The gospel reading for Sunday, August 6th is Matthew 14:13-21, and it tells the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. This story fulfills the Manna Tradition, which began with Moses and Elisha, picked up steam in the intertestamental period, and culminates in the institution of the Eucharist.
It helps to know
The Manna Tradition. It started when Yahweh provided Israel with manna during their years of wandering (see Exod. 16:13-35; Num. 11:7-9). It developed when the prophet Elisha took twenty barley loaves to feed one hundred men (2 Kings 4:42-44).1 Elisha consciously frames his miracle as a Manna Miracle when he says, "For thus says Yahweh, 'They shall eat and have some left'" (4:43).
This tradition becomes a messianic hope, expressed at length in "The Apocalypse of Baruch" (2 Apoc. Bar.), particularly at Ch. 29. Here is a longer quote. You should read it:
"And it shall come to pass when all is accomplished that was to come to pass in those parts, that the Messiah shall then begin to be revealed. And Behemoth shall be revealed from his place and Leviathan shall ascend from the sea, those two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation, and shall have kept until that time. And it shall come to pass at that self-same time that the treasury of manna shall again descend from on high, and they will eat of it in those years, because these are they who have come to the consummation of time. And it shall come to pass after these things, when the time of the advent of the Messiah is fulfilled, that He shall return in glory. Then all who have fallen asleep in hope of Him shall rise again." (29:3-4, 8; 30:1-2)
Matthew doesn't state any conclusions or lessons from this miracle. But Jews on Messiah-Watch would have been free to draw connections like this one: Jesus is the Messiah. We should expect a big beast to rise from the sea, but also resurrection (If only Matthew's very next story [14:22-33] were about Jesus and the sea...).
Matthew neglects the fish. Jesus multiplies bread and fish. Mark focuses on this: "He divided the two fish among them all... And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish" (6:41, 43). After Matthew mentions that there were fish (14:17), he only shows Jesus handling the bread (v. 19), and he only mentions the leftover bread pieces (v. 20). Why?
The story's Eucharistic significance. Presumably, to draw the readers' attention to the bread, and what Jesus does to it. Famously, Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and distributes the bread. Liturgical scholars have noted this "fourfold" action, recorded just so in all four gospels, and repeated in the Eucharistic institution narratives (e.g., Matt. 26:26-27).
The point in short: Two times Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and distributes bread. The payoffs: This miracle has Eucharistic vibes. And the Eucharist has feeding-of-the-five-thousand vibes.
That Jesus turns a snack into a (or the?) kingdom banquet. Before beginning his fourfold bread action (v. 20), Jesus instructs the crowds to recline (anaklinо̄, v. 19). Idiomatically, this verb usually implies a table. Two examples: "Many will come from east and west and anaklinо̄ at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 8:11; || usage in Luke 13:29). Again, "Blessed are those servants... [the master] will dress himself for service and have them anaklinо̄ at table, and he will come and serve them" (Luke 12:37).
Matthew 14:13-21
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Lectionary Resonances
Nehemiah 9:16-21. This text is a short section of a song (9:5-38) sung by the Levites (9:5). It begins, "Our fathers acted arrogantly" (9:16), and then details their arrogance (9:16-17a). But Yahweh "a God of forgiveness... in [his] great compassion, did not forsake them in the wilderness" (9:17b-21). One thing he did for them, "Your manna You did not withold from their mouth" (9:20).
Psalm 78. This song sounds like the song in Nehemiah 9. But it articulates the people's (stubborn) question: "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?" (78:19) He provided water, but "Can he give bread also?" (78:20). Today's gospel reading replies, Yes.
Romans 8:35-39. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ... Famine? ... No." (8:35, 37). But neither shall the two monsters which, in the age of the messiah, are rising from the earth and the sea (2 Apoc. Bar. 29:4, above; cf. "Nor anything else in all creation," Rom. 8:39).
How I might preach this
(I’m trying this out as a new category on Bible Notes. I don’t always preach, but sometimes I do. This is easier than providing sermon outlines or manuscripts. And it’s also a way of helping my readers who preach.)
Because he delivered us from the kingdom of darkness (Neh. 9; Ps. 78), and because he loves us (Rom. 8:35-39), Jesus feeds us every day (“our daily bread”) and every week (the Eucharist), despite our arrogance, stubbornness, and refusal to listen (Neh. 9; Ps. 78).
Jesus sets a table before us in a land full of enemies (Psalm 23), monsters (2 Apoc. Bar. 29), and all sorts of dangers (Rom. 8:35-39).
Matthew’s two bread-breaking stories show us that Jesus meets his Church at two sacramental2 tables: as we feed on him (Matt. 26), and as we serve the hungry (Matt. 14; cf. Matt. 25).
Here’s a wild take. The bread Elisha multiples is called, “bread of the firstfruits” (2 Kings 4:42). In my book, Sunday: Keeping Christian Time (Athansius, 2023), I cite scholarship that confirms that the “first day of the week” on which Jesus is raised from the dead, the first day after the week-long feast of Unleavened Bread, corresponds with the feast of firstfruits. Jesus rises on the feast of firstfruits, which is one reason why Paul calls the resurrected Jesus “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
What if this Elisha story provides additional pressure from the OT to identify Jesus with the bread he breaks—the “This is my body” bread of Matt. 26:26?
This would be the argument: Elisha serves the firstfruits. Jesus is the firstfruits. Jesus is that miracle bread.
Gary Anderson’s Charity (Yale, 2013) describes the early church’s understanding of “the poor” as the altar upon which the (laity within the) Church is called to offer offerings to God. The “afflicted brother”, per John Chrysostom, “is the most precious temple of all” (Hom. 50).