Why Jesus Fed 5,000 Then Demanded the Leftovers Back

First, all four Gospels are clear that Jesus fed two different large crowds two different times in two different places. One feeding involved 5,000 men near the town of Bethsaida (Mark 6:35-30). The second feeding involved 4,000 people and occurred in the land of Gerasene’s near the town of Decapolis (Mark 8:1-9).

Interestingly, this miracle of the two feedings is the only one mentioned in all four Gospels. However, for some unknown reason, some scholars have a problem with the idea that Jesus would perform two separate miracles that involved feeding crowds. But, Jesus healed people with the same diseases and physical abnormalities many times. Jesus regularly blessed children throughout the villages and towns of Israel. He preached the same sermon and repeated the same parables many times during His ministry. This is one reason the disciples were able to recall His words with such clarity. So there is no reason to think that He would not feed the hungry several times. In fact, had He wanted to, He could have produced a miraculous meal for the crowds every time He preached. But there was a decided and immediate down side to His producing food. You see, Scripture tells us that immediately after He produced food for a crowd, He would leave the area and travel to another destination to preach. The problem was, many in the crowd would follow Him to that town. They were not so much interested in hearing Him preach again, nor were any of them in need of another healing. They were only there expressly for the purpose of receiving yet another free, delicious and bountiful meal.

We tend to look at pictures and movies of Jesus and the Judeans of the first century and think of them as clean, healthy, happy and well fed. However, excavations of grave sites show that this was not the case for the vast majority of people. It is estimated that ninety percent of people in the first century literally lived day to day existing on bread, beans and water. Fish and mutton, while a great source of protein, was generally unaffordable for most inland farming people. The average poor Judean lived mainly on beans, wheat, barley with young lamb eaten only during the seven annual Jewish feasts. Even today, 80% of the world’s population lives on rice, corn and wheat for protein. These three food groups were inexpensive yet a man had to labor all day just to make enough money to daily feed his family. In addition, the women in a village would barter with each other to obtain oil for lamps and cooking as well as for eggs, milk, seasonal vegetables and fruits. And even though water was freely available from wells and springs, often it could be dangerous. This is why a small amount of wine was mixed in with it as the alcohol helped to eradicate bacteria issues. Bottom line, life was very precarious in the first century with seven out of ten children not surviving until adulthood.

So, the feeding of five thousand people until they were satiated was a colossal miracle that would have stunned everyone who witnessed or heard about it. The problem was, while Jesus was showing His disciples and the crowd God’s love for them by way of His healing powers, the addition of food created an almost circus like atmosphere. The crowds quickly assumed that Jesus would continue to feed His audiences. This of course was not Jesus’ intention and so He only created this particular miracle only two times. And, after He fed these two crowds, He ordered the remaining food to be taken up and brought to Him. He could have sent a bounty of food home with each person but He did not. So why?

The reason He took up the food was twofold. First, He wanted the disciples and His followers to understand that He and God the Father could not only meet their daily needs, but greatly exceed them. To this end, the disciples collected and displayed twelve baskets full of leftovers food. He also wanted the people to know that God loved them and had prepared a way for them to receive the gift of eternal life. This was much more important news to contemplate than a meal that would be consumed and then quickly forgotten. This understanding was the same with all His miracles. At the time, a healing miracle meant the world to those afflicted and their families. But in time, the miracles would be slowly forgotten. However, Jesus said His Word would never be forgotten and His promises would assuredly come to fruition (Matthew 24:35).

The second reason Jesus demanded the food back is even more astonishing yet at the same time practical. When Jesus decided to feed a crowd, He asked to be handed the available food. He then took the meager portions and held it up for all to witnesses. He then looked up to Heaven and blessed the food. In doing this, He was calling on God to allow the Holy Spirit to make abundant food available for each person in the crowd. This was part of the point of the miracle. The people were to call on God their Father in faith to provide for their daily needs. But in this particular case, He was also preparing to show the people an astounding miracle. A miracle so great and so unusual that they would not only understand that the Creator God knew of their individual needs and would provide for them, but that Jesus was His personal messenger (Messiah) and to listen to Him.

As for the actual multiplying of several loaves of bread and dried fishes, this miracle was designed to occur in the hands of each individual person. In this way, they would serve as eye witnesses to a miracle which would continue to give until they were satiated. To accomplish these two feats, Jesus first broke the fishes and bread into twelve pieces each. He blessed the food then publicly handed each disciple a piece of fish and a piece of bread. No doubt you could have heard a pin drop as the large crowd sat completely silent and transfixed on Jesus' actions. He then announced that each disciple was to give each person a piece of bread and fish. He wanted the disciples to personally experience the miracle as it was unfolding also in their own hands. Now here is when and how the miracle began to evolve.

The disciples would break off a piece of the fish and bread and hand them to a person. Then, when the disciple approached the next person, he would look down and notice that the fish had reproduced the missing piece he had just given to the first person. So the disciples were now continually breaking off pieces of their fish and bread, giving it to person after person only to find the their fish continuously back whole again and again. The disciples were able to give every person a piece of fish and bread and still report back to Jesus with the same original pieces of fish and bread He had handed them earlier (Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6:34-44; Luke 9:11-17; John 6:5-14). No doubt the disciples eventually ate the fish and bread they still had in their hands, and again witnessed the same miracle of the fish and bread regenerating themselves before their very eyes. Can you imagine how this must have both thrilled and disturbed them? They were being fed in a supernatural way.

But this miracle was even more amazing to the person actually eating the fish and bread. Every person would take the piece of fish given to them, bite off a piece and start chewing it. Then they would swallow the meat. But each mouthful was immediately replaced by more meat appearing on the body of their fish. It would be like eating an ear of corn. As you rotated the corn and ate the next row, the row you had just consumed would start to replenish itself. Therefore, you could literally eat on that same ear of corn until you got so full that you were gorged, yet still held in your hand a full ear of corn!

So, the people ate the fish and bread until they could literally eat no more. This may have been the one and only time in their adult lives that they ever experienced eating until they were completely full. The faster they ate the fish and bread the faster it reproduced itself. The fish was dead, eaten and digested or dissolved yet it continued to exist. It reminds one of the Rapture of the dead. They are buried and many dissolved into the earth, and yet are made whole again by Christ. It was a shocking yet delightful revelation that reverberated through the entire crowd. Unlike a single healing miracle that only those in close proximity could see, this miracle was personally experienced by literally thousands upon thousands of eye witnesses simultaneously. Jesus’ fame as a miracle worker extraordinaire was now beyond the abilities of any prophet or miracle worker before Him including Moses. In fact, some people declared that Jesus must be the prophet that Moses prophesied would come after him. He commanded his people, "... to Him you will listen;" (Deuteronomy 18:15; John 6:14).

Now, for the finality of this miracle. After everyone one had gorged themselves on the fish and bread, they all found they still had fish and bread in their hands. They no doubt would have preferred to take these pieces home and use them to feed themselves and their families for the rest of their lives. However, Jesus knew that He could not allow this to happen.

You see this miracle, as with all His miracles, was for a certain people at a certain time to teach a certain lesson. Another example of this type of specific timing occurred at the raising of Lazareth from the dead. Jesus could have raised not only Lazareth and all the dead in the tombs surrounding him, but also all the dead throughout the world. However, he did not want to do this at that time. He would instead do this at the Rapture of the Church which is called the First Resurrection of the Righteous (Revelation 20:5-6). Then, at the end of His One Thousand Year Reign on Earth, He will command a Second Resurrection of the Unrighteous. These spirits, currently located down in Sheol or Hell, will ascend up and off the earth to a place of Judgement. This event is known as the Great White Throne Judgement of the Unrighteous (Revelation 20:11-14). But the resurrection of Lazareth, the First Resurrection of the Righteous, and the Second Resurrection of the Unrighteous are all for specific people, at specific times for specific reasons. This is why Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Lazareth come forth!” He spoke the single name Lazareth in order to stop all the graves around the world from simultaneously releasing their dead prematurely and chaotically.

After everyone was full, Jesus command the people to put the fish and bread they held in their hands back into the baskets now circulated by the disciples. We read that the twelve disciples collected twelve baskets filled with the leftover food. This leftover amount proved that Jesus could have fed this crowd over and over again. But instead, Jesus had this food collected for three reasons. First, to literally show the people and His disciples that He had the power from God to give physical nourishment to all who were hungry just as He was also able to give spiritual nourishment to all who thirsted for it. But prophetically, He was proving by example that He was capable and willing to fill all the needs of all His followers down through the ages beyond their wildest dreams or expectations including eternal life.

However, practically speaking, the reason there were twelve baskets full of food was because the food was still under Jesus’ command to continually reproduce itself. So, when the baskets were passed around to collect the food that was left over, the ten thousand plus people (men, women, children) each put the food that they held in their hands into the baskets. Thus, the twelve baskets contained ten thousand plus pieces of fish and ten thousand plus pieces of bread!

Jesus would have then thanked God the Father for this blessing and then commanded the fish and bread to stop reproducing, or else they would have continued to multiply until this very day. Astounding!

On a closing thought, Adam and Eve were vegetarians (Genesis 2:8-9). After the flood, God allowed mankind to eat meat as a source of protein (Genesis 9:3). Scripture tells us that after the Second Coming, animals will no longer kill or be killed for their meat (Isaiah 11:6-9; Isaiah 65:25). Today there is a growing morality movement to stop the killing of animals for the protein they supply and humans require. Also, because animals are raised in mass for economic reasons, genetic abnormalities and infectious diseases are a growing problem. However, we might rightly assume that during the Millennial Reign of Christ, people will get their daily allowances of protein through the consumption of both plants and meat even though animals will no longer be killed. Instead, existing meat could be commanded by Christ to reproduce itself just as it did when Jesus fed tens of thousands of people with only two fishes.

So perhaps we can have our steak an eat it too?