Yahshua’
anointing to feed is in fulfillment of this prophecy.
Consider now the numbers in the story in
the light of prophecy; for instance, “seven,” as in loaves and fish. Seven shows completeness, fulfillment or
perfection. Yahshua came to complete,
fulfill and perfect the ministry of Yochanan the Baptist. Do you remember what that mission was? To call people to repentance; to call people back to the law; to
call people back to Yahweh; and to announce the coming of Yahweh’s Messiah. Look now at the number of souls fed and we
find the future mission of the Messiah and his disciples – 5, the symbolic
number of the Gentiles, times 1000 years of the Millennium Reign of Christ,
equals 5000. His anointing to feed the
multitude is complete and perfect. The
disciples picked up twelve baskets of ‘remnants;’ they gained far more than
they gave. In the light of the future, disciples
actually become the remnants, feeding the nations (in a spiritual sense)
over the course of the ages, always with plenty left over.
The
Deeper Squeeze
Like a parable, this feeding is to be
understood on two levels. On the top we
understand that Yahshua is feeding a bunch of people with a hardly any food. Underneath the story, Yahshua
came in the name of Yahweh as the new Elisha to feed the nations through
by the hands of his Apostles through all time.
Far fetched? Not at all. These stories are meant to be squeezed. Like Maxwell House Coffee, they’re “good to
the last drop.” And there is much more.
First
Things First
Yahshua didn’t do any teaching or parable
saying at all in this story. Who’s
interested in the whys and wherefores when people are being healed and
delivered and the food’s on the picnic blanket? Through miraculous meals of compassion such as this, Yahshua earned
the admiration of folks wherever he went.
It’s ironic to note that later on he would lose most of his admirers
because of a meal, including many close friends and supporters.
Eat My Body
Another meal is recorded in Matthew 26:17ff. The crowd is long gone. Now there is but a tiny band of diehards
huddled into a stuffy attic, sharing a loaf of flatbread and a flagon of wine. We commonly refer to it as the Lord’s Supper
or the Last Supper. Here again Yahshua
takes bread, blesses Yahweh, tears it.
Just as before, he gives bread to his disciples, but this time he
tells them, “You eat it; it is my body. Then drink my blood.” When he said, “eat my body,” he rubbed a
really sore spot with these guys. It
was just this saying that had lost them their popularity and sent them
into hiding as criminals.
A
Poor Sermon
Remember when he said, “eat my body,”
previously? Yahshua was in Capernaum
then, the lakeside hometown of Peter, James and Yochanan. He had been allowed to speak in the synagogue one Sabbath. His sermon went very badly that
day. He preached these words:
Yochanan 6: 54. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink
my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last
day. 55. For my flesh is real food and
my blood is real drink. 56. Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person. 57. As the living Father sent me and I draw
life from the Father, so whoever eats me will also draw life from me. 53. … if you do not eat the flesh of the Son
of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
The
disciples couldn’t believe what came out of his mouth there in their
home church. The preachers ripped their
clothes and tore out their beards. The
people cried out, “Who can understand this?
How can this man be from heaven and how can we eat his flesh? Drinking blood is an abomination to
Elohim.” That sermon got around and most
of his financial supporters flew the coup.
What few were left over were now hiding out on Passover without even a
piece of meat. Even poor people ate
meat that day. And now here’s Yahshua
telling the same story as if to deliberately replay the event that brought
them all down. And he said it again
knowing full well that there were betrayers in the room and even a devil. It wasn’t long after that the devil made his
play and had him and all his crazy stories about eating his body and drinking
his blood nailed up to the stake.
Revealed
in the Bread
Preachers that tell the truth usually
aren’t very popular.
What they say
often flies in the face of established religion. Though what he said proved to be criminal, Yahshua was telling the
truth. A couple days after his
execution, his body and blood appeared to some folks who were present at the
feeding of the five thousand, the synagogue in Capernaum and the Last
Supper. These folks began to think
about what he said about blessing, bread and wine. What came to be called Communion started out with a few
actually believing what Yahshua said in Capernaum -- that the blessed bread
is Yahshua’ body and the blessed wine is Yahshua’ blood. We know folks believed this because Luke and
Paul wrote about it, never actually hearing Yahshua proclaim it.
I think that body and blood Communion started
up on account of a rumor, which is recorded only in the Gospel of Luke’s last
chapter. After Yahshua’ execution, two
men are walking down the road talking about it. Yahshua, glorified now, catches up to them. The men are Yahshua’ Uncle and his cousin -
but they don’t recognize their kinsman. They know him all right, but are
blinded by his glory, which allows Yahshua to look just like any other
traveler. Cleopas and son tell Yahshua
about a vision of angels at the empty tomb, but that the body and blood of
Yahshua were never found.
Yahshua reasons with them from the
Scripture, but they still don’t recognize him. He even calls them fools and slow to believe. They’d heard that before – it should get
their attention now. But they still
don’t know him. I’ll take the rest of
the story up from the source:
Luke 24:28. When they near the village, he makes as
if to go on; 29. but they press him to
stay with them saying, "It is nearly evening, and the day is almost
over." So he goes in to stay with them.
Now
listen closely to the rumor that started Communion.
30. As he is with them at
table, he takes bread and blesses; then he breaks it and hands it to
them. 31. And their eyes are
opened and they recognize him.
Then he vanishes.
Friends, I’ve read this passage a thousand
times, and every time I do, it blesses me!
These relatives finally recognize him in the blessing, the breaking and
the handing of bread. Whereas the
blessed bread from which he fed the multitude was adequate for filling
stomachs, the blessed bread now becomes something much more powerful and
sacred -- it opens some blind eyes to the reality of Yahshua’ glorious
presence. Since this rumor went out,
millions approached his blessed table with faith and glimpse the Savior. In the blessed bread and wine, they touch
him and taste him and consume him.
Again and again and again and again.
He is in the midst of his disciples, revealing himself again and again
to the faithful of all nations in his body and blood, for his body is real
food and his blood is real drink, and without it, there is no life in us.
Today I have the
privilege of blessing and breaking and pouring. I long once again to see him in his brokenness for me, to taste
his flesh on my tongue, to mingled his blood with mine, to partake
of heavenly food and drink that leads to life.
My last meal was one long month ago, so today I come to this
place hungry and thirsty for him.
I’m starving to death for him.
Are you hungry? Say, ‘Yes. Yes,
we’re starving to death!’ Well, I’ve got
good news for you. Yahshua is here with
an anointing to feed us. Disciples, let
us keep the feast! Hallelujah.
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