Morning Cup of J(esus)
Fueling the day!
Jesus Feeds 4,000 Men Plus Women and Children
Photo credit: James Johnson
This miracle that Jesus performed reminds of an earlier miracle in which Jesus fed 5,000 plus women and children. That miracle was recorded in all four Gospels. This one, however, is just recorded in two: Matthew and Mark. In both cases the number of people fed talks about the men (4,000 in this miracle). Women and children were above that number.
Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they had followed Him for three days with little to eat. He did not want to send them away hungry. The disciples had no idea where they would get enough bread in the wilderness to be able to feed so many. Jesus asked how many loaves were available. Seven was the answer. And a few fish.
Jesus commanded the people to sit on the ground. He blessed and then broke the bread for His disciples, and they in turn, gave it out to all of the people. Everyone got full. When they were finished, they gathered seven baskets of leftover bread. Below are the two accounts in the Gospels.
Matthew 15:32-39
Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”
33 Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”
34 Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”
And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.”
35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. 37 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.
Mark8:1-10
In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.”
4 Then His disciples answered Him, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?”
5 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
And they said, “Seven.”
6 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude. 7 They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. 8 So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. 9 Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away, 10 immediately got into the boat with His disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.