Question: In what way did Jesus satisfy the 5000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish, twelve baskets even remaining afterwards? As far as I understand it, Jesus created all this food from nothing, as God? Or did He draw upon God’s abundance and create this food from what already existed in God’s world, since He blessed the bread and looked up to the Heavens? Or did it happen in some other way? Please explain this to me! —Respectfully, Meir Ahaba.
Archimandrite Job (Gumerov) answers:
Out of the multitude of miracles that the Lord wrought during His earthly life, the miraculous feeding of the 5000 people with barely loaves and two fish has a particular spiritual meaning. The story is related in all four Gospels. This event has a successive connection with certain Old Testament miracles (Ex. 16:3; 3 Kings 17:8–16; 4 Kings 4:42–44). The people of Israel, who lived in expectation of the Deliverer, believed that the Messiah will give them new manna. The special significance of this miracle consisted in its symbolically pointing to the to the future Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which the Lord established at the Last Supper. Holy Evangelist John the Theologian tells us an important chronological detail: And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh (Jn. 6:4).
When according to the Eastern tradition of the time the people lay down to partake of food, the Savior looked up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude (Matt. 14:19). This formula of blessing was based on Lev. 19:24 and Deut. 8:10. It was pronounced from ancient times: “Blessed art Thou O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread out of the earth.” However, the Hebrew and Greek words, (berakh and evlogia), which mean, “blessing,” can also be used in the sense of “giving thanks,” and also “giving praise,” “glorifying.” At the feeding of the 5000 families with bread and fish, Jesus Christ, gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples (Matt. 15:36). Bread in Palestine was baked in the form of thin, crusty flatbreads. It was easy to break, and that is what the Savior did.
Here is an explanation from St. John Chrysostom’s homily 49 on the Gospel according to Matthew:
“In what way did Jesus Christ feed the 5000 people?” He created it from nothing. By this He showed the people His divine dignity. “But why doesn’t He create the bread again?” In order to … teach in actual deed that everything visible is produced and created by Him, and in order to prove that He is the One Who gives fruits, and Who said at the beginning: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, and, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life (Gen 1:11, 20).
“And this present miracle is no less significant than the creation of cattle or creeping things. Indeed, the reptiles, though newly created, were nonetheless formed from water. But to make so much from five loaves and two fish is no less marvelous than to bring forth fruit from the earth or creeping creatures from the water; this showed that Jesus has authority over both the land and the sea. Until now, He had performed miracles only for the sick; but now He bestows a universal blessing, so that the people would not remain mere spectators of what was done for others, but might themselves receive a gift. And what seemed wondrous to the Jews during their wandering in the wilderness (for they said, Can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?—Psalm 78:20), He now fulfills, the same did the Lord show in action. This is why He leads them into the desert—so that the miracle would not be doubted in the least, and no one would think that something was brought to them from a nearby settlement. That is why the evangelist notes not only the time but also the place.
“From this we learn another thing also, namely: We learn of the temperance of the disciples in satisfying their basic needs, and how little they cared for food. There were twelve of them, but they only had five loaves of bread and two fish between them. They were so careless about the fleshly, but so careful about the spiritual! And they didn’t hold back even this little food, but gave it away as soon as they were asked. We should learn from this—that although we might have but little, we are nevertheless obligated to give to the needy. When they were commanded to bring five loaves, they didn’t say, What are we going to eat ourselves? How are we going to satisfy our own hunger? But instead they immediately submitted.
“Besides what has been said, in my opinion, Christ also did not create the bread again, in order to lead the disciples to greater faith. They were still quite weak. Thus, He looked up to heaven. They had already witnessed various other miracles, but never one like this. And so, having taken the loaves, He broke them and distributed them through the hands of the disciples—thereby honoring them. Yet He did this not so much to honor them, as to ensure that when the miracle occurred, they would not remain in unbelief and would not forget what had happened, since their very own hands would bear witness to it...
“But even this did not exhaust the miracle. The Lord caused there to be leftovers—not whole loaves, but fragments—in order to show that these were indeed the remnants of the original loaves, and so that those not present at the actual moment of the miracle might know that it had truly taken place. For this reason, Christ allowed the people to feel hunger, so that no one would dismiss the miracle as a dream or illusion; and for this reason He made there to be twelve baskets of leftovers—so that even Judas would have something to carry. The Lord could have satisfied their hunger without loaves at all, but then the disciples would not have recognized His power—for after all, something similar had happened with Elias. But as a result of this miracle, the Jews were so amazed by Him that they even wished to make Him king—something they had never attempted when other miracles took place.”
