There’s a lot going on in this story. If you want to know how important and how popular the story was back in the 1^st century, think about the fact that this story appears in every Gospel– Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And better yet, there are 2 versions of it. This is the feeding of the 5000, but have you ever heard of the feeding of the 4000? It’s in there- twice, once in Matthew and once in Mark! That makes 6 times in the New Testament that variations on this same story are told. So let’s imagine this story at the center of a wheel, with spokes coming out in all directions. At the end of each spoke is another Bible story that is related to this one. This is what I love about the Bible! The stories are all interwoven. They are meant to be read alongside one another, so they can talk back and forth. I’m going to give you an example, but first, a professor I had down at Lancaster Seminary in PA taught us a fancy word for this. You ready? INTERTEXTUALITY.  It’s a great word! Basically it means what I just said, that a lot of the stories in the Bible are meant to be read alongside each other. They are interwoven.

For example, can you find similarities between the feeding of the 5000 and the story from the Book of Exodus about the manna in the desert? Remember that one? The Israelites are wandering around in the wilderness and they don’t have anything to eat. They start to complain to Moses. God then provides for them with water out of a rock, with quail and with manna falling from the sky. So in both stories we’re in the wilderness, we’ve got lots of people, the people are hungry, and they or the disciples doubt that God can provide for them.  And then there’s a miracle and enough food for everyone.   But -- and hold this thought -- there’s also a major difference between those 2 stories, which we’ll get to later.

Another spoke – the story of the Last Supper. Jesus is with the disciples on his last night. It’s the Passover. He lifts the bread, blesses it and breaks it, and everybody eats. Similarities? Yes!  Still another one is a parable where Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding banquet. Some of the guests choose not to come, so the king sends his servants into the streets to invite anybody he can find, good and bad, and the wedding hall is filled with guests.  Similarities? There’s food, that’s for sure. There’s a celebration. And there’s an abundance!  

Whoever wove together the Gospel of Matthew was smart because the feeding of the 5000 has a direct contrast in the story that comes right before it, Matthew 14:1-12. It’s the one where John the Baptist dies in a rather gruesome way. Herod, who had thrown John into prison, is giving a banquet. His sister-in-law wants John killed because of some scandal and so she prompts her daughter, Herod’s niece, to ask Herod to have John the Baptist’s head brought to her on a platter. So if you’re reading through Matthew, you’ve just read this gruesome, horrible story. And  then you come to the feeding of the 5000, and what a difference it makes!

So we’ve got all these stories (and more!) Each one has its own voice, its own message, but at the same time they are talking to each other. The best part is that, as readers of the Bible, we get to add our own stories to the wheel. In other words, we’ve heard the story of how Jesus fed the 5000. Now our mission is to tell our own stories in the light of this one.  This is how the Bible comes alive! There’s lots of spokes on the wheel. So what story are you going to add? And what is the message of your story? Does the message change after hearing this Bible story and letting the two talk to one another?

I’ll give you an example. Here’s a story from the church where I was Director of Christian Ed. for 5 years in Binghamton, NY. One Friday night the youth group put on a pasta supper. They were raising money for some good cause, can’t remember what. In any case, the fellowship hall was full, probably over 100 people were there, and everybody was hungry. There were baskets of bread on the table. Because it didn’t seem like dinner was ready, everybody was eating the bread and having a good time. After 25 minutes or so, the crowd was getting restless! Where was the pasta? I went in the kitchen to see what was going on, and one of the leaders was just pulling out of the pot a nice lumpy clump of overcooked ziti noodles. I don’t know what it is about pasta, but there’s some trick when you cook it in large quantities. You have to know how to do it just right. And this wasn’t it! So the 100 hungry people had to be content eating sauce and meatballs without pasta. And they were. 

They were content because the meal really wasn’t about the pasta in the first place. It was about the meatballs and how good they tasted on top of the bread with some sauce. Everybody loves a meatball sandwich! Just kidding... the meal was about supporting the youth group and being together, loving one another, as a community. And so if that’s your goal, it really doesn’t matter if the pasta is in one big sticky clump, right? Now if we were at Georgina’s it would be another story...

The meal wasn’t really about eating pasta. And the feeding of the 5000 isn’t really about filling up your stomach with fish and bread either. But we might not be able to figure this out without those other Bible stories to clue us in.  Remember there’s a major difference between the manna in the desert and the feeding of the 5000? Anybody guess? With the manna, what happens when they collect too much? It gets rotten. You can only have enough for that one day, then you gotta start all over again the next day and collect more. But with the feeding of the 5000, there are 12 baskets of bread left over! An abundance! You could summarize the whole New Testament right here– in Jesus we find an abundance of God’s love. Not necessarily an abundance of food all the time, for we know there are lots of starving people in the world. But an abundance of God’s love.  Herein lies the challenge. When there are starving people in the world, and there always will be, what earthly difference can Jesus make to them? How could we share this story with a person who never has enough to eat and have it make a difference in their life?  

Here’s my best answer. And of course it’s not my answer at all.  Recently I was reminded of this answer by an article in this Christian Century magazine. The author was one of my favorite professors in seminary, not the one who introduced me to the term intertextuality, but a man named David Kelsey. The course I took from him was called “Systematic Theology”. He was one of those professors who captivated the class with his lectures. He would stand up in front of the class wearing a bow tie and looking very proper, and he would talk, without notes, for 50 minutes about the nature of God, and good and evil, and how Jesus fits into it all. And so when my Christian Century magazine arrived and his new book, called Imagining Redemption was quoted on the front cover, I said, I gotta read that article.