Matthew 14:19

‘And he commanded the crowds to recline on the grass, and he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.” '

‘He commanded the crowds to recline on the grass.' Reclining was the attitude taken up for a banquet. This was to be no symbolic meal, but genuine provision. This day they were to be fed to the full.

Then Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes and looking up to Heaven blessed them and broke them, and gave them to His disciples. And the disciples gave them to the crowds. No explanation is given. It is written as though this was just another ordinary meal. The miraculous is simply assumed as though, with Jesus there, what else could people expect.

The description ‘looking up to Heaven He blessed and broke the loaves and the fishes' is a typical statement of what would actually happen at a Jewish meal table. It would certainly remind Matthew's readers of their own later covenant meal, which followed the same pattern, but it would only do so as a reminder of God as the great Provider. For the inclusion of the fishes, when they could so easily have been quietly dropped, demonstrates that ‘the Lord's Table' is not in mind. The point of the full repetition of the detail, by a Matthew who usually abbreviates, indicates rather the source of what followed. It indicates that the answer is coming from Heaven, as the manna once did. ‘He gave them bread from Heaven to eat' (John 6:31 citing Psalms 78:24) as the were beginning the new Exodus. It was bread that was without money and without price' which gave life to the soul (Isaiah 55:2), ‘bread for the eater' symbolic of the fruitfulness of His powerful word (Isaiah 55:10). And all these as pictures of the good things that God has for those who love Him, the bread of life received by coming to Him and believing on Him (John 6:35), life-giving bread for the soul received freely from God (Isaiah 55:2), bread for the eater because it accomplishes what He pleases (Isaiah 55:11). A further emphasis is on the fact that this is a ‘family' meal. They are come together with Jesus as the head of the family. They are His mother, His brothers and His sisters (Matthew 12:50). They are now one community looking to Jesus as their head.

‘He blessed.' This is the normal word for the giving of thanks at a meal. The ‘blessing' is of God, (‘Blessed are You'), not of the food. The breaking of the food was for distribution.