Matthew 14:13-21 depicts Jesus feeding the five thousand. In this passage, Matthew identifies Christ challenging his disciples to faith in imitating him. His actions worthy of imitation involve his ability to meet physical needs. In meeting these physical needs, Matthew reveals Christ as the Messiah.
Matthew demonstrates that Jesus’ actions motivated by compassion, vividly express his miraculous power as Messiah. The Vine’s Expository Dictionary defines compassion as “to be moved as to one’s inwards, to be moved with compassion, to yearn with compassion”. The Thayer’s Greek Lexicon also denotes compassion as “to be moved as to one’s bowels, hence to be moved with compassion, have compassion (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity)”. The verb compassion appears twelve times in the New Testament. Seven times the verb translates to have compassion and five times as be moved with compassion. All twelve occurrences denote the character of Christ and or God. Therefore, the fulfillment of compassion explicates the character of a Divine Being. The Divine Christ moved within his inwards, within his whole state of being looks at the crowd and determines to meet their physical needs, while exclaiming his messianic character..
In comparison to this feeding miracle found in Matthew, the Old Testament possesses parallel feeding miracles of the manna in the desert and Elisha multiplying the loaves. Jesus demonstrates himself greater than the prophets and thereby establishes himself as a credible Messiah. When God miraculously feeds the Israelites in the desert with manna, Moses acts as God’s spokesperson for the miracle. Unlike Moses, Jesus performs the miracle and therefore his action parallels God’s. Another Old Testament miracle of feeding a large crowd occurs in 2 Kings 4:42-44, where Elisha feeds one hundred people from twenty loaves with some leftover. Jesus once again supersedes this miracle, by the crowd being larger and possessing less food items to distribute. Christ demonstrates his messianic character, not only with his compassion and healing the sick, but also with feeding the multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish..
In addition to identifying the messianic character of Christ, Matthew depicts the training of disciples through Christ’s mission. Jesus calls his disciples to faith in imitating him as he meets physical needs. Christ’s challenge remains relevant to today’s Christians. We may not possess the depth of Christ’s compassion; however, in love, we can meet the physical needs of others. More importantly, meeting physical needs occurs first by possessing faith in Christ and that through Christ, we imitate the example he set before us.
Continue Reading: https://www.jintel.net/jesus-feeds-the-five-thousand-pt-ii/
