The feeding of the five thousand is one the most famous miracles. The total numbers involved were actually much greater than five thousand as this was just the number of the men.
On hearing the news of John the Baptist's death Jesus withdrew to a solitary place. There are times when we need to be alone with God to ponder on things that happen in life. However, Jesus was to get no peace. The crowds heard where he was and they chased after Him.
Jesus' reaction is very different from what our reaction (or at least my reaction) would have been. Instead of getting frustrated and angry, He had compassion on the people. So He healed all the sick people. We see in all this that heart and power go together. If Jesus did not have a heart of compassion then there would have been no miracles here.If he did not have power, there would have been no miracles here.
Evening approached and the disciples saw a big problem. Now the disciples did react in the way that we (or at least I) would react. Send the problem away! This was actually an eminently reasonable solution, for there was no way they were going to be able to feed thousands of people, so the sooner they cleared off the better for all concerned.
Jesus saw things differently. He makes the utterly ridiculous suggestion that the disciples should feed the people. Naturally they reacted that this was not possible. Jesus gave them instructions. The disciples carried out the instructions and the miracle occurred.
There are various things to note here:
- This all happened out of the blue, with no hint of preparation or planning leading up to it.
- The disciples had all sorts of doubts and were not "emotionally prepared" for the miracle. However, despite all this they still obeyed Jesus and so the miracle happened.
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