Matthew 14:14-21

The feeding of the Five Thousand is the only miracle mentioned by all four Evangelists, and the first occurrence fully narrated by them all. It also furnishes a definite chronological point for a harmony of the Gospels. It is in many respects the most incomprehensible of all the miracles. Various suggestions have been made as to the mode of increase, as involving a higher order of nature; an acceleration of the natural process; a removal of the ban of barrenness resting on our earthly bread, showing the positive fulness which it contains when Christ's blessing descends upon it. It is safest to accept a supernatural increase without seeking to know the method, and then to seek and accept the spiritual lessons it teaches. The attempts to explain it as a natural event have been utter failures. The four Evangelists could not write as they have done, of a ‘myth,' a ‘parable,' or a ‘symbol.' Either this was a miracle, or the Evangelists have wilfully falsified. The great lesson is: Christ the Bread of the world; its type is the manna in the wilderness. Christ's people partake of Him to the nourishment of their souls. As in the miracle, the means may be visible, but the mode unknown; of the fact we may be assured, and may assure others.. Notice the contrast between the feast of the ‘ estates of Galilee' at Herod's court, and this feast of the poor and sick multitudes in the wilderness. Our Lord gave freely in the wilderness: healed, taught, and fed all. ‘The Bible, so little in bulk, like the five barley loaves and the two fishes, what thousands upon thousands has it fed, and will it feed, in every age, in every land of Christendom, to the world's end!'