Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand with the Five Loaves and Two Fish

Luke 9:10-17

In Luke 9:1-9, Jesus sent His twelve disciples out for a mission trip. They returned and made the mission report to Jesus (10^a). After this, they went to Bethsaida by themselves (10^b). But the crowd learned about it and followed Him (11^a). Jesus welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing (11^b).

Now it became late in the afternoon (12^a). The twelve came to Jesus and said,

"Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." (12^b).

The disciples thought the crowd should find their own means to eat and rest. But what is the answer of Jesus? See v13^a.

    ¹³He replied, "You give them something to eat."

Jesus asked His disciples to give the crowd something to eat. This teaches the leaders the responsibility for the crowd. Also this teaches us the heart for the crowd. When we don’t have the heart to feed the crowd, we can’t give anything even though we have something to give. But if we have the heart to feed the crowd, we can find the way to feed the large crowd.

But what is the response of the disciples? See v13^b.

  They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd."

The disciples had only five loaves of bread and two fish, which are not enough for themselves and far too few for the crowd – 5000 men and their women and children. Also it would cost too much money to buy food for all the crowd. According to the gospel of John, the five loaves and two fish were with a child (John 6:9) [1]. It could be a lunch box of the child.

When they see what they have, it was not possible to feed them. How did Jesus solve this problem? See v14-17.

Jesus instructed the disciples to have them sit down in groups of about fifty each (14^b).

Then, Jesus took the available food, looked up to heaven, gave thanks, broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the people (16).

As a result, they all were satisfied and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over (17).

Jesus blessed the lunch box of a child and fed the five thousand with it.

Here, we learn that we shouldn’t ignore what we have even though it looks very few or small.

Instead of looking down on what you have, we can look up to heaven and give thanks by faith. And what you have can satisfy not only a child but large crowd!

You may say, I studied the Bible very few and I know very few. But in Jesus, your Bible knowledge could be used to feed 50 million people.

What is your talent? What is your education? What belongings do you have? Do not despise or ignore them. Bring them before Jesus. When you have the heart for the crowd and do not limit God, you can see the miracle.